The Ultimate Prompt Stack For Promotional Emails | #003

According to a Statista report in 2020, the average ROI through email marketing was $36 for every $1 spent

Of all the come and go marketing strategies in the last 10 years, email marketing has not been one of them.

Reflecting on the revenue I’ve generated over the years, I estimate that 80% can be attributed to email marketing.

Yet, most people are more obsessed with social media followers than they are database leads.

But let’s be real, email marketing success isn’t something I can cover in just one newsletter.

Instead, I want to focus on one small aspect of email marketing — the promotional email.

Promotional emails will be your highest ROI emails. They will also be your highest unsubscribe rate emails.

I still remember the early days of building an email list, getting all worked up about every unsubscribe.

But here’s the real deal – unsubscribes are good news. You don’t need a list bloated with people who’ll never buy from you.

Email often. Be clear, be direct, and speak straight to the heart of your customer avatar.

This way, those who aren’t your target audience will find their way out sooner.

Ok, let’s dive in…

Step 1: Prime Your GPT With Customer & Campaign Data

The first step is priming your GPT with the required data. This step is critical. Setting it up might take a bit longer, but will save you time in the long run.

The first step is to focus on the customer, not the offer. What are their pain points, toward and away from motivators, lifestyle choices, preferences and more.

Fortunately, I’ve already created a GPT that you can use to answer all of the important questions. Click here to use it now.

(I’ve recently updated the prompts from the original article. I’ve discovered that giving it even more detail than previously intended is helping with quality. Plus the new prompts have been edited to include best practices)

Once you have completed the GPT questions, save the responses in a document and continue with the next step.

Step 2: Promotional Email Prompts

Over the years I’ve tested all types of copywriting techniques for email marketing.

From AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) to PAS (Problem, Agitate, Solution), and all other styles. These styles are what copywriting tools like Jasper are trained on.

While they can be effective, and a good start. I’ve found the best way to think about emails are, a phrase I learned from Russell Brunson, “Hook. Story. Offer.”

I like it for 2 reasons…

Hook. The hook should be the first thing you think about in every part of your marketing. If you don’t capture attention in the first 2 seconds, it doesn’t matter how good the rest of the content is, people will never see it.

Story. Stories are the best way to sell. Especially for online educational businesses. And even more critical for email marketing.

The story component will always look different. It could be a short 1-2 sentence story that highlights some pain points. Or it could be a 10,000 word story.

There are a number of email frameworks I like and have worked well over the years. They are:

Statistics Story Email

Pain Point Questions Email

Pain-Point & Future Pace Email

Final Days To Register Email

Last Chance Email

This 5 part framework is generally what we use for each promotion to our email list.

My favorite email to write is the statistics email, and this is the one I am going to focus on for the rest of the email.

If you want access to the prompts for all of the emails above, then I will automatically send them to you when you refer 5 friends to this email.

(you’ll also get a bonus training video at 2 referrals if you’ve not got there yet)

Ok, here’s how the statistics email works…

#1. Begin with some manual research

Relying entirely on ChatGPT will make you good, but it won’t make you great.

Great marketers go deeper to find the angles that most are not willing to find. The good news is it doesn’t typically take too long.

Begin by searching Google for some statistics that would relate your campaign.

For example, our dog training event is about dog reactivity. Some interesting ideas I’d be searching for are:

how many dog’s suffer from reactivity

what percentage of dog’s in the pound are due to reactivity

I then look through the headlines on the first page, and in the news tab. This gives you a quick glimpse at the headlines and it may provide a few leads.

Once I find a few headlines that capture my attention, I dig deeper into the article and find the source of those claims.

It’s important to substantiate any claims you make. Those substantiated claims should come from a “perceived” reputable source.

I say perceived because it’s clear that most claims can be bought and paid for. Just look at the pharmaceutical industry and how many fines have come from data manipulation and paying off doctors.

Or the entire PR industry is built on buying headlines. I’d be surprised if they fact checked any of them if enough money is handed across the table.

As long your statistics are perceived to be from a trustworthy source, you’re good to go. There are many great businesses that have improved customer ratings purely on perception, like TESSEI: The 7 minute miracle of the bullet train cleaning crew.

