Part 4: Write an Analogy
At the church I attend, the congregation makes up the speakers for each Sunday meeting. One day, in high school, my sister was asked to speak in church the following Sunday. By Saturday, she had not prepared her talk. She planned to stay home that night and get her talk ready. But I wanted to go to the rodeo. “Come on,” I told her. “Go to the rodeo with me and I’ll help you write your talk in the morning.” She was torn, since she, too, wanted to go to the rodeo. But insisted it would be better to stay home that night. I must have become a copywriter long before I knew what one was, because I then told her, “Go to the rodeo and then write an analogy about the rodeo that applies to spirituality. You can find an analogy for anything, anywhere.” The next day, after a super fun night at the rodeo, my sister walked up to the pulpit at church and delivered her talk, “Developing a testimony,” she said, “is like riding a bull…” If you’re sitting in front of your computer, waiting for inspiration to hit…give up. Just look around you, and you will easily find an analogy you can share with your prospects and customers. Talk about the lessons your kids taught you yesterday, as it applies to your customers and prospects. Did you witness something in nature that might be applicable to the challenges your prospects and customers are going through? Write about it. Here’s a template for how that email might begin:| Today, as I was <what you were doing, ie watching your daughters have a tea party>, I couldn’t help but think how similar this was to the challenges you’re experiencing. <Write the analogy>. You’ve been on my mind a lot lately (as evidenced by this analogy). You see, what I really want for you is <something about how your products or services help them.> |
As this template is a little “rough”, I’m going to give you an example of what this looks like:
Today, as I was watching my 4-year-old’s soccer game, I couldn’t help but think about how similar this was to the challenges you’re facing.
You’ve got 20 little boys, running around on the field, not really sure what’s going on. The only clear thought in their heads is, “I’ve got to kick the ball. Everybody expects me to kick the ball.” So they chase the ball. And maybe they’ll even get a chance to kick it.
At the end of the “game”, they get their juice box and snack and everybody goes home.
Fighting depression is a little bit like a 4-year-old’s soccer game. Your head is foggy. You’re not really sure what’s going on. But everybody’s yelling at you to kick the ball. So, out of guilt, you get up and start running. Maybe you’ll even get a chance to kick that ball. But ultimately, what do you accomplish?
Not much.
You’ve been on my mind a lot lately (as evidenced by this analogy). You see, what I really want for you is a chance to get back into the game of life. As real game. But you can’t do that until you’ve got some skills and training to make you a competitor again.
The great thing about this hack is that you can use imagery to connect with your prospects and customers. You can help them “see” that you really do understand what they’re going through. And suddenly, your email is coming from a place of empathy rather than being an attempt to make another sale. Think you can take the email from here? You bet you can! Happy Writing!