Have you ever used a writing prompt to get beyond the blank page?
They’re really useful, especially when you’re sitting there, staring at your screen, wondering what on earth you can say that is actually worth saying to your subscribers.
The point of a writing prompt is to give you somewhere to start. The rest is where you let your creativity and expertise flow.
Why Start with a Writing Prompt for Your Nurture Email?
The most common complaint I get from business owners about writing weekly nurture emails is “I never know what to write.”
Then, they usually describe the same scenario of sitting down at their computer, opening a blank document, and staring at the screen until they get frustrated and give up.
This happens every single week. Sometimes for weeks on end. Which is why, they then tell me, they gave up on the idea of email marketing.
I’ll be honest. Starting with a blank screen is hard.
I do it regularly because it’s part of my job. But I usually have somewhere to start in mind before I open that blank document. I’ve either done research on a specific subject that a client wants me to write about, or I’m writing part of an ongoing campaign, so there’s a theme that’s easy to follow.
If you don’t make your living as a copywriter, spending your days at the computer, pounding out words onto the page because you’re on deadline and (believe it or not) this is your idea of fun… Starting that weekly nurture email can be a struggle.
That’s why I love writing prompts.
It’s a simple idea, sentence, or story that gets the juices flowing. Then you can see where the writing prompt takes you.
Here is an example of a generic subject line and writing prompt from my list of 30 Subject Lines to Keep Your Subscribers Opening and Reading Every Email.
You can see that, even though this is a generic prompt, you can take it in lots of different directions, depending on your situation and your business.
The beauty of a writing prompt is every business owner who uses it to write their nurture email will come up with an idea that is unique to them. Whatever they write will resonate with their people, because those people are coming to this business because they have the same (or a similar) problem.
What Makes a “Good” Writing Prompt?
Anything can be a “good” writing prompt if it stimulates your imagination and gets your creative juices flowing.
I have written nurture emails from lines of poetry and things I’ve heard on the news.
What matters is that the writing prompt stimulates an idea you can use for whatever you want to write about. In this case, it’s the subject for your weekly nurture email.
Good places to find writing prompts include:
- Sentences or paragraphs in something you’ve read recently
- A snippet of a conversation you overheard
- News stories about something relevant to your business or industry
- Comments friends make about your business
- Questions people ask about your product or service
- AI-generated ideas based on your business, like you’ll get from my Custom Subject Line Generator
How to Use a Writing Prompt to Write Your Weekly Nurture Email
First, select a writing prompt to work from.
Then write down 3-5 ideas that come to you after you read the writing prompt.
Yes, there’s a trick to this.
Instead of just looking at the writing prompt, really read it for a moment. Dissect the words and figure out how they apply to your business and your product or service.
Then write down whatever pops into your mind.
Yes, everything.
Even that thought that makes you go, “No one wants to hear about that!”
Because you don’t know if that’s true. There may be people who really want to know about “that”, whatever “that” is. People are curious. If there is a good story behind this weird thought of yours, your subscribers will want to hear it.
And you’ll be sharing something that is unique to you and your business, all while showing your subscribers who you are. This builds the relationship between you, as well as your trust, authority, and expertise with your subscribers.
Once you’ve got your list (including “that” one) choose one of the ideas and start writing.
If you’re just starting to write weekly nurture emails, I recommend going with the easiest idea first. Whenever possible, reach for the low-hanging fruit. Every successfully written email will encourage you to write more of them.
In every email, make sure you find a way to relate your subject back to your business, your industry or your product or service. That will keep your messaging consistent and remind your subscribers of why they joined your email list in the first place.
The better you get at writing regularly, the more confident you’ll feel about doing it every week.
As you strengthen your writing muscles, come back to those weird ideas you wrote down every time you use this exercise. Write nurture emails from one or two of those and see how it feels. Then send them to your subscribers and see what kind of results you get. You may be pleasantly surprised.
“What If I Need More Direction Than This?”
“This is all well and good for you, Tanya.” I hear you grumble.
“You’re a trained copywriter and email marketing strategist. You’ve got a degree in creative writing. You can do this all day long. It’s a lot harder for me to pull ideas out of my brain and get them onto the page coherently.”
I get it. I truly do.
Having an idea and figuring out how to turn that into a nurture email that relates back to your product or service can be a challenge. Especially when it comes to structuring the email and figuring out what to say next.
That’s why I set up my Custom Subject Line Generator to include writing prompts that are specific to your business, and give you a simple flow you can follow to write your nurture emails.
Here’s an example of one of those subject lines and writing prompts. Ironically, it’s about writer’s block.
As you can see, the writing prompt gives you the basic structure of the email, based on your business. In my case, it’s based on the very problem the Custom Subject Line Generator was created to solve, not knowing what to write in your nurture emails.
The great thing about my Custom Subject Line Generator is that you can use it whether or not you know what you want to write about.
You’ll enter some basic information about your business, including:
- Who you are
- What you sell
- Who you serve
- Your business’s tone of voice
Then there’s an option to enter a weekly topic. So, if you know you want to talk about why bananas are considered a superfood, but you don’t know where to start, the Custom Subject Line Generator will give you 3 subject lines and writing prompts on that subject. (I totally made that up as an example. I have no idea whether bananas are a superfood or not.)
If you don’t have any ideas on what to write about, the Custom Subject Line Generator will deliver 3 subject lines and writing prompts based on your business, who you serve, and what you sell.
Either way, you’ll have a place to start, a direction to go in, and a basic structure. Then you can use your own creativity and expertise to write a nurture email your subscribers will love, and that will help them see how your product or service will help them.
You’ll build credibility and trust with your subscribers; they’ll keep opening your emails and ultimately become customers.
Everybody wins.
Give it a try for yourself. Get 3 subject lines and writing prompts customized to your business and use one of them to write your nurture email this week.
I hope these subject lines and writing prompts get your creative juices flowing, so you can bust through that “I never know what to write” barrier and serve your subscribers with exactly what they need to solve their problems. Then they’ll become customers and support your business, just as you support them to reach their goals.
Finally, this week’s landscape image is a Least Sandpiper who was hanging out on the rocks at Seaward Beach here in Ventura. It was the least I could do to share it with you. (Pun intended. Sorry, it had to be done.)
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