How To Write Email Copy That Sells (Psychological tricks and Template)

In this article, I'm going to give you everything you need to know about how to write email copy that sells.

Specifically, I’m going to cover 5 email pro secrets that will change the way you write, and then I’ll share a 7 step template that I use with my subscribers to write emails FAST.

I'm then even going to share 7 rapid-fire psychological tricks to turn clicks into sales and get your subscribers raving and wanting to buy more.

5 Pro Secrets for writing Email sales copy

Pro email secret #1: Know who you’re writing to

You may be surprised by how many people don’t fully or barely know who their prospects are.

And if you don’t know who they are, how can you write to them?

You see, knowing your prospects and followers allows you to understand and get into the shoes and minds of how they view their world.

You can't write a single word until you know their problems, their wants, desires, and how they speak.

• Get into chat groups on Facebook.
• Go to Amazon and read reviews.
• Speak to people outside of the online world, and delve into their minds.
• Create a swipe file, build out as much information and take note of the language they use in your industry.

Pro email secret #2: the salesman vs the trusted advisor

Most people pitch and pitch and pitch, they become salespeople selling as much as they can.

This is not only annoying for your prospects but it’s also creating more resistance.

You do not want to be a salesman, but instead, you want to be your followers trusted advisor.

You want to be the go-to advisor, that people can trust.

Because remember this…
You’re not selling your recommendation, doing this puts your prospect's self-interest above your own.

Example of being a salesman: you can have this, this, this, click now, and buy.

Instead, say, “I know how frustrating it can be to get X that’s why here is 5 different ways to get out of X…and it's why I recommend if any of these work to give this a try right here.”

This is not selling, it’s putting in empathy and giving real helpful actions that solves the problems for your followers.

Pro email secret #3: Diagnose before prescribing

Now, as I mentioned before you should be the advisor, and when you recommend you must diagnose their problems.

If you think about a doctor if a doctor prescribes you medicine without asking questions or even checking you.

Would you trust the prescription?

Hopefully, you said no!

Instead, the doctor will ask you questions, and figure out what’s wrong with you.

Diagnosing your symptoms until finally prescribing something to help you.

Most marketers will generally start giving solutions without really getting into their prospect's world and diagnosing the symptoms.

So you should always write about what they're going through, being specific with their pains before leading to the prescription/solution.

In fact...

Diagnosing is similar to the whole purpose of an email because the purpose of the email is to bring up the problems of your prospect and lead them to the solution.

Pro email secret #4: Entertain don’t Educate!

Here’s something where most email marketers go wrong, they think content is king and that they should educate their followers when they send emails.

Now in part, this is true but not in a way that’s expected because yes you give value, similar to Gary Vee’s philosophy of jab jab right hook.

But it’s not about giving boring education, because people could just Google information.

And the way our brains are being wired in today's society with so much entertainment we’re needing dopamine kicks to keep us engaged.

So you want to entertain in your emails.

If you think about the salary of a teacher vs a Hollywood star, who do you think gets paid more?

The person who has a degree and diploma or the person who acted in avengers?

Yea there’s a big difference isn’t there!

This is the power of entertaining.

Now, An example of what to do and NOT to do is this…

What NOT to do…

“Did you know amino acid can help build muscle while you fast”

Vs

“Holy c%&p This ripped dude benched 300lbs with ease, and when I asked him what he does to get that strong he said this…”

Or another example:
“If you meditate it will help elevate stress.”

Vs

“Wow, you wouldn’t believe how this woman reacted when she embarrassed herself in front of everyone. She didn’t flinch! In fact she laughed and made it into a joke. But here’s the thing… She told me later a secret about how she handles anything that comes her way.”

If you do this you’re going to see massive improvements when writing your emails.

Pro email secret #5: Don’t be a copywriter!

Copywriting has its place, and most copywriters fall into the trap of turning emails into good copy.

This is not what you want to do!

Leave copywriting for sales page and other types of landing pages, When you send an email, you want it to sound natural like an email message to a friend or sending your family a text message.

