Honest update
Even in school, I avoided writing whenever possible. To be honest, in German class, writing longer texts was often a real pain – and my tiny handwriting didn't make it any easier (sometimes I even lost points because teachers couldn't read it).
After school it was pretty similar:
During my design internship in Amsterdam, I preferred design to writing. Later, at Snocks, we had copywriters, and the texts for emails and ads arrived at my desk ready-made.
When I founded my solo agency, I started the same way:
Email marketing for customers? Yes.
Write texts? No.
I outsourced this to a freelancer. Until the inevitable happened: She was sick for the week, and I had no backup. Suddenly, several clients had campaign deadlines—and I had no one to deliver the copy. So I had to step in. So I analyzed old campaigns and asked myself:
• What makes your customers buy via email in the first place?
• Which texts does your customer really enjoy reading?
The deeper I delved, the clearer it became to me:
It's an interplay.
Good design can ensure more people click – it draws attention and makes you want more. But only the right copy, the right offers, and an understanding of where your customer is and what they need to hear at that moment determine whether they'll actually buy from you. And these texts don't end with the email. They continue – on the landing page, at checkout, at every single touchpoint. If the common thread here is right, the effect multiplies.
Over the past few years, I've written emails that have generated over €100,000 in sales—and others that have generated just €200.
The difference? Structure and target audience understanding.
In order to write emails that generate hundreds of thousands of euros in sales, you first need to know what level of awareness your customers are at.
There are basically five levels of awareness and each requires a different approach:
1. Unaware – Your customer does not know that a problem exists
→ Arouse attention & curiosity
2. Problem Aware – Your customer knows the problem
→ Increase the urgency and the pain
3. Solution Aware – Your customer knows the solutions
→ Position your solution category as the best
4. Product Aware – Your customer knows your product
→ Provide benefits & evidence for your product
5. Most Aware – Your customer wants to buy
→ Use clear call to purchase & urgency
Here is an example:
A sales newsletter for existing customers.
Your customer knows your product and its benefits, but still needs that final push. They are therefore at the " Product Aware " or " Most Aware " stage.
What this means for you: a short email text, a direct deal, and a clear call to action. No long explanations—4–7 sentences are usually sufficient.
It's quite different when you're introducing a completely new product. Often, you're at the " unaware stage": The customer doesn't know they have a problem. Your task: raise awareness of the problem and present your product as the solution.
A simple copywriting structure for this is:
Story – Lesson – Offer
• Story: People love stories
• Lesson: The insight from this
• Offer: The bridge to your product
This is exactly how this newsletter is structured:
First the story (my text history), then the lesson (awareness levels), and the offer at the end (my reference to the courses).
In summary, you should always first consider which awareness level your customer is currently at – and then tailor the text, whether for your ad, your email, or your landing page, precisely to that.
Whether the email you write will ultimately bring in €1,000 or €100,000 depends solely on how well you understand
• what your customers really care about
• and what he needs at that moment.
Link Lockdown
A collection of links to things I think are worth sharing.
Josh
