2023 Study Proves Why Promotional Emails Get ZERO Sales & Drive Subscribers Away… I Cure Boring Email Syndrome™ to Transform Your List into Super-Fans Who Love Your Content & Buy Your Products
Keep reading to learn:
- About the science of “Banner Blindness“. Why up to 86% of your audience is neurologically wired to ignore any message that look and feel like conventional marketing.
- The reason writing emails feels like a “soul-sucking” chore. It’s not a personal failure; it’s a predictable psychological feedback loop I call the Boring Email Syndrome™.
- How a single A/B test proves storytelling increases email open rates by up to 116% – transforming a losing campaign with ZERO SALES to an emphatic winner with an ‘INFINITE REVENUE LIFT’.
You built your audience… launched your product… and hustled your way to a relative level of success. Which is amazing as you’ve already achieved what 99% of ‘Knowledge Entrepreneurs’ fail to do – make a living out of it.
So, you’re a big success!
But despite this success, ‘the promised land’ you dream of:
- Achieving financial freedom
- Stabilising your income
- Building a ‘hands-off’ business
- Working 1-2 hours/week
- Becoming a ‘true’ market leader
- Dominating your niche
Still feels agonisingly out of reach.
You’ve come a long way, but now you’ve hit a brick wall!
Instead of freeing up your time by scaling your business and hiring team members to reduce your workload…
You’ve had to become a ‘Jack of All Trades’ as you do everything yourself…
Writing scripts… filming videos… taking coaching calls… managing your community (content creation & audience engagement) … answering emails/DM’s… and everything else…
Hitting the wall when you did, left you in “no man’s” land… stuck between “decent living” and “living the dream”.
So, while the money is ‘okay’… albeit unpredictable from month to month that creates a “feast or famine” lifestyle (making planning a nightmare) …
It’s insufficient to advance you up the next step of the ladder towards time and financial freedom.
However, that doesn’t take into account your email marketing efforts, which is the most: time consuming… energy zapping… mind numbing… and depressing task of all!
But yet, if you want people to… love your content… buy your products… and transform your business into a 6+ figure success which you can reliably scale thanks to consistent and predictable results…
(While also significantly reducing your workload and hours to the point where you’re as close to earning a ‘passive income’ as possible) …
Then email marketing is the most important… and most powerful tool you have at your disposal, with the potential to unlock all your dreams.
It’s literally like owning a ‘magic lamp’ with a genie inside, that you’re not aware of, and don’t know how to summon… but if you did, it would grant all your wishes to make your dreams come true!
The problem is… your email marketing attempts are failing to deliver either any sales or an engaged audience.
So, why hasn’t it worked for me? I hear you wonder! Well, let me explain…
Science has proven our brains are hardwired to ignore repetitive, low value stimuli (uninteresting content) … through a phenomenon called ‘Habituation’.
Resulting in what I call Boring Email Syndrome™… because it’s exactly that, boring emails that turn your audience against you!
Performance actually deteriorates over time as each ‘boring’ email you send has a compounding effect… in other words, your email marketing gets worse (not better), keeping you stuck in “no man’s” land forever.
Trapped by Boring Email Syndrome™… trapped by diminishing returns… and trapped in your “feast or famine” cycle, that you’ll never break free of.
But it’s not your fault because you’ve been working against science like trying to walk ‘up’ an escalator that’s going ‘down’…
And you’ve been following the same mediocre email marketing advice (or hired services) that 99% of all businesses follow…
Which goes a long way to explaining why only 1% of ‘Knowledge Entrepreneurs’ actually succeed.
It’s getting worse though because AI has now reset the level of mediocrity and if there were potentially 1M mediocre marketers before AI…
Today virtually anyone can provide the same substandard services, even if they don’t speak English or know the first thing about marketing.
So, now there’s potentially 1BN people worldwide offering the same AI assisted service which has become the new ‘average’. I wrote an article which you can read if you want to learn more about why this is bad news for you.
But the point is, it’s almost impossible to find elite training online – especially free content, given how valuable it is… and in a haystack of a BILLION MEDIOCRE MARKETERS… it’s equally as impossible to find ‘one percent’ marketers.
Though even if you could… they only provide ‘one-time’ solutions that might help to freshen up a list or generate initial sales from a product launch.
But once those sequences stop… your list still suffers from the same degradation and decline as before (which I’ll explain in a minute).
Keeping you on a treadmill to nowhere… stuck in “no man’s” land… as your dreams are tantalisingly within touching distance… but agonisingly out of reach!
What is Boring Email Syndrome™… Why it Destroys My List… AND Guarantees My Failure?
Remember back in school… there was one kid who always wanted to show the teacher how attentive (or clever) they were, and they’d hold their hand up as high as they could to answer every question.
At the start of the year, the teacher is happy with the child’s enthusiasm. Often selecting them, “Yes Robert, tell us what colour you get from mixing blue & yellow?”.
But a few days later, the same teacher becomes frustrated from the repetitive situation replaying over and over.
Pretty soon she ignores Robert, even when he’s the only one with his hand up. “Does anyone OTHER THAN ROBERT, want to answer that?”.
Well, our brain is programmed to do this also… though not necessarily out of frustration… (or in opposition to poor Robert).
Here, let me explain…
The Science
Boring Email Syndrome™ is caused by a psychological and scientific phenomenon dating back to the origins of ‘psychophysiology’ in 1917 where researchers noted that repeated exposure to a stimulus consistently diminished its power to excite.