Another great resource for finding statistics, that I’m just beginning to use more often, is Perplexity AI. They are much more reliable than OpenAI at providing the sources for their answers. Here’s a screenshot below:

#2. The Prompt

Once you have the statistic and source you are happy with. Save it as a sentence and insert it into the first prompt below where I’ve added {insert statistic and source}.

I’ve recently refined this prompt based on the findings released in a paper by VILA Lab. If you’re interested you can read more here.

Disclaimer: The GPT’s are built slightly differently to this prompt.

Here’s the full prompt.

There’s one key point to think about for this prompt.

Notice how even though this is a promotional email, I don’t ever mention the word promotional. That words triggers more spammy style emails that don’t align with modern day marketing.

Lead with words like value and story.

This prompt will now pull from the resources you’ve provided in your GPT and give you a strong output immediately.

(you may need to change the testimonials to real testimonials if you didn’t provide the GPT with real ones)

The next step is to begin editing.

Step 3: Edit As A Human

Spending hours trying to get ChatGPT to perfect its editing has led me to one conclusion: it’s not quite there yet.

So, here we are, editing the old-fashioned human way — :sigh:

…but with the knowledge that our personal touch makes all the difference.

There will come a time in the very near future that if you don’t edit your ChatGPT outputs, people will stop listening to you.

Unedited posts lack depth. It lacks the heart of your business. It lacks story.

Experienced copywriters can already see when someone is using ChatGPT in a lazy way. And honestly, when I see it, I lose respect for what they do.

So take the time to edit the words. Make it more you. Restructure how it’s written.

Secondly, in promotional copywriting, we’re not always sticking to the standard rules of grammar. In fact, if someone complimented me on my grammar I’d be mad!

Tweak and twist the language as you see fit.

And don’t shy away from using dramatic pauses. Throwing in an ellipsis (…) at the end of a sentence can be incredibly effective.

It’s like a drumroll for your words, creating a sense of anticipation for what’s coming next.

When it comes to paragraph structure, think minimal. Most paragraphs should contain just one sentence, maybe two if they’re short.

This helps in making the content snappier and more digestible for the reader.

Absolutely avoid contrastive or juxtaposing sentences like “by identifying these specific motivators, you’re not just selling a product; you’re offering a transformation.” 

The frequency and style that ChatGPT uses these types of sentences is just weird. This turns me off more than someone who uses “hehe” in a text message.

Finally, keep your call to action sharp and to the point. Often ChatGPT will say the same thing in 3 different sentences.

Don’t beat around the bush – tell your readers exactly what you want them to do, and make it irresistible.

Remember, clarity is key. The easier it is to understand, the more likely they are to act.

When you’re happy with your final version, continue to the final step…

Step 3: Brainstorm More Subject Lines

After you’ve fine-tuned the email to your satisfaction, the next step is to inject some creativity into your subject lines.

Steer clear of the colon-separated format. It screams ‘ChatGPT-generated’. We aim for uniqueness and originality.

First, paste the final version of your email into ChatGPT and tell you to save that information. Then prompt it.

Here’s the prompt:

You’ll now get a list of ideas to choose from. Or you may take some ideas from 2 or 3 and combine it into your own.

Often, I’ll choose the direct subject line.

Why? Only 20-50% of your email list will open and read the email. But many more will see the subject line.

If they see the subject line, it may subliminally stick in their mind. Then when they open up social media later and see an ad for the exact same promotion, they may be more likely to click through.

I have no data to back this up, it’s purely speculation. But it makes sense.

This is what we call an impression. And one of the key metrics for the largest brands in the world are impressions.

Choose a subject line that you like. You can use a second one for your preview text and now you’re ready to go.

While this prompt stack may take a little longer than a simple “write me a promotional email” prompt…

I can guarantee that the quality of your marketing will be a step above most.

I used to take shortcuts, until I realised that’s what the majority do. If you want the results of the majority, take shortcuts, cut corners and don’t go the extra mile.

But if you want the results of the top 1%, you need to operate like they do and put in the extra work.

If you’ve loved this article, please share it. I’ve spent days putting it together. If you to continue receiving these for free, then please help me reach others by sharing.

Many thanks,
– Mitch