Need More Sales? The Wedding Email Incident

Sales are flat.

Growth is stalled.

People just aren’t buying.

Nobody cares. Nobody engages with you.

That sucks.

I know, because I’ve been there.

Here’s my story -- and a solution for you ...

February 2012.

After more than a decade of earning a comfortable living as a copywriter, I hit a rough patch.

I was struggling to get new clients. Sales dried up. For three months, no new projects.

On top of all the other worries about cash flow and supporting my family, this was humiliating. I mean, as a copywriter, it’s my job to write words that sell. If I couldn’t sell my own services, why should anybody hire me?

I was struck with an acute case of imposter syndrome, feeling like a shoemaker with barefoot children.

Finally, I got a new client. He owned a local travel agency and needed help selling destination weddings by email. He had an email list of brides-to-be, so all he needed was an effective sales message.

The only problem?

Prospective buyers of destination weddings are women, aged 25 to 35.

I was (and remain) a man. At the time, I was 45.

I had almost NOTHING in common with this market. And our deadline was tight, only a few days away.

But due to my sales slump, I was desperate to find a way -- any way -- to connect with those women and get a win for my client.

On top of that, my reputation was at stake.

My new client was very connected to the Twin Cities business community. If the emails I wrote failed to deliver a win for him, he could tell everyone that I was no good.

Of course, there was an upside. If we got a win, he would tell everyone I was great.

So, I had to write an email that resonated deeply with brides-to-be.

Luckily, I recalled a story from the life of legendary copywriter Eugene Schwartz.

Among his biggest successes was a sales letter he wrote that launched Boardroom Publications. Before writing it, he interviewed his client, Marty Edelston, who knew the concerns of buyers inside and out.

Schwartz listened and took notes as Edelston talked for 4 hours.

Schwartz then went home and wrote the sales letter that night. About 70% of the words were Edlelston’s, including the headline: How to Get the Heart of 370 Business Magazines in Just 30 Minutes a Month.

What happened next?

That sales letter launched a $100-million business.

Schwartz later said: “You don’t have to have great ideas, if you can hear great ideas.”

I knew that could work for me.

If I could just talk to enough brides who loved their destination weddings, I could hear great ideas to write an email. I didn’t have to think like brides, just listen to them.

But there was a problem: our deadline.

I had no time to set up interviews with women who had done destination weddings, phone them up, listen to their stories, then compile them to write an email.

So, I turned to Amazon.

I searched for books on wedding planning and destination weddings. Using the “Search Within This Book” feature, I read the front and back covers of every book I could find, looking for selling points. Then I read all the tables of contents, looking for selling frameworks.

This provided useful insights into the minds of brides – their problems, desires, questions, goals, etc. But nothing really jumped out at me.

I was looking for raw emotions to sell the concept of a destination wedding. Because there’s nothing logical about paying tens of thousands of dollars to rent a patch of beach in another time zone, get on a plane, fly there to get married – and convince your family and friends to join you.

The bride-to-be who wants a destination wedding believes it's worth it because she is worth it. That’s not a judgement of any kind. It’s a fact. It’s the same reason a divorced man wants a Mustang convertible. Logic plays no role in either purchasing decision. It’s about emotion.

So, looking for more raw emotions, I started researching blogs. I was after articles written by women who had planned their own weddings. Those were better. The words were less polished than in books, with more authentic language. I learned about guest lists, seating arrangements, choosing a photographer ... exciting stuff.

Reading all those blog posts was incredibly time consuming. I knew I’d eventually find some gems for my email, but I had to stop researching and start writing.

I needed to find valuable emotional insights -- fast.

And that’s when I struck gold.

The breakthrough came when I started noticing the comments on blog posts. It turns out, there were a lot of raw, unfiltered thoughts and emotions. A lot of exclamation points. Women were venting their frustrations, sharing their joys, and giving me a very clear look inside their minds.

That’s when it hit me. I didn’t have to have great ideas to sell a destination wedding by email. I was hearing them in those blog comments.

One comment stood out in particular:

"It's stressful enough being THE BRIDE. Everyone wants answers and information about the wedding from you. It's like people forget you have a life beyond being a bride."

The clear frustration ... THE BRIDE shouted in capital letters – none of that would have occurred to a 45-year-old man. But that’s how women in their twenties and thirties – my buyers – were expressing themselves.

It was a revelation. I started experiencing for myself the unrelenting stress that brides felt before their wedding, something I had never considered.

I started collecting blog comments in a text file. After an hour or two of research, I had dozens of nuggets. I was more than ready to start writing.

Want to see the email I wrote?

The whole thing is long, but here are 3 key parts:

1) First, I got attention by offering relevant news:

Hi,

Are you planning a honeymoon this year?

If so, here's news from a member of the Twin Cities Bridal Association:

2) Next, I got interest, with an offer to relieve their stress over wedding planning:

Did you know there's way to let someone else help plan your honeymoon or destination wedding - at no cost?

It's true.

It's like having a "personal shopper" - someone to find you the best deals on honeymoon vacations in spring or summer ...

3) Then, I built rapport and desire by practically reading their minds (because I had read all those blog comments):

Because it's stressful enough being THE BRIDE.

Everyone wants answers and information about the wedding from you. It’s like people forget you have a life beyond being a bride ...

I know, because I've helped more than 573 brides plan their honeymoon adventures and destination weddings since 1994.

Writing the rest of the email was easy. I presented a clear, compelling offer, with a deadline, to stressed-out women who wanted a destination wedding.

What happened?

My client said he would have been happy to get 3 or 4 responses ...

... but we got 30 responses by phone and email.

That's nearly 10 times the response he expected.

He ended up with 3 new clients ... tens of thousands of dollars in new revenue ... and extreme happiness over finally getting email marketing to work.

He was, in a word, thrilled.

So was I.

My sales drought was over. My client hired me for more projects and told everyone in town. Life as a copywriter was good again.

But more than that, my life was changed. Forever.

Because over the years that followed, I kept refining my research and copywriting methods.

Today, I refer to that process as The Voice of The Buyer Method.

I've used it to get client wins ranging from $240,000 ... to $102 million.

It’s a way to predictably find and use the words of real people ... to convey real emotions in your marketing ... and deliver real results in your revenue.

Want to learn more about The Voice of The Buyer? Click here