Part of the tests involved studying the initial spike of attention that occurs at the very beginning when new stimulus has maximum appeal.
In 1943, J.D. Harris wrote a paper titled ‘Habituatory response decrement in the intact organism’, where he named the phenomenon ‘Habituation’.
Then three years later in 1946, researchers Robinson and Gantt named the stimulus peak “orienting response”, which then became the baseline for measuring attention decline.
And in 1970, neuroscientists Groves and Thompson observed that as an organism was repeatedly exposed to the same stimulus, the initial high level of arousal from the “orienting response” consistently decreased.
In Layman terms, our brains are hardwired to preserve ‘mental energy’ kinda like the power saving feature on your phone.
You’re at max attention when exposed to something new, so you can learn or observe better while at full capacity.
But with repeated stimulus, the brain essentially goes into power saving mode and filters out the repetition.
In a Marketing Context
In 1998, researchers Benway and Lane discovered web users learn how banner-shaped advertisements are irrelevant to their goals. So, they subconsciously filter these ads out, to effectively ignore them even when in plain sight… which we can all attest to – I never notice them, do you?
A 2013 study found as many as 86% of consumers experience banner blindness. The same study revealed the average click-through rate for banner ads was a pathetic 0.06%.
More recently in 2023, RRD studied the impact of ‘Habituation’ in email marketing, and their main findings were:
There’s no relationship (R² of 0%) between email frequency and a customer’s purchase rate. Sending more emails does not increase sales.
There’s a strong positive correlation (R² of 38%) between higher email frequency and customer opt-outs.
And the study also identified a large group of “soft opt-outs” (37% of the customer base) who simply stopped engaging with emails without formally unsubscribing.
This demonstrates our brains, through the ‘Habituation process’, deliberately filter out generic emails because they all look the same.
It then goes into ‘power saving mode’ by ignoring the content and this signals to us the content is irrelevant, so we ignore, delete, or unsubscribe.
The results are devastating: the study proved sending more emails has zero impact on sales… is a primary driver of unsubscribes… and causes an additional 37% of your audience to become ‘soft opt-outs’ – silently ignoring you forever.
Potentially eliminating 75% of your subscriber base through bad strategy.
World-Class Coach… Next-Level Course… Textbook Marketing… What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Real World Example
Sally is a talented writing coach and novelist who has helped many budding writers create and successfully launch their first book.
Due to overwhelming feedback and countless success stories, she decides to turn her knowledge into a comprehensive course teaching everything from A-Z and sharing her secret formula.
When complete, it’ll be the best course on the market by a mile.
It will take months to create but that’s okay because she needs to build her list first anyway.
She’s well informed about the process. She’s taken a couple of marketing courses online, one for product launches, and another for ‘value-first’ emails.
Sally has also organised a bookmark in Chrome specifically for marketing which she pins to the shortcut bar for easy access.
It now contains over 100 bookmarks to various articles/videos mostly covering the same 5-6 topics (lead magnets, sales funnels, copywriting formulas, and list building etc.), which essentially repeat the same advice.
She’s learned everything there is to know… she’s got this!
One of those topics focuses on ‘waitlists.’ Where all the articles advise her to groom an audience of potential customers until they’re ready to buy upon launch.
Starting with a strong and powerful lead magnet that provides maximum value to her audience of amateur writers.
So, she does her research, discovers many people struggle to come up with an initial idea, and yet, there wasn’t a lot of content helping to solve this.
Perfect!
Sally creates a 20-page guide walking people through her own process which has never failed and always inspired her to come up with great ideas.
Her target audience love it… the sign-ups are impressive… and she receives plenty of emails thanking her for such an awesome tool.
The next step is to decide what content her subscribers will get most ‘value’ from, because she learned by putting the ‘subscriber’ first… and also through the rule of reciprocity…
That not only will this help to build a strong relationship with a satisfied audience… they’ll also feel compelled to ‘reciprocate’ her kindness by purchasing her course.
Why wouldn’t they anyway? … it’s perfect and exactly what they need to make their dream a reality.
So, every Monday she sends ‘writing tips’… Wednesday she focuses on ‘pacing’… then Friday is for book review/analysis.
Her lead magnet funnel is a huge hit – and thousands subscribe!
Eight months later once the course is ready, she creates a pre-launch sequence with 5 ‘value-first’ emails walking her audience through the daunting process of self-publishing on Amazon, with a fancy PDF guide.
But to her astonishment, hardly anyone downloads it.
Clearly, she must have chosen the wrong topic, however, 2-weeks later when she launches the course with a special 10% discount for her loyal audience…
Sally’s shocked when hardly anyone buys the course… even with the discount… but what baffles her more, are the low open rates, since she regularly sends valuable and relevant content to her subscribers.
After everything she’s given her audience over such a long period without asking for anything in return… like the ‘top’ marketers teach you to do…
She could never imagine the issue being related to her content.
The problem had to be technical, probably domain or SPAM related. Perhaps it’s the SPF and DKIM settings?
But, after spending 2-hours talking with MailChimp support, it’s clear everything is working fine, and the stats are 100% accurate… sadly.
Over the next few weeks, she tries sending different content… she experiments using clickbait subject lines (with emoji’s) … she even sends a promo email with a massive 50% off discount.
But it was met with the same sound of “crickets” that all her emails have experienced recently.
However, what Sally doesn’t realise is, she has become a victim of ‘Habituation’ and her audience are now conditioned to ignore her content.
