Welcome to the 67th issue of Write On!

The newsletter whose author turns 31 years old tomorrow 😱

In today’s issue I’ll be covering:

• How to build your own email course

• End it in style

• Write your first story email that sells

Estimated read time: 3 minutes 0 seconds

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End it in style

One of the most overlooked parts of copywriting is the call-to-action (CTA).

Most people know the copywriting basics:

• State a problem.

• Show how it’s negatively impacting the prospect's life.

• Show how their life would benefit if the problem were solved.

• Then, share the solution, aka your product.

Simple, easy, and effective.

But too many people will half-ass the CTA.

They’ll mention the product, add a link and that’s it.

But leaving it like that is like baking the perfect cake, adding all the toppings, and then carrying the cake with your bare hands so all the cake spills through your fingers instead of taking 5 minutes and putting the cake on a nice plate, so it arrives in one piece.

(anybody else hungry now?)

You don’t want to put all this effort into your copy and then miss out on the final step.

You caught your prospects’ attention and kept it throughout your copy.

You convinced them you can improve their lives with your product.

Now it’s time to punch it in over the goal line (aka to make the sale and bring home some money).

Here are 3 examples of how to use CTA’s in your long-form copy:

(1) “The choice is up to you:”

Below are the the closing sentences of the infamous ad: ‘Do you have the courage to earn half a million dollars a year?’ from Eugene Schwartz.

It’s an ad for a book that sold millions and ran in different magizines for years.

The CTA gives people the choice between earning $5k/year or $50k/year with minor changes in how they spend their time and money (note the ad is from 1967, so even $5k/year was a lot of money).

Then it ends with a daring sentence: “It costs you nothing to prove this to yourself.”

(2) “Order a pair or two at no obligation, today.”

Joe Sugarman sold 20,000,000 pairs of sunglasses with a 240-word story. Here’s the end of that story:

First, he labels different people and adds things everyone relates with, like:

• “anyone who spends a great deal of time in the sun”

• “who drives a car”

• “or who just wants to protect their vision”

Then he repeats, “Our eyes are very important to us.” which is simple but super powerful to remind us at the end.

And I bet the last sentences bumped their order value by A LOT. Notice how he gives you permission to buy more than one pair with:

“Order a pair or two at no obligation, today.”

(3) The miss…

We saw 2 good examples. Let’s finish with a “bad” one. So you can see the difference yourself.

This is one of the first ads of Victoria Secret. Because when they first opened their stores they saw that a lot of their customers were actually males buying female underwear.

They were the first to recognize a new market.

And they got A LOT of attention. But not that many sales.

Because in the ad they talk about the experience of shopping in Victoria Secret stores. But in the close, they sell a book. A catalogue.

They could imagine themselves in the store picking the sets, but they didn’t visualize themselves lurking over… a book.

Apart from this crucial mistake, this close lacks more important elements. Can you spot them? (answer below)

They also missed:

• urgency

• scarcity

• incentive

So… you can write great copy but still miss out on the sale.

This is especially true when you don’t nail the CTA. After all, that’s where the buying decision is made.

That’s all for this week! See you next Wednesday.

Cheers,

Joe

Want more copywriting tactics?

I’ve got you covered.

Keep reading: It's clean up time. The art of editing in copywriting: (Read Article)

Work with me: Need help on a copywriting project? Email me at [email protected] or message me on Telegram.

Sell with stories: Write your first story email that sells when you take my FREE 3-day email course: (Click here to start)