Confessions of an email snob

In most thing in life, I'm not a snob.

I like to dig in the garden. Wear sweatpants. Wrestle with my dog. Do handstands on the beach with my friends. And do other non-snobbery things.

But there a few places where I exhibit snobbery in the extreme.

For example:

Food
Coffee
Art
Music
Literature
(I'm cultured... what can I say)

And, of course:

Email copy

And, if you're trying to improve your email skills, I suggest you become an email snob too.

To help you do that, here are a few of the email lists I subscribe to, that I think, over time, can help you become a better email writer:

1) Kim Krause Schwalm (https://www.kimschwalm.com/)... If you don't know (shame on you), Kim is a legend in the direct-mail world. She's beat the likes of Jim Rutz and Parris Lampropolous, not once, but multiple times. She's written many million-dollar controls, including at least one that's been a control for 10 years. Plus, the emails she sends to her list, especially her "What's In Kim's Mailbox", where she breaks down copy to show you what works and what doesn't, is probably the most valuable newsletter on the planet. As far as learning copywriting at a high-level goes at least. And I'm not just saying this to suck up because she's on my list and may be reading this. Seriously, if you want to learn to be a better copywriter, go sign up.

2) Sean D'Souza (https://www.psychotactics.com/)... I've said this before, but I think Sean is one of the most "underground" marketing geniuses on the planet. It's rare that I meet other copywriters who know of him. Which is strange because he's been teaching and speaking about internet marketing for over a decade (he was a featured speaker at Ken McCarthy's famed "System Seminars"). He has a unique perspective on business that I think everyone should get a taste of. Plus, if article marketing is important to your strategy, you can learn a lot by observing what he does. From what I understand, he largely built his business by writing a daily article (puts my daily email to shame).

3) Bizarro Comics (https://www.bizarro.com/)... Dan Piraro is my favorite comic artist. Plus, there's a lot you can learn about email marketing from him even though he does things entirely different than how I teach (his emails are entirely HTML and image based... and he only mails once a week). But still, the way he builds worlds is amazing (from calling his readers, "Jazz Pickles", to having recurring inside jokes, hidden symbolism, being the "beam of joy in a humdrum world" and more and more). Even if you don't look at it for the marketing lessons, this is just a fun weekly newsletter to be on.

4) Weekly World News (https://weeklyworldnews.com/)... To be honest, I just signed up for this and haven't received a mailing yet (great example of when NOT mailing enough hurts the relationship). But Eugene Schwartz was a big fan of reading Weekly World News and National Enquirer, so I figured if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for Yours Drooly. Even if you don't subscribe, it's worth taking a peak at their site for examples of extremely entertaining headlines and a lesson in "spectacle". At the very least, it's good fodder for ideas.

Obviously there are many other email lists I subscribe too. But those are some of the most unique, in my opinion. And you couldn't go wrong subscribing to any or all of them.

If you do, lemme know how it goes.

Tyler McCune


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