Hey Reader,

I’ve got one word for you: BUTTER.

Stick (ha) with me.

Last October, I sprung a surprise offer on my list.

It was a surprise to me, too. I didn’t even know I was going to do it until midway through writing my email.

My first thought, brought to you by laziness, was:

“I’ll just leave it at that one email, see how many sales it brings in without any follow-ups or reminders.”

My second thought, sponsored by my love of doing business, was:

People 👏need 👏reminders! 👏

Some will miss the offer altogether, because they didn’t open the email.

Some will miss it because it was subtle and wasn’t the sole focus of that email.

Some will see it and forget they wanted it.

Others will see it, not know they want it, and require more persuasion that they should grab it.

I always say more emails equals more sales, why not send a few more?

(No, this thought was not laid out articulately in my head with line breaks and emojis. Those are for you.)

So, I whipped up two reminder emails for that Sunday. I’m glad I did.

Netted a tidy bundle of cash for doing almost nothing, and gave my Shrimpers a chance to scoop up something of mine for a sweet, no-brainer price.

The first reminder, sent at 11am ET, was a very “Sunday morning” email with light storytelling.

If you watched my End-Of-Year Bonus workshop, you heard me say a story doesn’t have to be a capital-S Story, with a beginning, middle, and end.

This one, about how I was probably eating pancakes right then and being butter-shamed by Steven, was what I like to call “an injection of storytelling.”

Just enough to make it entertaining and connect with you if you weren’t interested in the offer, but being clear in the preview text that there WAS an offer.

I’d planned on nothing more than “Hey, this ends tonight,” but I always like to add some scene-setting at the very least.

Something thought-provoking, entertaining, and/or relatable.

So, when I drafted it on a Friday, I guessed at what I might be doing when it went out on Sunday.

Hence, pancakes.

As usual, I wrote the subject line last.

Instead of something neutral like “I’m eating pancakes,” I spoke to the one itty bit of conflict in the story: not liking to be policed for my butter!

The email got a mini-flood of sales, and this awesome reply from Jessica:

You see that part in pink?

If I hadn’t said, “Oh, f- it, I’ll send some follow-ups,” and then made the first one personal and entertaining…

Jessica in Australia wouldn’t have had the delight of reading, wanting, clicking, and buying.

(Plus, actually OPENING and USING the mini-course. 🙌)

Now, the final email, a 1-hour warning that the discount was expiring, got almost as many sales as the butter one. Always worth sending one last “going bye-bye” email.

Here are my takeaways:

1 - More emails = more sales

Always send follow-up emails for any offer, especially for one with a deadline.

I could and probably should have sent more.

2 - Don’t expect much from one email

If the first email isn’t boldly, explicitly about that offer, and there’s been no lead-up, no pre-promotion, don’t expect it to sell on its own.

In fact, I now know I can expect it not to. I’ve tried this before.

If there’s been some buildup (a waitlist, a tease that “something’s coming”)...

OR if you’ve conditioned your audience to open every email the second it comes in, or else they’ll miss a deal…

Then, it might work to send a single sales email.

But I still recommend follow-ups, which leads me to…

3 - Follow up even when it sells out

Even if you offer something in limited supply that sells out instantly, I recommend a next email that tells us how fast it sold out — along with a link to get on the waitlist for next time.

4 - Make it interesting

Work in some storytelling, grab attention with subject lines that aren’t solely “This is ending!” “Don’t miss out!” etc.

I’m not saying to bury the offer in long, irrelevant stories.

(Which you’ll never do again, because THIS limited-time bonus for Inbox Hero makes sure any story you tell is not just loosely relevant to your offer, but a big, honking arrow to the “buy” button.)

But do include emails people will open even if they haven’t heard about the offer or don’t care (yet).

Most of us open a person’s emails time after time because we’re intrigued and want to be entertained.

Per Jessica’s note above, the butter brings the sale.

You can quote me on that.

xoLaura

PS - The replay of End-Of-Year Bonus comes down tomorrow night! Make sure to watch it. (Unless you don’t want to be inspired to write on a weekend.)

PPS - Inbox Hero is $499 (51% off the regular price) until Thursday, Nov 5 at 11:59pm ET. All the details, plus the bonuses, are here.

I'll be sending lots more emails about Inbox Hero. If you'd rather skip 'em let me know by clicking the link below.

​⚠️​I DON'T want any more Inbox Hero emails, please remove me!​ <-- read before you click this.

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