Today’s an exciting day. Because today is the day I drop the next 3 Ecom Cowboy Codes.
The Ecom Cowboy Codes are maxims and principles in which I live by. It’s a part of my code—whether writing emails for myself or my clients. And they’re something you should consider as you write copy to your customers.
I’ve written 12 Ecom Cowboy Codes thus far. (First 3 here, next 3 here, third 3 here, final 3 here, and latest additions below.)
So, without further ado… Let’s dive into the next 3 codes:
Ecom Cowboy Code #13: Don’t forget the fkn watch
I’ve been on a Tarantino kick recently, which means Pulp Fiction is still on my mind.
In Pulp Fiction, Bruce Willis’s character, Butch Coolidge is an aging boxer that Marsellus hires to lose on purpose.
But Butch has too much pride… so he takes his life savings, and bets on himself to win.
(Lesson in there)
After winning the fight, he ducks outta town quickfast, and meets his chick at a motel. When they wake up in the morning, he realizes that she forgot his dad’s watch.
And his dad’s watch was his dad’s watch.
And both his dad and grandpa (and some of their friends) had to go to extreme measures to protect this pocket watch (including shoving it up their you-know-what while they were tortured in the war).
A fight breaks out with Butch telling Fabienne (his chick) that he told her “don’t forget the fkn watch.” It was the only material possession he cared about. And he couldn’t disappoint his whole family by not going to get it.
(He goes to get it and gets into some serious shyt, as I’m sure you can imagine if you’re familiar with Tarantino.)
Anywho:
Moral of the Code?
Our subconscious mind doesn’t acknowledge “not” language.
For example, your subconscious turns:
“Don’t forget the fkn watch” into “Forget the fkn watch.”
Don’t is an example of “not” language, and our subconscious can’t process no’s and not’s.
So, to break my own Code for a second:
Don’t use not language.
It’s much better to tell someone to remember than not to forget.
This has many implications in the wild world of copy.
Moving on…
Ecom Cowboy Code #14: Speed is in the shooter
This Code is about an email I wrote the other day:
Money is attracted to speed.
In the wild west, life was also attracted to speed.
And as a certified Wordslinger, you gotta be fast, unless, of course, you hate money.
That’s why sometimes my emails are riddled with typos.
Or why my formatting looks poor.
Or a host of other problems I’m sure you’ve noticed in these daily emails.
There’s a reason my emails aren’t as “polished” as they could be:
Speed is in the shooter.
It’s better to write emails fast even if they have silly mistakes than it is to take 8 hours to write one email.
Why?
Well, you actually make sales when you write emails fast. A typo or weird formatting problem is almost never responsible for someone not buying when they otherwise would’ve. And I don’t want those kinds of people as clients or customers to boot.
Plus, you the faster you write, the faster you get the most important source of feedback possible:
Feedback from your raving customers and fans.
And the faster you write, the more emails you can write, creating an upward cycle of writing more persuasive emails.
As for the last Code today…
Ecom Cowboy Code #15: I’d rather say whoa than sic ‘em
I borrowed this’n from mayhap the most “Cowboy” head coach in the NFL:
One Mike Tomlin.
Tomlin has a ton of platitude-y phrases that he repeats ad nauseam, and in which people refer to as “Tomlinisms.”
(I told yinz he was a “Cowboy”)
And this is one of my favorite Tomlinisms:
“I’d rather say whoa than sic ‘em.”
But what does this mean?
It’s better to be too aggressive and need reined in than it is to be too passive and need motivation
Again, there are arguably more copy implications for this than there are football implications.
For example:
* Writing in a way that deeply offends your audience
* Pushing the boundaries in your copy as far as you possibly can
* Writing more emails than necessary to promote something to give yourself the most possible chances of winning
The list goes on.
And the key factor of this Code is this:
It’s easy to rein yourself in if’n your copy goes too far. It’s much harder to push boundaries after you’ve written cookie-cutter copy that’s so vague and uninteresting it lulls your audience to sleep.
And there you have it: The next 3 Ecom Cowboy Codes.
Which brings me to bidness:
Need an Ecom Cowboy to light a fire under your email strategy’s arse and double, triple, or mayhap even quadruple how much monthly revenue email brings into your bidness?
Hit reply, and let’s chat, partna.
John “the Wordslinger” Brandt