Hey, hey Reader,

A client of mine shared the sentence every marketer loves to hear:

“That email you wrote booked several demos.”

And the best part was that this email didn’t ask for a demo in the call to action.

There was no sales language, pitch, ‘schedule a call’.

Zip, nada, nothin’.

Just a simple, story-driven email built on a framework I come back to again and again.

So today for our final Anti-Black Friday series, I want to give you that framework.

1. Start with one person and one moment.

Use a story your audience recognizes immediately.

• A student avoiding writing
• A teacher drowning in paperwork
• An admin overwhelmed by tools

2. Name the shift in one clear sentence.

Something changed for this person so state it plainly.

• “She finally spoke up.”
• “He stopped avoiding writing.”
• “The team got aligned.”

3. Add one real quote.

This is the emotional anchor.

In the email, it was a student quote that tied to the product’s value prop.

One raw line hits harder than a paragraph of polished marketing.

4. Add a tiny bit of helpful context

This part instantly makes the email warmer and more useful.

My client isn’t based in the US, so we needed an actual decoder to build background knowledge. But consider what’s most important in understanding the context.
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5. End with one simple CTA… that leads to the story, not the sale.

Avoid Book a demo, See our newest feature, or Start your trial.

Instead open loop your CTA so they have to click and close the loop: “See what happened next.”

When the CTA sends them to a human moment, the action feels natural, which is why demos happen without being asked for.

And guess how many words were in this email?
84.

If you can keep these emails between 70-100 words, you’re in a sweet spot.

You can also stretch one story across 3 short emails:

Email 1 — The Before​
Set the scene. What was happening? What were they struggling with? What did it feel like?
​Close with: “Tomorrow I’ll share what shifted.”

Email 2 — The Shift​
Zoom in on the turning point. Use the real quote or the moment things changed.
​Close with: “And then things got interesting…”

Email 3 — The After​
Show the outcome simply: more writing, less overwhelm, more clarity, more confidence.
​End with a soft CTA: “Watch the story.” / “See the moment for yourself.”

This concludes my Anti-Black Friday series. I hope you and yours have a wonderful week.

Whether you’re celebrating Thanksgiving or not, I am grateful for your readership and support.

And as always, I'm rooting for you, Kelly

PS. If you’re looking to strengthen your email strategy and you want to build out sequences to nurture and build trust, you can join EdTech Email Alchemy now.

Price is going up December 15th. You can lock in current pricing. Get the details here.​