Introduction to using Claude for email copy teardowns using a specific skill stack.
00:12
Loading Email Teardown
00:40
First Email Teardown
00:42
Second Email Teardown
00:47
Analyzing First Results
11:14
Reviewing Second Results
14:19
Refining the Strategy
Transcript
00:00
what's up y'?
00:01
All?
00:01
In this video, I'm going to get Claude to give me a couple of email copy teardowns using the email teardown skill inside the email story selling skill stack.
00:12
So I've started a new thread inside the demo workspace that I've been using.
00:16
and so I just said load up contacts, I want you to give me some email copy teardowns.
00:20
And so this prompt prompts it to load up the voice profile I've created, my avatar, my ten commandments, my promo calendar and then it can look at all of the other emails that I have already written for it.
00:31
but we're not going to use any of the emails that I've written inside the workspace.
00:35
I've cherry picked some old emails that I've sent to my list that I'm going to have Claude do a tear down for.
00:40
So this first one is one I sent to my list in September of 2024 and the subject line is copy this newsletter growth tactic.
00:47
So this email is about thank you page funnels and the importance of them.
00:51
And the offer is an old product that I had called the seven Figure newsletter swipe file.
00:56
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to just copy and paste this.
01:00
Now one thing to keep in mind is that if you are copying pasting directly from a document like this, bolding, and italics and underline and stuff like that won't carry over, they'll get stripped.
01:11
Whereas if you want to download the document, you know, as a docx or as a markdown, you know, by going to, you know, file download and then choosing the format, in those cases the markdown will carry over.
01:23
but again it's just important to keep in mind because the teardown will flag if there's no formatting whatsoever, right?
01:29
It'll say, hey, there's no formatting.
01:30
It's probably because you copy pasted it.
01:32
But just wanted to let you know.
01:33
So, I'm going to say first email here and then I'm just going to copy and paste the whole thing and we will give that a couple of seconds and you can see it's running the skill and we'll wait for the output.
01:46
All right, that took us about a minute and 20 seconds and now our teardown is coming out here.
01:58
So what Claude is going to do with this teardown is break things down across, you know, sort of what's working, what isn't and what needs to be Fixed, and then, you know, areas for improvement, polish opportunities, things like that.
02:11
So we'll let this finish pumping out here.
02:19
I purposely chose an email that I knew, would get a pretty savage teardown.
02:24
And, yeah, Claude is.
02:27
Claude is not disappointing here.
02:29
Okay.
02:29
All right, so let's take this from the top.
02:31
So, the mode is a teaching email with a mini case study, not full slpc.
02:36
I'm still running story lesson pivot because the email clearly wants a story and has the raw material for one.
02:40
no, there's no persuasion card, so, you know, it's not familiar with the offer that I'm, running in this email.
02:44
But that's fine.
02:45
overall assessment, the idea is genuinely good and the economics argument is clean, but the email teaches the whole tactic and then apologizes its way into a passive PS only sell, which is the exact value email pattern your own commandment number one argues against.
02:57
Okay, so let's start with what's working.
03:00
So there's a couple of green lights.
03:01
Persuasion, standalone value.
03:02
The payback period argument is real and useful.
03:04
A reader who never buys still walks away smarter.
03:06
That's the right instinct.
03:07
Ellipsis, momentum, heavy trailing ellipses carrying line to line.
03:10
That's your fingerprint and it's intact here.
03:12
Open loop into the next send.
03:13
There's another layer I've yet to unpack, but you'll have to wait until Wednesday's email for that is a legitimately good next email hook.
03:18
And it is clean of EM dashes and triplets.
03:20
Okay, now let's talk about critical issues.
03:22
Voice.
03:23
The second and third lines are hard band contrast framing.
03:25
Okay, so that's a bit more of a specific thing where, you know, as part of the skill stack and the way that the teardown is set up, it's designed to flag contrast framing, which of course we all know is, you know, kind of run rampant, with the proliferation of AI tools.
03:41
Whereas, you know, when I wrote this email, Even back in 2024, it wasn't quite as quite, as prevalent.
03:45
And I think, unfortunately it's.
03:47
It's one of those techniques that, you know, I like to use back before, you know, AI again was so prevalent.
03:54
But nowadays, I am using that tactic a lot less simply because it is, you know, such a potent AI tell.
04:01
And it's just, you know, so overused that its impact is, has really been watered down.
04:05
next it says, and now the sales cover 100% of my ad costs.
