Back in high school, I picked up the guitar and taught myself the basics.
Not necessarily to be a sappy acoustic strummer, either. I wanted to learn scales and lead guitar to mimic rock stars and guitar solos of the 80s. Although I picked up some acoustic songs as well.
I even briefly played guitar for my college fraternity’s sorority serenades.
That said, being self-taught is rough. I stagnated and never got anywhere because I didn’t have any structure.
I’m gonna pick it up again, though. This time, with some sort of formal structure, like an online course or guitar instructor.
Which leads me to this week’s email. It comes from NextLevelGuitar, an online guitar education company.
I initially hopped on their list wayyyyy back when I wanted to teach myself guitar. Wayyyyy before I knew what direct response copywriting was.
But a look at some of the many emails they’ve sent me tells me they understand direct response reasonably well. They do the plain-text thing with some storytelling mixed in.
Today, we’re looking at a nice, long email that resembles a sales letter.
The Email: Some Infotainment
Here’s the email:
A bit of a long one, so let’s get into the breakdown.
The Subject Line and Intro
The subject line here is a classic curiosity hook. By saying “what everyone else misses,” they create a voice in the back of the reader’s head that asks, “am I missing this?”
Oh, and also, barre chords are kind of hard to play. They involve holding down multiple strings (sometimes all 6) with your index finger, then placing other fingers on certain frets to create the chord. These can happen all over the fretboard, too.
In short, barre chords take a lot of finger strength, fretboard memorization, and practice to nail down.
Put it all together: they hook a guitarist’s attention about some key ingredient they might be missing regarding an essential piece of guitar playing.
The First Big Chunk
Notice the conversational tone right off the bat.
David Taub (cofounder of NextLevelGuitar) presumably writes every email. He signs them with his name. And if it’s not him, it’s a good copywriter who understands the importance of cultivating a consistent voice and sounding like a human.
As for the copy itself…
He immediately establishes a connection by bringing up a common pain point, but then “twists the knife” by emphasizing why barre chords matter before empathizing again with the reader.
He makes a clean segue into the offer with an implicit CTA and mentions what you’ll get out of the offer.
Finally, an explicit CTA with a coupon code to claim a discount.
And that’s just section 1. Like I said, this one’s like a full sales letter, as you’ll see in the next few sections.
The Next Section: Expanding on the Sales Argument
If you weren’t ready to click just yet, David continues on to explain the “what everyone else misses,” which happens to be his big selling point — creating the foundation for learning barre chords and honing the technique for forming them with your fingers instead of just memorizing them.
Ties that back to the benefit again with another CTA.
The Bullet Bonanza
Once again, classic copywriting on display with a big bulleted list. Although they’re not classic “hyper-curiosity” bullets. They’re plain old “here’s what you’ll learn and what you’ll get.”
He does a great job of layering on the benefits, touching almost every relevant pain point, and tying them to something within the product.
Oh, and another implicit CTA in bullet #6.
I really like the 2nd to last bullet. There’s some personality there with the “Sweet!” at the end.
Finally, to the end…
The Final CTA?
Time for the close.
David summarizes the whole sales argument in one quick sentence and reminds you that you can grab the whole thing for a low intro price. Finally, a little sign-off at the bottom.
Pretty compelling.
The naked URL use is an interesting choice for the CTA, but those can definitely work.
So that’s it…
Or is it?
Just Kidding… A Great PS
Nope, we have a PS section where David busts out the future-pacing by describing the confidence you feel when you learn them and how monumental it is to learn barre chords. You move on from “I’m just trying guitar” to “Wow, I’m a decent guitar player!”
In short, he gives the reader a glimpse into the future after they take his course.
Great use of a PS.
Takeaways
This is kind of like a mini sales letter. Kind of like my last email breakdown. There are several sections, and David really piles on the benefits and twists the knife into those pain points. Plus, he does a good job setting himself apart with the “what everyone else misses” idea.
Lots of personality, too. His emails — although full of CTAs and always selling — feel more human than a lot of other emails.
Oh, and I can tell he knows his market. Partly because I almost bought the product while reading this!
What to Do Next
- Get on my email list.
- Reach out to me if you want some help making money with email marketing.
- Go check out NextLevelGuitar’s huge library of lessons and other stuff if you want to pick up the instrument or hone your skills!