The Story Email - A Simple Framework
you don't have to be an author to write a story for email
It is not a template. It is a structure to guide you to write a story.
Raise your hand 🙋♀️
if you've ever been asked to write a story-based email and your mind went blank
if you wanted to write a story-based email and couldn't figure out how to tie it to the call to action
if you never wrote a story-based email because you don't know how
Cool - now I know you're in the same boat I was many years ago. 😁
My initial story-based emails weren't that good.
Sometimes they rambled along with no real plot or purpose.
Sometimes they started in the middle of the action with not enough detail so it made you wonder why I was telling you this story.
Sometimes they were just --- boring.
I studied a bit about how to write a good story.
Books on how to write a customer success story; how to write case studies; how to write a transformational story.
I studied...well, no I read...okay, I skimmed Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces. His research on the origin of storytelling throughout history with a focus on the monolithic style ... the hero's journey. Limiting, by the way.
Oh, and I did take a few courses over the years. Some online and some offline.
The key was to find a way to write a story for email. It’s different than writing a story on a blog or as part of an article. Because with email I’m invited into someone’s inbox and I want to respect their time…and get to the point quickly. Oh - and help them to enjoy the journey of getting to the point.
Eventually I was able to create a framework I could follow to write better stories for email. The framework has changed over time… as I got better at using it and as I learned from other copywriters and email marketers how they approach writing their emails.