You’re shining your personality and being real with your followers, you don’t want to be a copywriting wizard but instead a person with a personality.

It’s similar to writing a social post, in fact, you can take your emails and use them in Facebook or other social posts, I sometimes take my best emails and use them directly in an ad.

7 Step Template to write emails fast

This template is designed to help you write your emails in the shortest time possible, it’s designed to get you into action.

And perhaps best of all, in time when you get used to using this template, you can start writing without it so treat it like a guide.

step 1: Work Backwards

You want to get clarity on the purpose and where you’re going to send your subscribers.

Is it to send them to an offer?

Visit content on your blog?

Introduce other content?

Is it a free giveaway?

Whatever it is, always know the end goal first so you can create a strategy for you to create your emails because strategy leads tactics.

And when you have the end in mind you’ll naturally know how to position your email which moves to the next step...

Step 2: What’s Your Angle

This is where you’re going to find how you’re going to angle the email in line with the after-click.

This is the story, a hook, a method, or even an epiphany.

So an example of this is an offer for a hypnosis session as part of a digital online business I run.

I would angle it with a common Q&A from multiple customers, starting it with a question, going through the diagnosis, and then pointing them to the solution.

And another one was a rant, going against a skeptic of why they said hypnosis doesn’t help, and then giving 5 reasons why it does, to then lead to the click.

But to help you with this, here are a few ideas you can use…

• What’s controversial in your industry?
• Has anything happened to YOU recently that you could relate to fit into a theme?
• Do you have a transformational story to tell?
• Have you got a client/customer story you could talk about?
• Is there a secret about your industry you could share?
• Is there a celebrity you could talk about that fits into the context of your theme?
• Do you have a unique story that illustrates your offer?

Now here’s a pro tip if you still struggle to find an angle.

Go to Reddit, Amazon reviews, or other places where your customers hang out, and pull out a story or theme that can help give you an idea to use.

Step 3: Bullet the Points.

Bullet the major points of what you should add such as…

• What’s the POINT or MORAL to the hook or story?
• Is there anything you can add to your story to make it more real, such as studies, testimonials, social proof, and so on.

Make a list of each of these points and write them down.

Step 4: Transition to the CTA

How are you going to go from your hook and transition to your call to action(CTA)?

This is where you take your reader to take action on the click in a way you might not think.

Because you don’t want to be direct too much and say, "Click now for X or get your discount here."

Transition in a way that gets the click with a better intention from your prospect.

Because did you know, not only is what you have after the click important, but the before the click is just as important, a powerful frame can be the deal breaker.

So here are two powerful psychological methods you can use to do this.
Which is Use credibility – such as…

“And that’s why I’m sharing this, I’ve done this for over 5 years and I’m only wanting to give you the best, and my personal promise to you is trust me this will make your year the BEST!"

This is implying authority with the “I've been doing this for 5 years” and then by stating I want to give you the best, and my personal promise to you” Implies, it must be good if I’m making it personal.

Another one is to transition with…
“Now, I don’t want you to think this is for everyone, because it’s not. This here is ONLY for those who are ready to take the next step, for those who are not ready, keep looking out for my emails because I have something special to start off with.”

This one is so powerful because it can create reverse psychology and you don’t want to sell to everyone anyway.

Step 5: Write your Email

Now here you want to take everything you’ve done and write it down.

Let go of thoughts don’t let anything block you and write, don’t make the mistake of stopping and editing or thinking too much, let everything flow.

Because you want to make everything sound like you're talking!

And a pro tip here is to aim for around 300 -500 words, but again don’t let this interrupt what you write.

I don’t want you thinking, oh I have to get this many words down, because however long it is, is however long it needs to be.

Now it can be hard to start your wording so here are 7 quick lines you can use to start with:

1. Did you know the single biggest… (share a secret)
2. The #1 Easiest way to… (share a tip)
3. The #1 mistake I see is… (share a misconception, myth, or problem)
4. Ever wondered why… (bring up a problem)
5. What if… (bring up a bad situation)
6. What to do if… (bring up things they’ve tried with no success)
7. What you don’t know about… (share an industry secret)

Step 6: Write your headline

Now here you want to get your prospect curious with your subject line, however, you do NOT want to use clickbait-style headlines!