Even with ‘value-first’ emails… great advice… relevant content… powerful tools… and regular frequency (3 emails/week) …
To her subscribers (well, their brain at least) … the content looked very similar… so the sense of urgency vanished… and their “orienting response” plummeted.
Regardless of what she sends out now, whether it’s a pattern interrupt launch email or even FREE ACCESS TO HER COURSE… it will all be ignored.
This is why I refer to it as Boring Email Syndrome™.
Because even though her content was valuable and extremely relevant to subscribers, the ‘sameness’ of it all and the repetition… conditioned her audience to avoid reading… and even opening it.
It’s essentially viewed as boring, and ultimately rejected by the audience, which causes a negative psychological feedback loop because once you see your hard efforts failing… it turns writing emails into a ‘soul-sucking’ chore.
A good way to think about it is… imagine someone making a meal for you, and you really enjoy it.
It was delicious. Made with fresh ingredients to your taste and preference. So, you thank them, and you’re genuinely complimentary towards the person who made it.
Now, imagine they bring…
The Same Meal… 3-Times a Day… Every Day of the Week… All Year Round!
It might have been extremely tasty at first… you may have been touched by the gesture… you probably even hoped they’d cook for you again.
But now, it won’t be long until the thought of that meal makes you feel sick.
If they deliver the meal, you might initially accept it to be courteous, but it will either go in the bin (or the dog).
Pretty soon though, you’re gonna stop answering the door. And if they leave it on your doorstep, you probably won’t bother to open it or take it inside.
Eventually, you’ll avoid that person completely. Even if they’re a good friend or they want to cook you something different, because you’ll be completely turned off to the idea of eating their food ever again.
And essentially, that’s what happens with most email marketing (not only with ‘knowledge entrepreneurs’) … and that’s what happened to Sally.
The thought of receiving that very ‘same meal’, drove her audience away until they begun to completely ignore her emails.
It’s important to understand the role mediocre marketing plays here, because it’s significant… it’s not just about your content.
Twenty years ago, people didn’t ignore emails as much as they do today, so Sally would have been far more successful back then.
Today though, we’re bombarded with emails from everywhere, and they all look similar.
The ‘value-first’ tactic was very effective when people first started using it.
‘Value-first’ is actually an elite strategy, but the problem is, it has been adopted by regular marketers.
Which means not only is the strategy misinterpreted… incorrectly used… and taught by mediocre marketers through millions of videos and articles, until it became ‘general practice’…
But as it’s a tactic utilised by everyone (marketers and businesses alike) … it eventually became saturated, and people grew tired of it very quickly.
Most people today are taught that ‘value-first’ means a sequence of ‘educational’ emails and guess what? … People now ignore educational emails almost as much as the dreaded ‘promo’ email!
So, it’s no coincidence that EVERYONE struggles with email marketing regardless of industry or niche…
And it’s because EVERYONE follows the same mediocre advice or strategies (or by hiring mediocre marketers who provide those same services).
Which is why I want to emphasise the role mediocre marketing has had in the demise of email.
It’s no wonder so many people are confused with why this happens, especially respected knowledge entrepreneurs like yourself, who create extremely valuable content and yet you’re still ignored.
This is why Sally couldn’t understand what she’d done wrong. Her content was perfect for her audience, who were all wannabe writers, and everything she sent would have been appreciated… had subscribers only read it!
But thanks to her educational ‘value-first’ emails which audiences now block out just like banners or promo emails… people ignored her as they were conditioned against this repetitive mass mediocre strategy.
If you value your business and have a genuine desire to succeed, then you should avoid mediocre marketing at all costs.
Even if ‘the 99%’ adopt an elite (or fresh) strategy (which occasionally happens when something new is introduced and it’s initially successful).
It gets touted as the new ‘shiny’ marketing miracle and copied by everyone before it quickly loses effect once ‘Habituation’ takes hold and ‘banner blindness’ sets in. Soon, all marketing using the new strategy ultimately fails.
The Extremely Potent Email Elixir™ That Instantly Cures Boring Email Syndrome™
If regular email marketing is the equivalent to having ‘the same meal, every single day’…
Then the Email Elixir™ is the complete opposite.
I’ll stick with the meal analogy to illustrate my point, but I’ll use an alternative example to highlight the difference.
Okay, so your meal experiment was a complete disaster, instead of making your life better… it turned into a living nightmare… and almost destroyed your love of food.
But I’ve got a completely different solution which you’ll absolutely love that will change your life forever!
I’m gonna assign Pierre, a 3-star ‘Michelin’ Chef, exclusively to you. Once he learns your: preferences… favourite foods… disliked ingredients… eating habits… portion size… and everything else.
You’ll NEVER have to worry about eating a bad meal ever again.
That’s not all though because every day, he’s gonna create three world-class dishes you’ve never tasted before that you’re guaranteed to love.
Imagine all your food tasting like it’s come straight from the kitchen of an exclusive 5-star restaurant.
Everything is to your preference and taste, so it’s virtually impossible to serve food you don’t like, but just for good measure, Pierre runs the menu by you first, but even then, if you don’t like a dish, he’ll create something else.
It’s food that brings your tastebuds alive and puts a smile on your face.
You’ll never get bored because every meal is completely different and never looks the same. Yet it’s all created exactly the way you love your food.
There’s no danger of you ever ignoring a delivery when it arrives (or leaving it out on the doorstep).
It’s quite the opposite because now you go to bed reliving the experience, dreaming of food in your sleep. You’re excited to see what comes tomorrow.