04:08
Your profile's rule, never brag on a Naked number.
04:10
Every flex arrives wrapped in a joke shrug or a self deprecating aside.
04:13
This one arrives bare.
04:15
so again, this is flagging a specific, rule that I've added to my voice profile about kind, of trying to insert self deprecation, you know, wherever possible.
04:24
Okay, let's move on.
04:26
next, I flagged the story.
04:27
So it says there's a case study, but no moment, all of it.
04:29
I installed a thank you page offer to my newsletter funnel earlier this summer.
04:32
It wasn't a home run right away, but.
04:33
But I spent the last few months optimizing it.
04:35
And now the sales cover.
04:35
A hundred percent of my ad costs 45 words.
04:37
Zero conflict beats zero scene, zero numbers.
04:40
It wasn't a home run.
04:41
Right away is where the entire tension lives.
04:42
And it gets one line before you move past it.
04:44
What was the first version?
04:45
What did it convert at?
04:46
What did you change?
04:47
What change moved it?
04:48
And your best proof number in the whole email is exiled to the PS.
04:51
Explain exactly how I got it to convert at 3 to 3 to 5%.
04:55
The root cause story used as illustration after the teaching instead of as the vehicle.
04:58
Your structure is story first, always.
05:00
This is teaching.
05:00
Teach first.
05:01
Then a receipt stapled on always runs against your standing rule from 7:28.
05:05
Let the story breathe.
05:06
then it provides the fixed direction open on the moment, the version that flopped, the specific thing you change, and the number before and the number after that.
05:11
Let the economics lesson fall out of the story instead of the story proving the lesson, which definitely makes a lot of sense here.
05:17
Okay, next, the cell, the body makes zero ask and the one you do make is passive and competes with a free alternative.
05:22
All the details in the swipe file offer can be found here.
05:24
Can be found here as the weakest construction available.
05:26
It's passive.
05:27
There's no imperative and it's nowhere near your actual CTA setup.
05:29
Worse, the reader's handed two next steps and the free one is easier.
05:32
Wait.
05:32
Wait until Wednesday.
05:33
Oracle Bias wipe file.
05:34
Most will pick Wednesday.
05:36
Then the PS opens by diminishing the thing it's selling.
05:39
It wasn't meant to be the focus of the training, but in hindsight, that one piece alone adds incredible value to the offer.
05:43
You apologize for the bonus bonuses existence before you sell it.
05:47
And incredible value is a hollow intensifier doing no work.
05:51
I love this.
05:52
root cause.
05:53
This is commandment number eight in reverse.
05:55
This email separates content from sales and quarantines the cell in a ps, which is the structure you tell people to use.
06:00
The apologetic framing Is the tell that the cell felt like an intrusion while you were writing it.
06:04
Fixed direction pivot in the body.
06:06
The tease about Wednesday should reinforce the offer, not substitute for it.
06:09
A PS that says more on this on, more on this Wednesday.
06:12
But if you don't want to wait, beats two competing pass kill the apology lead the bonus with the 3 to 5%.
06:18
Use a real anchor like tap here to grab the swipe file.
06:21
Okay, so those are the critical issues.
06:22
Then the things worth improving.
06:23
We'll just kind of rapid fire these.
06:25
the subject line, the opener, the lesson, the rhythm and the repeated parallel flame.
06:30
and then it also flagged a couple of polish opportunities.
06:33
so phrases that could be, you know, improved or polished.
06:36
you can see it flagged the formatting here, so I couldn't, couldn't verify the formatting may have been stripped on a paste.
06:40
There's no bolded lesson, there's no bolded sign off.
06:43
there's no visible link.
06:44
If all three are already set in your sending tool, ignore this.
06:46
If not, the bolded lesson is the cheapest fix on the list.
06:48
And then it's given me a, priority list of fixes.
06:51
So.
06:52
Super valuable.
06:53
Right?
06:53
And it's just crazy because, you know, when I used to do these for coaching clients manually, and I do still do them on rare occasion, but it's just because it's so time intensive for me, you know, it's, it's difficult to kind of justify the payoff.
07:04
Right.
07:05
and unless, you know, the stakes are there to, you know, for it to make sense, it's not something that I'm really that excited to do.
07:11
but it is one of those high value ways for someone to improve their writing.
07:15
Right.
07:15
And you can see why.
07:16
And so the idea that, you know, you can get this in the span of 90 seconds when it used to take me, you know, 45 to 90 minutes is honestly just insane.
