Copywriters get on other copywriters’ lists.
Not just to show support, not just to learn copy and marketing tips from them…
But to study their emails themselves.
So here, I’m going to break down an email from Nick Yates, an email copywriter who’s killing it out there.
The Email: Selling You on a Product Yet to be Released
Nick released a 4-segment live course to his list, teaching them how to grow a copywriting business while staying “tiny” — in other words, earn five figures or more in monthly revenue with little to no team.
If you bought, you got to be part of the live thing and ask him questions. If not, you had to hop on the waitlist and wait for the recordings when the program concluded.
(I was in the original).
The goal of this email was to get more signups for the waitlist.
The Subject Line: Knowing Your Market
I bet most copywriters — myself included — started working for themselves to work less. Even if we didn’t fall for the “laptop on the beach” propaganda.
So this subject line definitely appeals to a copywriter who’s just starting out.
Yet many copywriters end up working just as many hours on client work as a 9-5 before including time spent on accounting, marketing, administrative, and other stuff.
Trust me — I have little trouble finding work or earning revenue (Not a brag, but to illustrate my point here).
However, I work more than 4 hours per day. I want to earn at least what I earn now, but with less work (as most people do).
So this deceptively simple subject line appeals to copywriters who have hit their stride but feel overworked, too.
Curiosity and Commands
Nick partially pays off the subject line right away. He tells you what he does — track his time — and shows you his time (including the actual times of the day.)
So now you know he works about 4 hours a day. There’s hard PROOF.
And yes, time tracking can help you reduce your work hours. You’ll quickly discover how much time you waste doing useless crap… and how you could streamline your productive activities.
What’s more, though, is the implied future pacing. His target audience, who wants the same type of business model he has, gets a “behind the scenes” glimpse of what the tiny copy biz he’s selling looks like.
He’s no longer just talking about the result his audience wants. He shows what this looks like in real life. This makes the audience truly believe the result is possible… and gets them excited to buy his offer that’ll help them get there.
Punchy. Punchy. Punchy.
Nick now hammers on something his audience can relate to…
Distractions.
I always have my phone next to me and my Slack and email apps open. So he’s making that connection to his target audience (including me) and roping them in.
Adding to this is the short sentence length.
Two words.
Many lines.
It pulls you down the page.
The use of bold is good, too. Little formatting techniques like this can help punctuate certain sections.
More Future-Pacing + Personality and Transparency
A lot to break down in this section.
Nick reiterates the point he just made…
Then ramps up the future pacing more and sprinkles in some specificity.
The very first line makes his copy even more compelling by reeling things back to the present. He’s not talking about having this lifestyle in 5 years… but making huge strides towards it THIS year.
There’s also the “actually a super busy day” line. A reader in this market might be thinking “what? 4.25 hours is BUSY for him? 2 hours is typical? I want that business model…“
But now that he talks about one benefit of his business model, he brings up the other: 5-figures per month, when and where you want to.
Here is an example of being conversational and transparent — a great thing for brands of all sizes. He fully admits he sounds like he’s selling some hypey “beach, mai tai, and laptop” program. But he lets you know his business is a real-life example of what he’s pitching and even hints at how he does it. He’s not just BS’ing.
Boom — trust increased.
Now… Time to Segue
Back to the theme of this email — mastering your time. The business model and lifestyle Nick discusses is possible, but he’s making sure your expectations are realistic in terms of the work involved.
You’ve told the reader what to do and what life looks like when you do it. Now you need to bridge those with the how…
Which makes for a great pitch setup.
“You have to do XYZ to get the result I discussed, and I’ll show you how to do it in my workshop.“
The Details On Getting the Offer…
This is his general list, so members of the original program and the rest of the list are all getting this message. He keeps the members in the loop…
Then, with a semi-implicit CTA, tells the non-members where to put their names down if they want the product.
Finally, Nick concludes with an actionable step you can take that’s 100% free.
I like this because I know Nick’s a huge fan of selling in your marketing and not writing “value” fluff content that lacks CTAs. But selling doesn’t have to mean treating your customers as bags of money.
It’s about genuinely helping them solve their problems. You just happen to have solutions to those problems that are worth paying for.
Takeaways
One big takeaway here is that selling doesn’t mean “push products and nothing” else. You shouldn’t be afraid to sell… but you can provide genuine value to people while selling at the same time.
In fact, the sales pitch here seems so smooth. He tells you a concrete way to make progress towards business goals (or really anything) and shows you what things could look like if you figure this out…
Making his offer a natural solution to the problem. So much so that people are willing to get on a waitlist for the offer.
Another thing is to write like a person, not a company. It’s easier when you are the entire business, but even big companies can write as “John from Marketing.”
What to Do Next
- Get on my email list.
- Reach out to me if you want help writing emails like this one.
- Go check out Nick Yates and get on his email list for more emails like the one I broke down above. Copywriters support other copywriters!