You quickly become a ‘super-fan’ of Pierre… so not only are you happy to receive every meal… your anticipation is so high you can’t wait for it to arrive… you’re usually hanging by the door long before the food comes!
And since you now trust Pierre and adore his creations so much… whenever he offers an expensive seat at his restaurant… additional services… or any of his branded kitchen tools…
Your desire level for all things ‘Pierre’ is so intense you don’t need to stop and think about it… you purchase without hesitation like ‘super-fans’ do.
So… I Need to Cook Food for My Subscribers?
I promise, I’m almost done with the food analogies now so put the recipe book back on the shelf!
Let me conclude this by making a final comparison…
While the two ‘services’ essentially do the same from a high-level perspective when zoomed out (provide 3 meals a day to save time cooking) …
Unless you actually learn about Pierre’s service (and understand how it works), then you’d never know the difference between them.
However, Pierre is kept a ‘classified secret’ when his ‘magic bullet’ service is repackaged in the general marketing realm because mediocre marketers:
- Can’t afford to provide his service from a financial perspective, as it requires too much time, effort, and dedication to deliver, while their templated services cost only a few hundred dollars.
- Never develop a deep enough understanding, or connection with their client, product, & audience which is essential for continued success… as they’re unable to dedicate much time to each project.
- Don’t have Pierre’s elite (Michelin) knowledge to visualise and plan his service, or the skills to deliver the same elite quality even if they tried to copy what he does.
- Are incapable of grasping why Pierre’s service is so special because you can’t ‘know’ what you ‘don’t know’. The secret is in the details their untrained eye doesn’t see.
- Cannot continually deliver the service every week, every month and all year round. Not only because they’d lose money providing the service, but as their templates lack the sophistication to constantly deliver an unlimited variety of world class ‘meals’.
So instead, they’re forced to simplify Pierre’s service and water it down into a format they can make a profit from.
Many want to be the ‘first’ to ‘reveal’ this revolutionary tactic, so they boast about it on their blog or YouTube… some turn it into a cheap course…
Though since they don’t truly understand it, and the need to make it sound ‘easy’ so their amateur audience can apply it to their own business…
They only ‘teach’ a simplified version mentioning the 3-meals a day but conveniently ignoring the ‘secret sauce’, to not scare their subscribers… or let them see it’s virtually impossible to replicate without elite skills.
While mediocre marketers turn it into a new service and promise to ‘skyrocket your business’, through a handful of pre-written emails with placeholders that allow ‘personalisation’ for any purpose.
These ‘value-first’ ‘meals’ are then sent out to your audience.
Whether following advice to DIY yourself, or you hire a service… all you actually get are ‘3 daily recipes’ (instead of meals), and to not overwhelm the 99% who are amateur cooks… the recipes are very basic.
Pretty soon, everyone is sending recipe emails to their audiences, who like the idea at first, but the novelty wears off as the repetitive meal suggestions become boring, and those who cook the meals… end up with bland food.
Eventually the whole world is receiving recipe suggestions, much of which is unsolicited and SPAM, so ‘Habituation’ is triggered and spreads, until people everywhere ignore these type of emails.
So, when you come along with a determination to do things better for your audience of diabetes sufferers… by sending zero-sugar dessert recipes… that taste as amazing as the real thing (which they crave more than anything) …
Your audience don’t bother to open your fantastic emails because they’re completely ignoring recipe content and refuse to see them.
This is obviously in contrast to Pierre, who learns everything about you, develops a fresh bespoke daily menu, creates Michelin quality (actual) meals, and delivers them exactly when you’re ready to eat.
Serving food beyond your wildest dreams… but more importantly, it’s THE ONLY service solving your real problem… of not having enough time.
But we’re not dealing in meals or recipes, so what does this mean in relation to email marketing?
Good question, though the answer is quite simple which I’ll explain now…
You, along with everyone else, have been taught to send similar ‘value-first’ emails to your subscribers that largely consist of educational and promotional content.
These are the ‘recipe ideas’ from our analogy just now.
However, as we now know, everyone developed ‘banner blindness’ to this strategy so they learned to ignore emails that appear similar.
I call this Boring Email Syndrome™.
The actual problem the audience are desperately looking to solve is ‘3-meals per day to save on time’.
So, not only is Pierre the first person to solve this huge problem for the client… but his service far-exceeds expectation, as the quality of his work is so varied, exciting, enjoyable, relevant, unique, different, and helpful.
This transforms the recipient of his work, into a ‘super-fan’ who always wants to receive more… and just as importantly… they become loyal and regular customers, ready and willing to buy anything he suggests.
This is exactly what Email Elixir™ is… it’s your ‘Michelin’ Chef for email marketing.
Instead of ‘freshly cooked meals’, you receive unique content that inspires your audience through entertaining emails.
The ‘one percent’ copywriting skills and storytelling ability is the equivalent to Pierre’s ‘Michelin Star’ training, that guarantees every email is: packed with flavour… excites every time… and keeps the audience wanting extra.
What’s more, every email is different and often highly entertaining, so ‘Habituation’ is never triggered because the brain doesn’t detect repetition.
And yet elite storytelling techniques such as open/closed loops or ‘the cliffhanger’, ensure audiences are always waiting for the next email before you’re even ready to send it.
They never perceive the content as promotional or marketing, so when we throw your skill into the mix, to help them achieve their goals in a fun and entertaining way…
You’re elevated to ‘celebrity’ status as subscribers transform into loyal ‘super-fans’, who anticipate your content… recommend you to everyone… see you as the leading authority… and purchase every offer.