Emails are about forming relationships, don’t just get them to click for the sake of clicking, instead, make your subject lines intriguing with some benefit behind them.

And saying that...

Here’s something you should know, when you form relationships and build trust with your subscribers, they will automatically click regardless of the headline.

But here are 7 good headlines to start with if you don’t know what to put:

1. Steal this trick, it’s the #1 secret to…
2. What you should never let…do
3. 5 signs that…
4. The easy way to…
5. Who else wants…
6. 7 steps to x in less than a month.
7. How to do X without Y.

Step 7: Edit your Email.

With this last step, you’re going to take everything you’ve done and turn it into the actual email you’ll be sending.

A Pro tip here is to edit the next day, let your mind rest and let your subconscious connect, and then edit.

I’ve found that editing the next day has always helped me spot mistakes and add better things I wouldn’t have thought of.

But overall, editing is where all the magic happens, it polishes it up and turns it into a diamond.

So here are a few checklist points to look for when editing emails:

1. Have you read the email out loud?
2. Are diagnosing or prescribing?
3. Is the Email entertaining?
4. Remove sentences that don’t add value…
5. As you read it back to yourself, are you asking, why should they click? (this is important to ask yourself otherwise remove it.)
6. Are your sentences short and snappy?
7. Are you being specific? Such as do you have a good body vs do you have abs like Brad Pitt?
8. Is it confusing? If so remove it!
9. Have you read the Email out loud after the edit?
10. Do you have a compelling call to action?

And if you’ve done all of this then congratulations you have just created your first email!

And not any email an email that’s got structure, powerful psychological techniques, and tricks.

7 rapid-fire psychological tricks to turn email clicks into sales

Here are additional tips and tricks you can add to your emails to turn clicks into sales.

Psychological trick 1: Commonalities

Always add something you have in common with your subscribers, this makes them feel you’re just like them.

Such as, If they like or do something similar to you say it!

For example, most tech people love action heroes, so if you like the same you could say…

I love watching the avengers or if you’re in the self-development niche, it could be, no matter where I am I always have to have my earphones listening to Tony Robbins.

Stuff like this creates an affinity and bond with your followers.

Psychological trick 2: using Recognition

Recognise your subscribers, this can feed their significance and makes them know you're paying attention to them.

Such as, "Hey I notice you’ve been on my list a while now and for that, I have something for you."

Psychological trick 3: Create Mystery

Showcase a bit of mystery behind you, and get them intrigued it could be something you do no one else does, like a morning ritual or even a blend of coffee or smoothie you make that gives you superpowers.

Psychological trick 4: Secret Language

Create a language of your own that’s different and unique, something that’s recognizable through you and your subscribers only.

Psychological trick 5: Frequency

Show up as much as you can, frequency beats quality!

When you continue to show up you become the person they see and hear all the time which builds trust.

Psychological trick 6: permission slips

People are conditioned to listen to authority since they were kids in school they've been told by teachers, parents, and authority bodies, how to listen.

And the more you build yourself as an authority, people will listen to you.

That’s why you can give people permission to do something.

Such as saying…

It’s ok to feel that way it’s not your fault, this is giving them permission that comes from you because they're trained to listen.

Psychological trick 7: Damaging admissions/favours

Admit things about yourself, show you have flaws and that you are human.

When you show vulnerability it pulls in your audience with a powerful emotional connection.

And when you ask for favours, this automatically makes your subscribers engage with you and brings a closer connection to you and your brand.

Sending emails such as…

I need help, and then adding a quiz can make them feel significant and involved.

And admitting things such as my bad habit is biting my nails, it doesn’t have to be something serious.

What to do next when you have emails that sell

And that’s everything you should know about writing emails that sell, when you have emails that sell you may want to take your sales pages to the next level by having a copywriting research process.

You might also benefit from knowing how to build an email marketing strategy to help with understanding your audience and to give you ideas about what to write and the type of language you should use.