How to Write Emails That Inspire and Convert

I never thought of myself as a good copywriter. When I started to write newsletters, I did what I saw everybody else doing. I didn't get any feedback on my emails and I felt that my newsletter was pretty boring. That’s when I decided to start telling stories – and what a difference that made! I finally got people replying to my emails and I started to make sales. This helped me realize that I really liked to tell stories, and people liked to read them. I had found the key to writing emails that inspire and convert.

Storytelling is important to connect to your audience. You inspire them and it makes them want to buy from you. Even if you aren’t a natural storyteller, with practice you can become really good at copywriting and writing your own emails.

Coming Back for More

Storytelling shows your personality. People start to care about you and your business. Being vulnerable, sharing your behind the scenes and the story of how you're building your business, not being perfect and making mistakes, that’s true leadership.

Human beings are wired to listen to stories. When you read a book or when someone explains something with a story, you remember the story even if you forget all the data. What's so exciting about stories is that we always want more. When you start to share stories in your emails, your audience wants to come back for more. Ultimately through this connection, through this relationship, you can sell your products.

Collecting Stories

Everything that happens to you is a potential story. Special and weird moments, but also when you make a mistake. However, don't share a mistake just to share a mistake. Share it when you're ready to share the lesson you’ve learnt from the mistake. Maybe you had to overcome something to achieve something. Maybe you had to step out of your comfort zone and it was an amazing experience.

Start collecting stories on a spreadsheet for future newsletters so you never run out of ideas when you have to sit down and write one of your emails. Stories can cover how your business has evolved, how you helped a client, a transformation for you and your clients or an anecdote.

Stories are everywhere. Once, I wrote a story about how I used to avoid a grumpy cashier and how I went to a specific supermarket back in Iceland just because of one particularly friendly cashier. That story is perfect if you want to talk about the importance of customer care. Stories need to be memorable and with a bit of practice, they will become uniquely you.

Use Visual Language

When Steve Jobs presented the iPod for the first time, people had no idea what this little box could do. What he said remains unforgettable: “It's a thousand songs in your pocket.” I can totally visualize that, even if I don't see it. When you're telling stories, pretend that you’re talking to a friend, not to a room full of people or an email list of people that you might not know. Be yourself, authentic, real, and vulnerable. It’s okay to make mistakes.

Your story needs to have a point. If it doesn’t, it's like telling a joke and somehow you forgot the ending. The joke won’t work. When I tell the story of the two cashiers, I’m talking about a grumpy lady and happy lady, but the point of the story is the feeling I got shopping in both supermarkets and the power of customer care.

If the message of your story isn’t completely clear to you, get to the point of it. Get clear on the message. Stories are a wonderful way to awaken interest. If you want people to sign up for your blog or podcast, you can start with a story and say: If you want to read or hear more, go here. That is at the heart of creating emails that inspire and convert.

Creating a Connection

It’s important that you start and finish your story strong. I often start with a sentence that immediately grabs the reader’s attention and then go on to explain the circumstances afterwards. This is a method I learned when I was being certified as a Dale Carnegie trainer. I learned to tell stories in two minutes, which means you have to have a very strong start.

Your story starts with a subject line. Once, I received a creepy email from someone who knew where I lived and knew that I spoke Icelandic, German and English. They started to write to me and asked where I was spending Christmas. As much as I love emails that inspire interaction with my clients, this was not the experience that I was looking for.

I didn’t know whether to share this with my audience, but usually if in doubt, I share. My subject line was: “I received a creepy email …” and I went on to share my story. I got 50 responses either telling me about similar experiences or writing that they were sorry I had to go through this experience. The whole thing made me feel better connected to my audience. They know that I’m human and bad things happen to me, too.

“I’m Seeing Oprah Today”

Other subject lines that worked well for me were “Life will never be the same again” and “I'm seeing Oprah today”. I wasn’t lying – I actually went to see Oprah in Los Angeles at her Soul Sessions and wanted to share the journey with my audience. I wrote four emails in four days, using these subject lines. All I did was write down what I was thinking, what was going to happen and how Oprah felt like a friend because she was so authentic and real. The fourth email was about business lessons from Oprah.

My business coach asked me if I wasn’t worried about unsubscribers, sending out that many emails. But during these four days, no one unsubscribed. My emails all had a story, something exciting was happening and the readers felt they were with me at Oprah’s Soul Sessions. That should be your aim, to make your audience feel as if they’re with you on the journey.

The same happened when I put “I just changed the world” in the subject line. I was demonstrating in Iceland to oust the prime minister who had just been exposed for hiding money in Panama. We succeeded, and even though I was with a lot of people, I knew I played my part. I had just changed the world.

Sales Emails

While some of your emails are nurturing your audience, others are for sales. They should also contain a story, but the story needs to be related to the product you’re selling. The following email resulted in $30,000 in one day for me:

2016 is going to be amazing. I can feel it and I know it. Do you feel it too? 2015 was already great but 2016 is going to be even better. This year, I worked with close to 300 clients in various programs. While I work with my clients, they achieved so many amazing things. Here are just a few of their awesome achievements.

They found a true passion and the right business idea. They quit their job and started their business. They sold their business and started a new business. They launched their book and they launched their program. They launched their podcast. They became a keynote speaker. They stopped trading dollars for hours. They created passive income programs. They streamlined their business. They created automated sales funnels. They became the go-to person in their niche, but most importantly, they believed in themselves. Some of my clients are making their first $1,000, others are doing multiple five-figure launches, yet others are making multiple six figures. It doesn't matter where you are in your business, 2016 can be your best year yet.

Attract Testimonials

You might not have all the testimonials to support such an email. But, you can tell the story of just one person you've helped and it will inspire others to want to go on this journey with you. This is a great example of an email that inspires and converts.

I want to inspire you to become a great storyteller. Nurture your subscribers and ask for the sale through storytelling. It builds amazing connections and makes selling so much easier.

Storytelling builds amazing connections and relationships, and makes sales so much easier. - Sigrun

Key Takeaways:

See everything that happens as a potential story.
Stories need to be memorable.
Use visual language.
Remember the point of telling the story.
Start strong and finish strong.
Have your audience feel that they are with you in the journey.