If you only have a single product at the moment, then this presents a golden opportunity to create an entire suite, and ladder ranging from simple $20 tools to huge 5-figure high-ticket services.
If you already have multiple products or services, then this is the perfect way to ‘sell without selling’ all the time, with massive conversion rates.
Better still is how you end up building an extremely valuable marketing asset that YOU OWN and yet it converts better than any advertising platform.
You will never again be at the mercy of potential overnight changes to an algorithm or policy threatening to wipe out your ability to earn.
That’s because owning an email list of ‘super-fans’ means…
You Don’t Compete to Be Seen… You Don’t Pay to Advertise… AND You Don’t Need a Sales Funnel to Sell!
You simply continue ‘entertaining’ like their favourite TV show, podcast, or magazine publication does… and they’ll always tune in without fail…
Primed and ready to buy from you whenever you make a suggestion.
So, how does this work exactly and why should you believe me?
Fair questions.
Well, the brief answer is… because science has proven it to work both in and out of a marketing context.
It’s no secret that storytelling has been around since the dawn of humanity.
It’s no secret either that we’ve been telling tales for millennia to:
- Pass knowledge down from ancestors to ensure our survival
- Warn others of life-threatening dangers
- Entertain for happiness and inspiration
- Win the heart of a potential love match
- Gain trust and belief of doubters
- Acquit ourselves from blame or accusation
- Convince people to try new things
- Sell our possessions
While some stories serve an important purpose… you may have noticed a pattern revealing itself, just from the few examples I provided.
The most obvious being… one of the biggest reasons we’ve told stories since the start of time… is to persuade people into action.
And nothing has changed, even in the present day and age.
Storytelling is the most powerful form of PERSUASION.
Whether to… choose a religion… select a movie… buy a product… sway a jury… get a job… inspire a child… explain an absence… or vote a president.
Those possessing exceptional storytelling skills, are always most likely to succeed in persuading the ‘listener’ to select them (or change their mind).
Storytelling is no secret to marketing either, it’s been around for decades… you can find people teaching it everywhere you look.
You probably already know this, and you possibly even think that’s what you’ve been doing until now.
But just like the mediocre marketer with no culinary training who took Pierre’s meal service and turned it into recipe suggestions (with only a small selection of bland foods) …
The ‘storytelling’ offered and taught by ‘the 99%’ (which is the only version you’re likely to find when you look online) …
Is exactly the same because it’s watered down and simplified for an unskilled audience to easily copy… while those teaching/practicing it have zero skills in storytelling or persuasion.
If they explained you need elite storytelling, sales psychology, and persuasion skills gained from thousands of study hours… costing tens of thousands of dollars to learn… from genuine elite ($5k+) courses…
And to perform, it takes many hours thinking of ideas, finding inspiration, and writing content… which you must repeat 3-5 times EVERY week…
Then they wouldn’t get clicks, likes, shares, follows, subscribes…
They wouldn’t sell their courses (though people would ask for refunds anyway if they did) …
Nor could they sell you their basic email sequence consisting of 6 generic ‘educational’ messages for a few hundred bucks.
The bottom line is…
Nearly all email marketing fails… despite most of it ‘claiming’ to follow ‘value-first’ principles and using ‘storytelling’ to connect with the reader.
But it’s the mediocrity… saturation… repetition… poor execution… & ‘Habituation’ that is failing…
Not real storytelling… or putting your audience first while delivering valuable content.
The Science
In 1993, cognitive psychologist Richard J. Gerrig explained Narrative Transportation Theory in his book ‘Experiencing Narrative Worlds’.
His theory states when a person is engaged with a compelling story, they mentally “transport” into the narrative – where their attention, imagery, and feelings focus on events unfolding in the story.
Their brain is too focused on processing events in the narrative to criticise or object to the message, and their ability to resist the persuasion attempts diminish.
Then in 2000, Melanie C. Green and Timothy C. Brock performed a series of experiments to test the theory which they published in their acclaimed paper, ‘The Role of Transportation in the Persuasiveness of Public Narratives’.
In one experiment, participants were split into two groups and given a sad story about a girl being murdered by a psychiatric patient.
One group were told the story was true, while the other group told it was fiction. But this had no effect on how ‘transported’ (absorbed) the reader became.
The interesting finding was, the more ‘transported’ a person (regardless of whether told it was true or false), the more their real-world beliefs changed to align with the story (e.g., they believed violence was more common and psychiatric patients needed more restrictions).
Basically, an experience – even one only lived and felt through story, is so powerful it can alter your perception of reality, while changing your beliefs and perceptions.
Another experiment shared the same story with participants, then afterwards, they were asked to review it again and circle anything that sounded unbelievable.
What they found was those most ‘transported’ circled almost 3X less (6.71) than the least ‘transported’ (17.22).
Which is irrefutable proof that when a reader becomes absorbed in a story, they’re less critical and less likely to find faults or object to the message.
The Marketing Proof
The Ten by Three A/B Test
Ten by Three, is a nonprofit organisation whose mission is to help women in developing nations sell handwoven artisan goods to escape poverty.
The campaign was for a Mother’s Day sale.
Two different email strategies were used to promote the sale.
- The Control (Promo Email): The first email was a standard, product promotion. It featured images of the artisan goods, a prominent “sale” message, and details of the offer.
