Is there an eject button in your emails?
Writing CTA in story-led emails
This might sound familiar.
You found a binge-worthy series on Netflix.
From the pilot episode, you are hooked and fully invested in the story. You recognise yourself in one of the characters, and the challenge they are facing is just so captivating that you don’t want to stop watching (even though it’s 2 am, and you really should get some sleep now).
It’s one of those series you will happily cancel your plans with friends for, just so you can sit with a bowl of crisps (or ice cream) and watch another episode.
You simply HAVE to know what happens next.
Finally, the story is at the point where the tension has been building, the main character has an impossible decision to make, and you are sitting on the edge of your sofa, waiting with the anticipation of what will happen and how the story will end. You’ve enjoyed the rollercoaster ride up to this point, and you are excited for the finale…
And then the spell breaks.
You toss your bowl up in the air with fury, crisps fly everywhere, and you yell at the screen in disbelief, Are you kidding me?!
The ending is… yes… TERRIBLE!
The guy gets the wrong girl, the hero doesn’t defeat the villain, the twist is flat and predictable, and the story just ends. Like the writers took a lunch break and forgot to come back to finish the job.
Game of Thrones is an example of many viewers experiencing that very disappointment. For seven seasons, it was arguably the most ambitious storytelling on television. Audiences watched it and re-watched it. They were invested in a way that most stories never achieve.
Then came Season 8…
The story broke somehow and left the fans unsatisfied. It just stopped being what it was.
Story-led email has the same kind of risk.
It starts with something real that happened. An experience the writer had gone through, or maybe it was their client’s transformation. Either way, it reads great, it has tension, the pace allows you to think for a moment and soak up the emotions the story showed you. You could see yourself in it, and you were genuinely thinking, perhaps this could be me…
And then it said: ‘If this resonates, book a discovery call’.
And you feel like someone pressed an EJECT button, that rudely broke the magic of the story. You had that same temptation to shout seriously? as when you were on that sofa with crisps flying everywhere…
What happened?
The story ended. You – the reader – were following the hero, you were with them the whole way whilst they realised something that changed their perspective or improved their situation in some way, and just as the story reached the emotional connection, it all stopped. The story is over, and we are now doing business.
It feels jarring because you stepped out of your world, and into the story, and at the exact moment where you were right in it, you hear, Cut! Let’s break for lunch.
But what if instead of ending the story and then presenting the ‘business’ option, the CTA was part of the story itself?
What if the writer gave you a choice similar to the one the hero of the story was just facing? Exactly what you were just rooting for the hero to choose?
The story wouldn’t end. It would transition from one character (the hero of the story) to another (you, the reader). The emotional connection the story created would remain intact, and the decision the CTA was asking for would feel logical – like the story has led you to it.
Now there is no EJECT button. You are still being presented with the option to buy or to sign up, but now it makes sense to consider it.
It could look something like this:
Sarah was tired. It was that specific kind of tired when you have done something so many times before and it’s just not getting any easier. Still, it was one of those things that had to be done, so Sarah sat down in front of her computer, sighed heavily, and opened her spreadsheet. Just like she had done every Friday night for years. Accounts. Not exactly a thrilling way to spend Friday night, but she had to check and update every cell. She did it by hand because that was her way of knowing that things were done correctly. You could say it gave her piece of mind, even though she did not enjoy it one little bit.
That particular Friday night, she was making good progress and was getting excited about the idea that perhaps tonight she would get to join her girlfriends for a drink after all. She worked non-stop for 3 hours – not one break. Her coffee had gone cold, and she didn’t even notice. Then it happened. The spinning wheel of Excel not responding… ‘I’ll give it a minute, it’ll sort itself out’ she thought to herself, but five minutes went by, she even managed to finish that cold coffee, and nothing had changed. She knew she had to press that ‘restart’ button, but she also knew that her night just got a lot longer, and the drinks would have to wait another week.
When Excel rebooted, she had tears in her eyes and she swore under her breath, so instead of starting again, she opened the email she had saved a couple of days ago. A 7-day free trial with Count-It software. ‘No more Excel’ she thought as she followed the sign-up steps…
That was three months ago. And Sarah hasn’t missed Friday night drinks since.
If, like Sarah, you are tired of doing things the hard way, just know that this can be your moment to stop the late Friday nights too. What will your decision be?
The story continues, and the CTA is simply the next scene in the story. This is exactly where the power of storytelling lies, but to capture that power, the words themselves have to stay inside the story. Traditional CTA phrases like ‘book now’, ‘don’t miss out’, ‘click here’, or ‘limited spots’ don’t fit. Story-led email requires more creative phrasing. The story has to keep moving; you need to tell the story about the CTA too.
Why does it all matter?
Because the reader doesn’t make a decision to buy in a vacuum. For decades, behavioural research has pointed to the same truth: we don’t choose based on rational evaluation of options. We choose based on who we understand ourselves to be, and a story we tell ourselves about who we want to become after the purchase.
If you spend all that time influencing that internal dialogue with the story-led part of the email, extend that story all the way through, so we can arrive at the decision to buy with the right story in our mind. That’s how you make it easy to say yes.
Where it works best
Not every offer needs a story, but there are instances where it can make a significant difference to making the sale. Let’s have a look at both sides to help you decide if this is something you might want to try in your emails.
Story helps for…
High-consideration decisions.
Something that involves significant commitment – time, money, identity, professional risk. The prospect is already reflecting whether this is something that will give them the future-version of themselves they are looking for. That promotion, that dream house… They’re not looking for a nudge, per se, but more for permission to trust their own instincts. The story-led CTA gives them that. It says someone else stood here, they chose, and here’s what life looks like for them.
Consultative and relationship-based services.
If your work involves ongoing collaboration – coaching, consulting, creative partnership, advisory work of any kind – the way you invite someone into that relationship will set the tone of what it will look like once they choose. A story-led CTA helps you demonstrate how you operate, and how you approach every new sign-up.
Trust-building sequences.
Not every email needs to convert; some emails exist to deepen the relationship, to make the reader feel that you understand something about their situation. In those emails, a story-led CTA doesn’t need to generate a click. It needs to generate a feeling of recognition that accumulates over time and eventually tips into action. It’s a slower game, but the readers who eventually act are the ones who already trust you completely.
Where it fails
Transactional offers.
If you’re selling something time-sensitive, straightforward, or low-consideration – a workshop with a closing date, a product with limited availability, a clear and simple yes or no – the character-choice structure might not be needed. The prospect needs information and a clear next step. Give them that.
When the story isn’t genuinely yours.
The story-led approach only works if the story is real. Engineer a hero for the reader to project onto, and they’ll feel it. Something will be off, and they stop trusting you. A manufactured narrative is manipulation, and it’s not worth it.
When you need volume.
If your goal is a high click-through rate across a large, cold, or loosely segmented list, this is not the tool. The story with built-in CTA is designed to resonate with the right people and wash over everyone else. That’s a feature in a trust-based business. When your metric is aggregate response, a different approach will work better.
When you over-use it.
Perhaps the most practical caveat of all. This structure has genuine power, but if every email in your sequence ends with a character-choice CTA, the cumulative effect stops feeling intentional and starts feeling formulaic. Use it for the moments when it’s truly helping the prospect consider a decision – when the decision is significant enough for the reader to need a little help with carrying its weight.
Your next email could have a story in it. Something that has happened to a client, or something that has changed the way you work. That story can help your reader make up their mind. Let it carry your CTA too, so it can fully support the decision you are asking your prospect to make.
Until next time,
Dot