Email Copy Breakdown Exercise. Day 1 - Copywriting Fundamentals Workshop

I just wanna share this little exercise I did as demonstrated in Day 1 of Matthew Volkwyn’s 5-day Copywriting Fundamentals workshop where you learn how to break down copy, understand its working parts, and create templates you can use for future assignments.

This particular email is from a newsletter of a copy coach which I modified liberally for everyone’s consumption. Here ya go.

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Subject line: you notice it too?

I’m noticing something, [FName]…

Brands are getting weirder and weirder.

And I think I know why.

You notice it too? Brands are getting bolder. Their copy is getting cheekier. Stranger. A little more unhinged. And I don’t think that’s happening by accident!!

This revolution in marketing is brought about by you guessed it:

The desire to fight AI slop in a sea of incredibly cheap and fast-to-produce content that have flooded the Internet.

And here it is: brands are starting to rebel against it.

See, what’s happening now is if a brand posts say a perfectly structured, polite, corporate copy or caption, we instantly assume it was automated by an AI agent. We immediately think, “Yeah, AI wrote that.”

And it’s not just a theory!!

A Wordpress Study revealed that 60% of consumers find brands using AI in their messaging a MAJOR TURN-OFF.

That’s why these days, brands are going the complete opposite direction.

To prove there is a real, living human behind the keyboard, brands are resorting to weirdness, bizarre humor, even as little as typos (basically things an AI wouldn't logically generate).

Examples, you say?

Vagisil’s “What’s in my vag?”
“Flat white or f*ck off”
Etsy’s “One Jeff should not rule commerce”

And you know what, if you think about it, it’s not the first time we’re seeing this happen. Look outside marketing and you’ll see the same pattern everywhere.

In fashion. In music. In design. In culture.

When everything starts looking and sounding the same, being a little weird is how you prove you’re human.

While you’re here, do you know of any brand or ads that are getting weirder, freakier, and unhinged as hell? Go reply to this email and let’s nerd out about it!

Your coach,

Ruffio

P.S. A hill I will die on: The answer to AI slop isn't to stop using AI altogether. It's to stop settling for the first predictable thing it spits out.

That's why CopyDaze was trained to help YOU find the best possible angle and write copy with more kick + personality. I’ve taught all of my copywriting frameworks, sales psychology strategies, and storytelling techniques to it.

This is THE closest thing you can get to cloning my copywriter brain.

So if you want a little piece of my copywriter brain in your laptop, reply “COPYDAZE” and I’ll send you access. :)

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Here is the formula I squeezed from the email after pulling the copy apart.

“Market Sentiment Shifts + Trojan Horse P.S. Email”

“Lazy” subject line. Address the reader with an intriguing remark.
Reveal (of a trend, industry relevant issue etc) provide context. Repeat lazy subject line.
Elaborate / build up . Drop proof from a study or survey.
Highlight observation along with real-world examples.
Circle back and reinforce the idea and benefit.
Low friction engagement CTA (reply to email) and sign off.
Double CTA in the post script as a soft sell product offer (piggyback on same reply mechanism).

Now I have another reference to use when I need to write an email or whatnot.

Turning the email into a skeleton makes it easier to understand the copy then identify sections that feature conversion, ideation, and prompting action. Use the formula as a framework you can fill in and create new copy.

If you still haven't started on the Copywriting Fundamentals workshop yet, I suggest you haul your ass to the classroom right now and go through the course. It should help you fix copywriting blind spots you have or give you a new level of perspective in analyzing high performance copy… so you can improve your skillsets and demand higher rates from your clients.

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Email Copy Breakdown Exercise. Day 1 - Copywriting Fundamentals Workshop