- The Variant (Storytelling Emails): Two narrative-based emails were sent: one framed the products as a practical solution and the other focused on the value of giving a gift supporting a good cause.
The promo email failed completely as it generated zero sales and had a very low open rate of only 4.3%. But equally damning was the huge number of people who opened the email, then unsubscribed (7.8%).
The storytelling emails performed much better. Open rates were high as 9.3% (116% higher than the promo email), and in only 5 days, generated 16 sales… which is an infinite lift in revenue!
While the promo focused on the product which failed to move subscribers… the storytelling managed to inspire and motivate readers by aligning the purchase to their values.
The reason you (and everyone else who has failed with email marketing) have been unable to achieve the same impact as science and studies prove possible…
Is because ultimately the services you used, or the information you learned from… was either fake or inferior!
You’ve been sending bland recipe ideas… or serving the same meal every single day… and your audience has learned to ignore you.
That’s why the Email Elixir™ is so important… it’s a 3-star Michelin Chef named Pierre who is ready to serve your audience fresh and exciting foods to transform into ‘super-fans’ obsessed with your content and products.
Before I explain how…
Email Elixir™ is the Only Service Capable of Transforming Your Business into an Unstoppable Force
I want to quickly acknowledge that I’m not the only ‘elite’ marketer promising to help people with email services.
However, if you were able to find another true ‘one percent’ email marketer, then you’re likely to discover their ‘help’ comes in one of two forms:
#1 The Teacher
The first is through teaching. The single goal is to ‘suck’ you into their ‘world’, usually with a ‘free’ starter course or eBook etc.
Next, they offer a suite of courses, guides, and tools in a ‘value ladder’ funnel which grow in complexity (and cost) at each stage.
The ultimate goal is to nurture you on your journey while building trust and credibility through the use of their products to reach certain milestones.
This should sound familiar, since it’s obviously the same strategy you’re trying to implement with your email marketing efforts.
It’s just… they’re a lot better at executing this strategy, and much more successful due to their marketing skills and experience.
Eventually at the top, you find high-ticket offerings, such as $5k courses, $1000/hr consultation calls, 5-figure ‘Mastermind’ (annual) memberships, and other such services etc.
Going this route requires you to learn (and understand) a lot of information to implement the strategy yourself.
The biggest problem with this option is you’re unlikely to become an ‘expert’ any time soon. Even with elite guidance, you can only take things ‘one step at a time’.
You don’t become a ‘Michelin’ Chef in 3-4 months. It takes years to build up all the necessary skills, habits, knowledge, and experience etc.
It might be possible to create a handful of ‘nice meals’ after a little while, but you’re a long way from running your own kitchen.
For example, you need to learn sales copywriting, storytelling, persuasion, sales psychology etc.
But only through advanced study, real world experience, and making more mistakes than you care to admit…
Do you slowly learn and understand every sophisticated nuance, so that one day (years later) … you’re capable of writing content that moves people into action.
So, even if the elite email marketer covers all bases with additional courses to supplement the main ‘email marketing’ course, such as one that teaches ‘copywriting’…
Regardless of whether or not they teach it to an ‘advanced’ level…
The process takes a very long time… since you need to learn everything yourself… plus… you have to implement all the strategies too…
And despite ‘advanced’ learning, you’ll still be a long way from excellence.
Whether it takes months to learn and implement what the course taught you, or you rush through it in a matter of days without understanding much…
The outcome is certain to disappoint you. At best, you may have improved and made some progress, but it will be slow and continual learning needed…
At worst, you won’t have made much (if any), progress at all, after so long… while you realise the gulf to mastery is far greater than first thought.
#2 The Tactician
The second way ‘one percent’ email marketers help is usually through one-time, fixed-fee services.
This might include ‘launch copy’ for $2k… or a welcome sequence at $500/email.
Some elite marketers offer $5k/month ‘retainer’ packages covering every aspect of a client campaign. An email sequence might be required one month, ad A/B testing the next, then a sales page the following month.
However, as you can see… these only offer short-term, ‘one time only’ fixes, that help you to experience an initial boost with limited impact…
Like a sequence for a new product launch, which is well written and looks different from your regular content… avoiding ‘Habituation’ detection while inspiring your audience to read and take action.
Once the sequence has ended though, subscribers continue to ignore everything you send (just as before) because nothing has really changed.
The service may have generated an increase in sales for the promotion, but it hasn’t fixed the underlying problem preventing your subscribers from transforming into ‘super-fans’, obsessing over your content, and primed to purchase your offers.
This is why Email Elixir™ is so special… and to put this plainly…
“I Don’t Know Another Service Like it”
Our goals never end.
We’re always:
- Expanding your list
- Increasing engagement levels
- Enhancing your bond with subscribers
- Building trust & credibility
- Raising anticipation in your content & services
- Improving your audience relationship
- Growing your priceless marketing asset
- Making sales
So, we’re always: scaling and extending your reach… encouraging a better response to your content… cultivating adoration… earning respect… removing barriers… generating sales… and increasing revenue.
This is done through entertaining content that looks nothing like marketing.
But it’s not random material… it’s not the same theme for everyone… and it’s not only about ‘entertainment’.
Each business, coach, and audience has their own: requirements… style… objectives… preferences… voice/language… tone… interests etc.
