Email Marketing Secrets Part 1: The Anatomy of Educational Emails

In partnership with

THIS WEEK’S LESSON

Do You Have a Digital Product You Want to Launch? Write These 10 Emails.

Two emails ago I talked about the idea of a lightning strike — a concentrated marketing effort that is focused on a single marketing event.

And here’s what one of my mentors taught me about marketing:

One of my latest books on creating a 90-day entry plan is a best seller. So I figured I would create a digital training on this product.

And that’s a lesson just in those two sentences alone.

When the market tells you they like something you’ve created, consider how you can reimagine it in multiple ways like this:

• Blog post

• Book

• Digital training (sells at scale)

• Keynote (premium pricing)

• Consulting (highest tier)

You are teaching the same idea that the market has validated with increasing options up the value ladder.

So I’m making this digital product called The 90-Day Accelerator.

This digital product will sell for $350. Based on my track record, I know I'll sell at least 5 (that's $1,750), but I've also done multiple $50K launches using this exact strategy selling a product called The Principal Success Path (which was $1500).

So while I can't predict the final number, I know the framework works.

“But Danny, I Don’t Want to Send 10 Emails in a Row.”

This is a mindset challenge for many Former Educator Founders. You think by sending more emails that people will unsubscribe.

And they will.

But what you might not understand is that doesn’t matter because …

They were never going to buy from you anyway 😉

One of my mentors taught me years ago this:

And Ron is right.

My 3-Part Waitlist Strategy

The strategy I am testing for the first time this launch is to build a waitlist for the product launch.

I’m doing this in three ways.

1. Dripping out social and newsletter content to join the waitlist

2. Built a team of affiliates who will send me qualified prospects (one partner sent me 183 leads already)

3. A targeted series of ten “educational” emails (sent one after another)

Here’s the “Educational” Waitlist Emails I’m Testing Now …

Tomorrow I’ll start sending the emails I’m about to teach you to my principal facing business. Currently there are 5,670+ subs on my email list — around 250 people on the waitlist after a few mentions in my newsletter and a partner email.

These first ten emails will go to everyone on the list to grow the waitlist:

Email #1: The Announcement Email

• What: Introduce your product, service, or experience to your audience.

• Why: Set the stage and create initial excitement about what's coming.

Email #2: The Who Email

• What: Clearly define who this product is (and isn't) for.

• Why: As Seth Godin teaches —”Who’s it for?” — being specific about your audience helps the right people self-select into your offer.

Email #3: The Problem Deep Dive

• What: Explore the core problems your audience faces.

• Why: Category Design succeeds when you fall in love with the problem, not the solution. When you nail the problem articulation, people assume you have the solution.

Email #4: The Transformation Story

• What: Paint a vivid picture of desired outcomes ($100K more revenue, finding your soulmate, getting six-pack abs).

• Why: People buy transformation, not features. Show them the future they want.

Email #5: The Origin Story

• What: Share your journey and qualifications.

• Why: Your transformation from old way to new way builds credibility and shows you understand their journey.

Email #6: The Start/Stop Framework

• What: Detail what to stop doing and what to start doing instead.

• Why: Concrete action steps help people envision the change process and their path to success.

Email #7: The Myth Busters

• What: Address the biggest myths and mindset blocks (as taught in The Big Leap).

• Why: Breaking through upper limit challenges removes objections before they become obstacles to purchase.

Email #8: The Quick Wins

• What: Share any number of high-level, actionable tips that create immediate results.

• Why: Demonstrate value and build confidence by helping them achieve small victories.

Email #9: The Common Pitfall

• What: Reveal the biggest mistake you see leaders make.

• Why: Show you understand their struggles and position yourself as the guide who can help them avoid these traps.

Email #10: The Solution Preview

• What: Showcase your templates, tools, and actual course materials.

• Why: Make your digital product tangible and real while building anticipation for the full experience.

That’s it.

A bunch of hard work is next. I’ve poured hours into building this launch, but I feel really good about I’m about to put out.

I can control the quality of the product. I can control the quality of the “educational” emails I write.

I don’t control how many people will buy, but the market will show over the next few weeks.

With each launch my goal is simple — treat it like an experiment and learn from each experiment I run, getting a bit better each time.

I’m Super Curious …

In business and marketing there is something called a “swipe” file — basically a vault of resources to speed up your own content creation.

Would you find it useful for me to put together a “swipe” file of my launch emails so that you could use them as a template to write your own sales emails?

I’m also thinking of creating a custom GPT trained on my emails that you could use to create 85% of your copy — so that you could clean it up, polish, and send out for your next digital launch.

Quick question: Would a launch email swipe file + custom GPT be valuable to you? Let me know below.

(I don’t know what I’d sell these resources for, I just want to see if there would be any interest).