07:24
but anyway, I purposely picked that because I knew it was going to be pretty savage and I knew there were a lot of things, that kind of went against the grain in terms of the framework here.
07:31
So let's take a look at another one.
07:33
So this subject line says how to write emails that fly under the radar but still convert.
07:36
So these are, this is, you know, certainly a bit more in line with, you know, my methodology and conventions.
07:43
and so this is a, story, based email about one of my coaching clients making a comment that, you know, about my, subject lines being all lowercase and how they kind of fly under the radar and me sort of explaining my rationale for that.
07:56
And then the offer is my old legacy email story selling MBA program which I don't really promote too much anymore.
08:02
But anyway, I'm going to copy and paste that and grab this and then we will see what Claude has to say about that.
08:07
I'm going to say okay, great, thank you.
08:10
give me a tear down for this email next.
08:15
Okay.
08:15
And I'm just going to paste that same thing and again we'll give it some time to run the skill.
08:24
All right, that took us another, 75 seconds.
08:27
So let's have a read.
08:29
the mode, full slpc.
08:31
This one's built right.
08:31
Structurally, it's flagging that there is no offer card for my email story selling MBA offer.
08:36
But that's fine.
08:37
The overall assessment is that it's much stronger than the last one.
08:40
Genuinely on voice and structurally correct.
08:42
But there's a hard rule triplet sitting in the most prominent passage and the story has no conflict in it at all.
08:47
So as you can see what's working, there are some more green lights in this one, which is great.
08:51
So it's flagged.
08:52
The opener, the lesson, the pivot, the voice, the, agitation and the formatting all as good to go.
08:58
but then it has flagged a couple of critical issues to fix first.
09:00
So the first one is a triplet.
09:02
So it says there's a triplet.
09:03
And it's in the passage that feels most quotable.
09:05
It allows you to sell without feeling salesy, to make offers without being offensive, to pitch without being pushy.
09:10
Three short units in a row, identical syntactic shape and all three alliterate.
09:15
Sell slash salesy, offer slash offensive, and pitch slash pushy.
09:18
That's the hard ban in quad rule number two.
09:20
And the alliteration makes it worse.
09:22
It reads as a copywriter performing rather than a guy talking.
09:24
Your standing rule names as exact failure, quotable, closed loops read as performance.
09:29
The root cause is that the line felt good writing it alliterative.
09:31
Triplets always do.
09:32
That's the trap.
09:33
The fixed direction is to keep one and absorb the rest into prose.
09:36
So instead of having those three short sentences like that, instead writing it lets you sell without feeling salesy, which means you can make an offer on Tuesday and still have people happy to hear from you on Wednesday.
09:46
All right, so that's nice because it's, it's sort of showing instead of telling, right?
09:51
Like this is.
09:51
This is more telling and being kind of repetitive and just sort of like hammering the point home.
09:55
Whereas this is more kind of illustrating the point I'm trying to make.
09:59
Okay, the next thing is the story.
10:00
So it says there's an exchange, but no conflict, nobody wants anything, nothing is at stake and nothing changes.
10:05
A client observes something, you agree, he makes a joke.
10:07
That's an anecdote, not a story.
10:09
Worse, you interrupt your own scene to teach.
10:12
This pairs nicely with the story driven email format I teach, which leans on my personality values and day to day experiences.
10:16
Instead of stuffy educational content or never ending sales pitches, three of the Seven lines aren't story.
10:21
Their methodology explanation dropped mid scene, and they preempt the lesson you're about to deliver two beats later.
10:26
And the biggest miss.
10:27
Your story is about a coaching client and you get zero proof out of him.
10:30
He exists purely to feed you the fly under the radar line.
10:33
What did he do after that call?
10:34
Did he switch to lowercase?
10:35
Did anything move?
10:36
You had a live proof asset sitting in the anecdote and used him as a straight man.
10:41
Okay, I don't know what that means.
10:42
That's.
10:43
That sounds like one of those, like, AI isms where, like, you know, you're like, okay, that was not written by a human.
10:48
but I get what it's.
10:49
What it's getting at, right?
10:50
Which is that, like, it was a.
10:51
He was kind of like the client in that, email was sort of like a prop to just kind of like, set up the point I wanted to make.
10:56
And there wasn't really a lot of, you know, traditional kind of narrative elements there.
11:00
So the root cause is again, the anecdote was picked because it produced a quotable phrase, not because it had tension.