A surreal Monty Python-style comedy might be a good fit for one audience of 50yr+ men as the coach is bit of a joker with a whacky sense of humour…
So, it’s potentially compatible, and the occasional surreal comedy sketch unfolding in an email series for his ‘investor’ audience… (that defies ‘regular’ marketing logic and wisdom) …
Could be what gives his audience a pulse and heartbeat… driving engagement levels through the roof while fostering a strong relationship with subscribers to rapidly transform them into loyal fans.
However, a more serious coach with a strictly professional investor audience, might need something more refined and sophisticated… with zero humour.
Being entertained is not always about ‘entertainment’.
So, understanding you and your audience is key to overall success because unless I nail your personality, voice, style, and beliefs, then you’ll never be happy with the emails I create, and you’ll always feel like a fraud…
While your audience won’t recognise you or relate to the new content which suddenly feels alien to them.
It’s normal for a writer to try emulating the tone and voice of a client (though I’m not convinced many actually pull it off).
However, to deliver content that accurately portrays your beliefs, mannerisms, sense of humour, style, and all the things that make you ‘you’.
Demonstrates why this is an elite service only a ‘Michelin’ Star copywriter is capable of delivering and here’s how it works:
Phase One: ‘When Two Become One’ – Creating Your Unique Client Profile
This is our onboarding deep dive conducted over two stages.
The first stage is entirely focused on forming a deep understanding of you… your story… core beliefs… sense of humour… your ‘why’… motivations… your audience persona… inside jokes etc.
This is achieved through asking (and answering) questions and building a content archive of YT transcripts, past emails, blog posts, and other samples.
The second stage is through my own extensive research process, and deep analysis of all collected data, patterns, and observations.
I’m then able to create a very powerful Unique Client Profile that is comprehensive, sophisticated, and extremely accurate.
I then refine it further, together with you until it perfectly reflects your personality… style… opinions… voice… and even thought process.
So, not only does it ensure I’m fully capable of creating content like you… it proves I’ll deliver on my promise… to give you peace of mind from day one.
Phase Two: ‘Terraforming’ – Building Your World
This is the ongoing process of exceptional content creation and ‘world’ expansion that is entirely unique and effective with your audience.
Everything we learned from phase one; we implement in a plan here.
Whether you (and your audience) have a preference for spoof-style comedy… sci-fi adventures… dry, pedantic, white paper-style reports… or whatever…
We start to build and develop characters, locations, themes, scenarios etc.
We also actively look for ideas, memes, and news related to your niche, to compile an endless source of relevant inspiration.
But to ensure all content is grounded in truth and based on your actual ‘real world’ experiences… we encourage you to share and journal anything you want, no matter how mundane or insignificant it might seem.
We do this by whichever method is most convenient for you… a dedicated channel, shared doc, voice/video notes etc.
It doesn’t require you to share time consuming stories as it’s more about quick inspiration, because from a simple ‘improv-style’ summary…
“Went to gym. Old man struggling to lift heavy weight trying to look young/strong. Funny. Ended up needing to be rescued by a girl.”
I can then introduce your: thought… experience… joke… idea… dream etc. into a message or story, to ultimately provide more of your ‘flavour’.
Naturally, we want to use as much variety as possible, not only to avoid ‘Habituation’ creeping in… but to also maximise your potential.
So, the content we send out will have different themes, topics, and objectives.
We might have reoccurring characters appearing from time to time, that your audience enjoy and look forward to ‘hearing from’ again…
It could be we have an ongoing story developing that we return to sporadically… keeping subscribers eager to receive the next chapter.
Or perhaps it’s a feature we do occasionally that readers love and anticipate reading. But, regardless of content type…
It’s essential we build a vast and varied ‘world’, that constantly expands and evolves… to give us the necessary tools to ensure we create the most perfect, relevant, powerful, effective, and persuasive… content for your audience.
That’s why, along with regular content creation which will typically consist of 3-5 entertaining emails every week… your ‘World Building’ is an ongoing process that actually enhances overall quality, the larger it becomes.
This is Surely Gonna be Too Expensive for Me!
Let’s try to visualise what this actually means for you starting from the top…
You currently add hundreds (or possibly thousands) of new subscribers every week as per your ‘sign-up’ strategy.
Your regular ‘welcome sequence’ has the potential to reach 450 people (average open rate of 45% for Knowledge Entrepreneurs) … before ‘Habituation’ and “soft opt-outs” take effect.
So, if you added 1000 new subscribers and sent your regular content… you’ll only have 280 people potentially interested in your course, and 7 potential sales (based on a standard 2.5% conversion rate for digital courses).
However, now that Email Elixir™ has cured your Boring Email Syndrome™ problem, the whole picture changes as you start from a vastly improved, and advantageous position…
Since now, of those same 1000 new subscribers, a highly engaged audience of 900 subscribers should be able to make 23 potential sales.
And let’s say your only product is a $500 course… then that means for every 1000 new subscribers you take on… the difference is a massive $3,500 versus $11,500 in weekly revenue.
Which is a huge advantage and potentially $8,000 extra for every 1000 new subscribers… but that’s only the start!
Forget for a second how this is multiplied with every week and every new subscriber…
You now have the ability to create a large suite of products that you can constantly promote to your rapidly expanding audience.
And your entertaining content is transforming subscribers into ‘super-fans’ who enjoy receiving your emails… increasing anticipation and desire levels.
You could probably even pitch affiliate offers to them if you wanted.
However, the point is, you no longer have a simple ‘list’ of people merely interested in the subject of your expertise…
You now own a priceless ‘marketing asset’ for promoting your products and services anytime you wish… without spending a penny on advertising… that isn’t subject to platform change… and won’t leave you vulnerable.
