BTS: Writing email copy for my masterclass

I want to take you behind the scenes of writing an email sequence I used to promote my live masterclass. Because I always get asked how to write emails that aren’t just straight up boring.

And I get it, because maybe you’ve worked in corporate before, and you’re used to sending those professional and polite kind of emails. But you don’t need to bring that style of writing into your business. You can be YOU when it comes to your emails. In fact, I want you to inject your personality into your emails and think of them as more of a conversation that you are having with a friend. 

Of course your emails do need to match your brand’s tone of voice. And if you haven’t already thought about that, spend some time deciding exactly what tone of voice you want to use. Is it the voice that you generally use to speak? And is it the way that you would speak to your friends? I’m guessing for most of you, that’s what you’d choose. But if you have a team-based business under a brand name, your tone of voice may be different. It’s totally up to you, but make sure that you’ve decided on a tone of voice and that you’re sure of the phrases and words that you would and wouldn’t use.

Now, I am really proud of the emails I wrote. I think I did an amazing job and I say that not to toot my own horn, but as a reminder to myself and a reminder to you to apply your own expertise to your own business. As the expert of what we do, we spend so much of our time using our expertise for other people, but rarely make the time use it for our own business. But it’s so important that we do.

Alright, let’s dive into writing email copy…

My email copy framework

My framework isn’t black and white and it’s not a plug and play. But I have a process that I followed to write five emails for my masterclass, that I’m going to share with you.

Firstly, my masterclass was about how to become the number one choice for your dream clients, with personality packed website copy and without sounding stuffy, generic or cheesy. I really love hanging out with people live, so I needed this email sequence to invite my community to come along. 

Before I start writing

So before I write anything, I map out the theme and details of my email sequence. How many days do I need? When do I want to send the emails? What journey do I want to take my readers on? What do they need to hear first? What do they need to hear in the middle? What do they need to hear last? What final encouragement can I give them if they haven’t signed up by the last email?

For my masterclass I had a seven day promotional period, where I sent the first email on day one and the final email a few hours before the masterclass, with all five emails having a specific goal.

1. Speak to their pain points

The first email for me is about really speaking to the pain points of where my client is right now. Specifically, I touch on what pain points they are feeling to do with their website. Then I paint them a picture of their desire. I let them know what amazing website copy that is personality packed and designed to connect with and convert their dream clients will do for them. And by going through both their pain points and desires, I help them to understand that I’m providing this resource to help them solve a problem. Lastly, I email one is their first introduction to the class.

2. Outline your event or service

Email two is where you share all of the details about your event or service that you’re promoting. Here, I went into detail about exactly what attendees would be learning in my 60 minute masterclass. And I also let them know exactly what knowledge and transformation they would walk away with. As well a letting them know the date and any extra details and giving them the link to save their seat.

3. Shift a belief

In email number three, I aim to shift a belief. It is so important that you shift beliefs in your content. In fact the most powerful type of content that you can create is content that takes someone from the mindset they are in right now to a mindset where they will understand that your offer is the right fit for them.

For my third email, I broke down why it is important to have website copy that converts. I call it ‘sticky’ website copy. So I painted a picture of what it currently looks like for them without sticky website copy. And then I showed them what it could look like if they did have stick website copy and let them know I would be teaching them how to write sticky copy in my masterclass.

4. Highlight your system

Then email four is about highlighting the special system that I teach inside the masterclass. Your signature system is what will set you apart from other experts in your niche, so make sure you let your readers know about it!

So I highlighted my top secret formula for writing sticky copy that attracts your dream clients in three steps. One, research. Two, brand messaging. And three, writing the copy. I gave some detail on the three steps and then outlined the benefits of using my system by describing the amazing results my past clients have achieved. And I let them know that if they want results like them, they need to come to the live master class that’s happening tomorrow, and encourage them to sign up.

5. Final call

And then the fifth email I send is a final call to take action. For my masterclass, I sent this email out three hours before the event and kept it quite short. I recapped that if they want to learn how to become the number one choice for dream clients with personality packed copy that they need to go and save their seat to be able to join me today. This email was really all about the urgency factor of, “this is happening today and you don’t wanna miss out on this”.

There you have it, the five emails I wrote for my masterclass promotion.

Now I’m going to dive into a few elements that you should consider when you are writing your own emails, whether they are to promote a masterclass or to promote something else in your business.

Elements to include in your email sequence

First, let me explain that my masterclass is a sales machine for me. It educates, provides amazing value and then it sells my program. So an email series can act as a sales call for a program or product that you have.

If you are a service provider, you might create an email series for when someone first signs up to your email list. You could use the emails to encourage them with the call to action, to book a discovery call or to fill out an application form.

