The Planet of the Apps

Remember in The Planet of The Apes when the character crash lands on a beach and the Statue O’ Liberty is sticking halfway out of the sand? Remember that feeling of “oh spit…”?

Every once in a while I think about that scene. 

Not directly. But in a circuitous route. 

Usually I think of it because someone asks me something like, “What will you do if email marketing goes the way of the Dodo?”

Whenever they ask me that, I imagine myself… laptop on my back… walking through thick sand only to stumble upon a sight that clenches my butt cheeks… 

Yes, I speaketh here of the Statue O’ Email. Submerged in the sand with the surf washing up to its righteous outstretched arm. 

Ok… The truth is I’m not at all worried about a “Statue-of-Liberty-in-the-sand-moment” for email. Not because email as a marketing medium may fall out of grace (it may… and if you wait long enough it almost certainly will). But because whatever the new email is — the new way to cheaply and easily interact with your prospects and customers — I’ll readily adopt. 

And anyone who thinks that email copywriting skills, like the 13 Imperial Persuasion Principles I teach in my book, are only useful for writing emails… is dead wrong. 

Those Persuasion Principles can be applied to emails… to articles and blogs… to podcasts and other interviews… to social media posts… to face-to-face sales… and even when trying to convince your Boo Thang to eat at the restaurant of your choosing. 

Persuasion is as persuasion does. 

In fact, a new trend I’ve seen recently is the unveiling of Apps for businesses. So instead of posting your content (text, audio, video, etc) to Youtube, Instagram, Periscope, Facebook, Linkedin, or any platform you don’t own or control… 

… you have your very own branded App your audience can download. It’s like having your own personal platform at your every beck and call. 

Pretty cool if you ask me. And something I would definitely ex-spearmint with when it makes sense for my business. 

But for most people, building an email subscriber list and mailing it regularly is the way to go. It’s basically free, takes very little time to set up, and people already understand what they’re getting into. 

After you have your email game in place… then I would think about branching out. 

And to get your email game up to speed, I’m going to share a few tips I’ve learned after writing daily emails to my own list and many for clients. Some of these may seem simple. But mastering the raw fundamentals is what will take you from a poop-throwing ape to an immortal statue in the sand (or something like that). 

Ok, Apprentice, away we go:

1) Don’t be boring -- This is true no matter the medium, the market, the offer, the guru, yada yada yada. If you’re boring, people won’t read. It’s that simple. 

But it’s also sometimes misunderstood. Sometimes people think the opposite of boring is silly, funny, over the top, or some other sort of “in-yer-face” entertainment. That can work depending on your market. But not being boring can be a lot more ‘dry’. 

For example, what’s boring in the make money online market is not boring in the investment market. Some investors get off on reading stock charts, forecasts, numbers, and things that would make me nod off to sleep. 

So always keep your audience in mind, My Canary. 

2) Stick your finger in their wound — If you’re a ‘nice guy’... then you have no place in marketing. I’m only slightly joking there. The truth is that to market effectively, you must pinpoint people’s problems and irritate them a bit. 

I’m not saying to be an arsehat or anything. You just want to “meet them where they’re at”. And because your product or service solves problems, you have to meet them in the problem. 

Actually, when you do this, it makes your writing so much easier. You’ll never wonder what to write about again. Just pluck out on of your market’s hot-button issues… and write away. 

3) Vary your messages -- Injecting contrast into your messages is key. This goes for sentence length… paragraph length… word choice… colors (on your website for example)... and pretty much anything. 

One way to easily and automatically inject contrast is to vary the types of emails you send. That means varying the pain points you bring up… as well as varying the actual format of the email. 

If you’re not sure what I mean by that, I share 10 email types and 14 subject line templates in my book “Email Emperor” along with 13 Imperial Persuasion Principles like the ones you read about in this article. 

To get a free copy of my book and unlock my daily marketing tips, go here:

www.copybymccune.com

Tyler McCune

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