Below is an email I got yesterday that just made me go 🤨
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Loving the emails, getting tons of great inspiration from them.
I’m thinking of using the Dark Room email for a vitamin client’s FB ad (except the vitamins are being held hostage by the body, instead of me haha)
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Okay, so “The Dark Room” is the subject line of my infamously creepy welcome email.
The premise is, you wake up strapped to a chair, kidnapped by an Australian villain who wants to send you emails (i.e. me).
It’s all a bit of wacky fun.
(Although my sweet wife Hayley, after reading it, told me it creeped her out because “she didn’t like feeling trapped”. Bless her.)
Now, let’s just quickly address the obvious problem with this …
i.e. the fact that someone just brazenly told me “I’m going to use your email as the copy for my client’s ad”.
Say it with me:
🤨
But whatever.
Not much I can do to stop it.
So I told the guy, at least let me know how it goes.
However, my prediction is it will fail terribly.
Why?
Well, I’m no Facebook ad guru.
I haven’t used Facebook since 2017 when I read “Deep Work” by Cal Newport, and immediately nixed my FB.
And I can’t be bothered keeping up with its policy changes and so on. So I don’t write FB ads for clients.
But even I know that the way I write a welcome email to prepare people for my daily emails … is NOT how I would write Facebook ad copy for health supplements.
I know this, because I’ve actually done copy for a major health supplement company.
Let me show you what I mean:
I want you to picture 63-year-old Rosie.
Rosie suffers from terrible Rheumatoid Arthritis. She can’t even wash her dishes without awful pain.
And today she’s browsing Facebook.
And she sees an ad that says:
“Your nervous system opens its eyes.
It’s dark, and it’s strapped to chair.
It tries to move, but it can’t.
Then it hears footsteps.
A light switches on. The nervous system winces as its eyes adjust.
And then a villain enters the room and says:
‘Well, HELLO there. I’m Rheumatoid Arthritis, and I’m here to send you DAILY pain signals.’”
😱
Y’know …
… somehow I don’t think Rosie is going to end up buying that supplement.
(btw I laughed WAY too hard while I was writing the above)
The answer, of course, is (gasp!) to promise a solution to the pain Rosie feels.
“This New Herbal Supplement Is Helping RA Sufferers Wash Dishes Without Pain For The First Time In 20 Years!”
That’s probably not the greatest Facebook ad headline. I don’t know. Like I said, I don’t do Facebook copy.
But my first guess would be something along those lines.
Why?
Because I did my research, and I know that struggling to wash dishes is a real frustration people like Rosie feel.
i.e. forget the fancy, too-clever ideas about how you’ll structure your ad.
Plain old “I know what your pain is, and I have a way to stop it” is going to beat that 10 times out of 10.
Besides … copying someone’s entirely original welcome email is kinda lame.
Anyway, there you have it — a Facebook ad lesson from a guy who hasn’t used Facebook in 3 years.
And one more time:
I don’t do Facebook ad copy.
But if you’d like these copy chops put to work on any emails for your biz …
And I know where to find you.
And I’m coming to kidnap you and strap you to a chair … oh wait, I already did that. Never mind.
Daniel Throssell
P.S. For the smart kids at the back: yes, my headline there didn’t take into account market level of awareness, market sophistication, and several other things. I get that. And if I were being paid to do this — which I am not, because this is an email, and I don’t do FB copy anyway — I would have adjusted for all that.