Better still… instead of your audience suffering from ‘banner blindness’ that caused most of the 280 (who opened your first email) to ignore future mail…
You can now retain everyone, which means… you no longer have to replace subscribers who’ve rejected you, as you ‘tread water’ to stay afloat against the tide and constant struggle of maintaining numbers.
And, because no one leaves, your list grows, while your business scales.
If you have to keep investing money to add subscribers (and the number of potential buyers doesn’t increase), then it stunts growth and reduces profit.
Acquisition costs for 1000 new subscribers were $500… you earned $3000 net after expenses… ‘Habituation’ forced most of the 280 who opened your first email to ignore later emails… until potential sales drop to zero.
Requiring you to repeat the whole process again from square one.
With Email Elixir™ however, your list and earning potential multiply exponentially as your list rapidly expands and interest in your content and products grow.
Providing immediate results with big gains in the short-term… but also offering an extraordinary opportunity for unlimited growth with extra products and services over the long-term.
In addition to all the financial gains you stand to make… your reputation, credibility, and standing are all significantly enhanced as trust and confidence in your expertise soar to new levels.
Close your eyes for a moment and try to imagine it…
The respected authority in your field… the huge (ever-expanding) list of people anticipating your content… the impressive conversion rates… the increased profits… the unlimited growth potential.
How much is that worth to you?
Even if the estimates from earlier were accurate yet you only gain 1500 new subscribers per month… then that alone would be an extra $12,000.
And imagine asking another ‘one percent’ marketer to provide everything I’ve just explained I’m gonna do for you…
Given their ‘regular’ email sequences cost between $2k – $5k for a simple one-off service, without the complexity or sophistication of Email Elixir™…
Then it’s not difficult to imagine an elite marketer quoting 5-figures+ for ongoing work (that produces 2-3X more content than their usual projects).
Nor is it a stretch to assume they’ll provide an inferior service since it’s not something they’ve ever thought about, let alone practiced.
The good news is… while Email Elixir™ isn’t ‘cheap’… and it’s certainly more expensive than mediocre email marketing services…
It’s definitely more affordable than you’re probably thinking right now.
And I can promise you… it’s definitely worth it!
The Guarantee That: Removes Your Risk… Delivers a One Percent Demo… AND Gives You Full Control
This is probably the simplest guarantee I’ve ever offered and yet, it’s undoubtedly the most powerful and reassuring.
Usually, high-ticket services are tough to guarantee because of all the time, work, effort, and sometimes costs you need to invest first, over weeks (and potentially months), before completion of the project.
Then of course, you also expose yourself to potential scammers or people who might be looking to exploit you…
To essentially receive 5-figure marketing services they can’t afford without paying a penny.
So, it’s sometimes difficult to find the right balance.
However, with Email Elixir™… it’s possible to provide a guarantee that eliminates all your risk without compromising myself in the process.
Therefore, I’m more than happy to do that for you.
The project is split into two phases, and phase one should be completed within 1-2 weeks…
And during this time, I finish creating your Unique Client Profile… which is detailed, thorough, accurate, and it clearly maps out the route to success…
This then makes it easy for me to demonstrate to you whether or not my work is as good as I claim.
First of all, your UCP should look, sound, and feel, as close to ‘you’ as possible.
Next, the content plan, characters, and entertainment angles, should all feel good while also having the desired effect on you.
Finally, all the work, effort, ideas, collaboration, direction, communication, and everything else I do either with you or while working on the project…
Should scream and echo ‘one percent’ at all times.
Afterall, someone could try stealing my idea… pose as a ‘one percent’ marketer’… and even offer the same service… but once the time comes, they’ll struggle to demonstrate elite ability.
That’s something no one can fake or mimic here since everything has to be unique… exclusive to you… and created fresh to the highest standards without the use of templates or AI.
There’s no compromise, no ‘level 2’, and nothing ‘in between’.
It’s either ‘knock you off your stool’ extraordinary… or it’s mediocre… it’s ‘Elite’ or it’s ‘garbage’… it’s black or it’s white.
It’s that simple.
Therefore, I’m happy (and confident enough) to offer you a FULL REFUND for any reason at all… at any time before we begin working on phase two.
And while there’s a slight risk that someone might take advantage of me to provide an ‘elite’ email marketing plan they can try to execute for free…
I believe it’s a risk worth taking because it completely removes all uncertainty for you, and ultimately it removes all the stress.
What You Need to Do Next? …
Email Elixir™ is not suitable for everyone or all business types. And because I offer an insane guarantee that places all the risk on my shoulders (potentially costing time and money if I take on the wrong client) …
I need to be very selective with whom I work, which is in both of our interests as not only could it save me… but it also confirms to you I believe we have the greatest potential for success, since I wouldn’t choose you otherwise.
So, I’m gonna keep this simple for us both.
Click the button to schedule an appointment for a video consultation and select the most convenient time for you.
At this point, it’s only an unconfirmed provisional booking for now.
Next, you’ll receive an email with link to a survey that I need you to fill out and submit…
Once I’ve reviewed it, I’ll make an assessment on whether I think we’re compatible with a high probability of being successful together.
If I do, then I’ll confirm the interview and I’ll expect you to be present (though if you don’t show, that will be the end of any possible collaboration between us – ever).
The call will be very casual and low-key. I hate selling face-to-face with a passion. I won’t employ any sales strategies.
I’m only interested in those who want this 100% anyway, so ‘no’ equals ‘no’.