Hi there,

In Chapter 3 — wow, time flies — we're going to break down the emails themselves. We'll cover...

• Email Structure (what are the components of a great course email?)

• Body Copy Structure (readability is surprisingly tactical)

• Style and Voice (metaphor, Q&A, narrative, humor)

• My writing process (because why not)

You're going to do a lot of writing

The best courses support students in the creation of artifacts — which is a fancy word for "stuff". As I mentioned at the end of Chapter 2, over the next few days, you're gonna write one of your course emails. Not only that, you're gonna re-write it two times. Yes, I'm cruel. And yes, cruelty, in this instance, is good for you.

Remember those comments I made back in Chapter 1 about the 80/20 rule?

We're living that in this chapter (we lived in the last chapter as well, but content creation is where hard work and effort will carry you into your EBC utopia).

We'll kick off your first "assignment" after the next email

For now, I want you to find some time on your calendar — 30 minutes or so — where you'll be able to spend some time writing, without distractions (that means no Twitter, LinkedIn, or other attention-snatching vices).

Remember: we're trying to create an amazing inbox learning experience

The inbox presents certain constraints. People expect to dedicate a limited amount of time to your emails (rarely more than a few minutes, but almost always more than two). If they're going to keep coming back (and even better, if they're going to look forward to your content), your emails need to accomplish the following:

1. they must create the sensation of learning

2. they've gotta entertain

The sensation of learning is achieved by using techniques and frameworks that focus on content structure (I've beaten the idea of setting expectations to death by this point — it's a big one, but not the only one).

Entertainment, on the other hand, emerges from your ability to build "voice" into your writing. Structure is easier than voice. Voice takes practice, time, and consistency.

I sounded like myself after about 25,000 words

That doesn't mean my EBC wasn't effective or valuable to my customers, it just meant that I hadn't yet fulfilled my email-course destiny. This is "Mastering the Email-Based Course", after all.

We'll be taking another step towards email course mastery in the next email.