“I broke your instructions” (a case study)

Hey you, meet Susanne.

She's got a fantastic story. 

And I want her to tell it to you. 

Take it away, Susanne:

Susanne here, the sustainable travel brand writer.

I have a mini-win to share, though I did break your instructions. 

I finished Module 3 and have sent out only 5 cold pitches so far, but each one was opened within 30 minutes. 

So, at least the headline is good. I think the body copy is at least okay-ish.

For my first follow-up, I used your 1-sentence approach and the same call to action as in the first email. It had the same opening rate and time, but no replies.

Over the weekend, I brainstormed how to reach out for the third time. 

I decided to create a mini Loom video on their website, showing 1 benefit of improving the website copy. They saw my face, and I added a line of humor.

AND, I got 1 reply after 4 hours! They asked me to send in my portfolio.

Sharing my #miniwin 2: Had an amazing discovery call with my cold-email prospect this morning and she is asking for a proposal.

But it’s also a time to improve. I watched your masterclass on how to get ready for a sales call (after my discovery call - big mistake), and found gaps that I need to improve for the discovery call and the proposal.

Update: My proposal was accepted and the 50% commencement invoice was paid.

That is a big, solid win for me.

I’m happy, excited and nervous.

The thing about Susanne's story is this:

She dared to experiment. 

She mixed her creativity with her personality and colored outside of the lines.

Meaning: she created a mini Loom video as a follow up and sent that. 

And it worked beautifully.

Here's why that's important to know:

Because many programs, courses, workshops, methods, yada yada don't give you space for you and your personality. 

You have to do X, Y, then Z. In that order. Or the entire shebang fails. 

There's no room for creativity. 

No room for experimenting.

As my private clients know, if someone asks me, "if I do this in my email, will it work?" my answer is usually, "Maybe. Try it out and see if it works for your recipient."

In other words, I encourage and make space for experimenting.

Because the world of emails is constantly changing. 

And what's more than that is: the best cold email in the world FOR YOU is one where YOU show up in it.

Where your personality shines through. 

Not mine. 

And the email doesn’t sound like a freaking template. 

Because your recipient wants to work with YOU, not me. Just like my cold email recipients want to work with me, not you.

We work with humans.

And a human has to like the other human in order to work with them. 

For that result to happen, you have to experiment.

Which means the method you're using needs to have that built-in flex to allow experimenting.

If you're not comfortable with a method that isn't paint-by-the-numbers, this probably isn't for you.

But if you want a method that has space for experimenting -- and gives you a solid framework in which to experiment -- the WARM Client Method™ or Cambium™ could be a great fit.