11:06
Classic retrofit.
11:06
It also runs against your standing rule to let the story breathe with real detail and reaction.
11:10
Beats.
11:10
Right?
11:11
So this is another thing that will show up as you begin to work inside your workspace and you begin to establish rules, right?
11:17
So like, when something comes out and you're like, hey, I don't like that, or I don't want it to do that, you don't have to just, like, let it fly.
11:23
You can say, hey, don't do that anymore.
11:24
Right?
11:25
Cut that out and tell it to establish a rule so that it doesn't keep doing that.
11:29
Right?
11:29
And then over time, your, Your, rule set will grow.
11:33
And then when you, when you run an email copy, tear down like this, it will not just run the tear down against kind of like the basic email story selling formula.
11:41
It will also apply to your specific voice profile and any standing rules you've established.
11:46
All right, so the fixed direction here.
11:48
Pull the three methodology lines out entirely and let them live in the lesson section where they belong at a time anchor, like on a laser call last month, beats recently.
11:55
Then give the client an outcome, even a small one, so the story ends somewhere instead of just stopping, which definitely makes sense.
12:00
then when it comes to the call to action, it says the conditional stack is structurally right, but it lands on pain in the two rungs immediately before the link.
12:06
Your standing rule close on gain, not fear, default.
12:08
the CTA and close to upside and aspiration.
12:10
So this is something I added recently which is more applicable to just the, you know, kind of where I'm at right now and the sequence that I'm working on right now as opposed to just kind of like a blanket statement.
12:19
but it's, but it's flagging those two things being in conflict with each other.
12:23
Then it also flagged a whole bunch of things that are worth improving.
12:26
So the subject line, 12 words lowercase and the air quoted phrase is genuinely good because it comes from the story, but the parenthetical is bolted on to do the curiosity work.
12:34
The main clause should be doing and how to write emails promises method.
12:37
While the body delivers a worldview, the fixed direction is the paradox.
12:40
Is your real hook here something built on sell every day and have people like you more for it test better than a how to frame the email doesn't honor.
12:46
Which yeah, makes sense.
12:47
Definitely something I could test into, with the P.S.
12:50
it says the right function, wrong build, so the product is not cheap.
12:53
That's because it contains everything I've learned about email story selling or the last nine years in the trenches during which I've helped clients generate a plus figures in sales.
13:00
so it says three sentences in one block, which breaks your standing rule, that every paragraph should sit on its own line.
13:05
And eight figures in email sales is another naked flex with no shrug or joke behind it.
13:09
Plus it's a clean round figure.
13:10
Your rule prefers ugly specifics.
13:12
The fixed direction is to break into three lines, swap eight figures for the actual ugly number if you have it, and wrap it, in, in a, you know, kind of self deprecating, parenthetical, compressed, closer.
13:23
A natural extension of the conversation rather than the reason for its existence.
13:26
That's literary register drifting toward the polished corporate zone.
13:28
And it's a compressed clever line where your 728rul says restate both halves plainly fixed direction, say it in plain, two plain lines instead of one elegant one.
13:36
There's no urgency and the standalone value is thin.
13:39
The only concrete takeaway a non buyer gets is right lowercase subject lines.
13:41
Everything else is belief.
13:42
That's the right side of the free versus paid boundary.
13:44
But commandment number four says entertainment is the value when you're not teaching and the story isn't entertaining enough to carry that load.
13:49
See the conflict problem above.
13:51
Fix the story and this fixes itself.
13:53
The polish opportunities Master the art and science of style guru phrasing wildly profitable bond never ending.
13:59
Recently so anyway, it's flagged a couple of, you know, specific kind of tactical polishing opportunities, that I have there.
14:05
and then of course it's flagged the formatting because I pasted it in.
14:08
And the priority fixed summary, which is to kill the triplet, give the story conflict and give the client an outcome and flip the CTA stack close on game.
14:15
Now what do you think would happen if you ran this skill before every single email went out to your list?
14:21
How much better do you think your emails would perform?
14:23
My bet is a lot better.
14:26
And that's the beauty of having this built inside your skill stack workspace.
14:30
So if you would like to have a copy chief in your pocket and be able to get effectively unlimited email teardowns so that you can improve the performance of your emails and just get a whole heck of a lot better at email story selling, right?
14:45
At coming up with ideas, at connecting the dots and at, you know, converting those into sales, then I recommend you grab the skill stack below.