I just wanted to clarify that an email sequence can be used for so many aspects of your business. Now, here are a few pointers for writing emails like this…

Start with a hook

I start my emails off with a hook. Before I start writing, I’ll have already planned the theme for my email series and know what I need to include in each email, which means I won’t be staring at a blinking cursor. But I then like to write a hook to start my email with, to hook them in. And remember, you’re not in corporate anymore. This is a fun email to your amazing community, so you can be yourself or tell a story.

For example, I started my first masterclass email off like this:

BANG!

That’s the sound of your door slamming shut on all of the tire kicking clients you’ve been working with.

After the hook, I brought in the pain points:

But only if you are willing to give up those long nights, waiting through boring client work, the endless hours, negotiating your rate and the countless discovery calls with extremely *ahem* unpleasant clients. Who am I kidding?

Then I let them know the ‘why’ of my email (that I’m hosting a masterclass) and what I can help them with:

I know you are so over it and that, my friend, is why I’ve put together a fabulous masterclass that’ll help you instantly capture the attention of dream (worthy) clients you’d actually leap out of bed to work with. I’ll be teaching you how to become the number one and only choice for your dream clients using personality packed website, copy. Zero stuffy, generic, or cheesy language around here.

And then I painted a picture where I reiterated their pain before showing them what business could look like instead using specific and tangible examples:

So you can get less emails like this. “I’ve decided to go with another photographer, but thanks for your time,” and wake up to more emails like this. “Hey, I’m redoing my website. I’m looking for an expert copywriter to support me. You are the obvious pick. Are you taking clients and in what capacity?” I want this to be your reality.

The thing with copy is that people don’t get specific enough. So make sure you use real examples from your clients, students and even yourself to really drive home the pain that your reader is currently experiencing and the desire that they want to achieve.

Inject your personality

Another point I want to make is to inject your personality into your copy and use your own voice. You’re not writing an English essay or a corporate email, so don’t be afraid to have a little bit of fun with your copy.

This goes for your hook (like in my previous example) and also ties into your subject line. You should definitely play around with writing a fun subject line.

For the subject line of my second email, I wrote:

How to make your words not suck

To my readers, that’s going to be so much more interesting than writing “free masterclass”. And it will get people thinking, “Okay, you know how to make words not suck. I’m intrigued,” or “I’m a little bit offended, but also I wanna know more”.

And for my third email, I wrote the subject line:

It’s got to be sticky.

Because if I was to read that, I’d be thinking, “What’s gotta be sticky? What are you talking about?” It’s not a generic marketing email you’d receive in your inbox.

Your subject line is your opportunity to really draw outside the lines, and include an element of surprise that will definitely get people opening your emails.

Then you also want to inject your personality into the email itself.

In one of my emails, I said:

Will I see your fabulous face at the masterclass?

Instead of just saying “sign up for the masterclass”. So think about how could you write your call to action differently? You could write it like you’re talking to a friend. Or you can use emojis. You can even use slang. You can write anyway you like as long as you stay true to your brand voice. And. something that may help you do this. 

If you feel stuck trying to bring your personality into your emails, start with planning the framework. Write out how many emails you want to send and what you want them to include. Once you’ve got the details organised, then you can pull out your phone and record yourself talking about the details, like you’re inviting your friend. Then you can listen to the recording and pick out which parts of your personality you’d like to include in your copy.

Use one call to action per email

You also want to stick to the rule of one- only use one call to action in each of your emails.

I know it can sometimes be tempting with emails to tell people about all of the things, all of the blog posts, all of the places, all of the services you have, all at once. Don’t do it. It is a recipe for confusion. And the most important thing is to keep your emails and your content really clear. So make it very clear what you want your reader to do by having one call to action.

This will also help you when it comes to writing your email, because you know that there is one goal. For instance if you wanted to share a blog post, but you’re also including a link to an application form and something about your mastermind as well, it would get really confusing for your readers. This could also push them to delete your emails or even unsubscribe from your email list. Whereas, if you have one email with one goal with one call to action, it is very clear and easy for your readers to take action.

Reuse your emails

When it comes to creating content like this, you’re not limited to only using it once or just in one place. You can definitely use your copy in other places. I adapted my promotional emails into content that I could use on Instagram as well. All you have to do is take your original content and make the necessary changes so that it is relevant to your other platforms.

You also don’t need to have a weekly email newsletter to be successful and make sales. What will help you is having a strategic plan for your marketing. You could have somewhere that people sign up to your email list and then have an email sequence that points them to your webinar, or to book a discovery call with you. That is strategic marketing. So if you’ve written emails for a promotional series, you can reuse them. And please put your emails on automation! This will make life so much easier for you.

I want to finish this post by reassuring you that the hard work you put into your promotional copy is so worth it. But make sure you use your content strategically and don’t just throw it out there for the sake of having content. Your content should have a purpose and be very clear.

I’d love to hear your thoughts

Thanks for reading this post! I hope you found it valuable. As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Comment down below and let me know what you found most helpful or surprising about writing promotional email copy!