The $20,000 “soup kitchen” email

I recently made a client $20k with one email by sending directly to a checkout page (no sales page or product page).

And I figured you’d like to know how I did it, so you can use it for your own business or for your clients' businesses. 

So today I’m gonna walk you through that email, how it works, and how you can use it too.

First, the reason this email converts so well, is because it follows this cool “buyer's thermostat" technique I’ve developed…

Which, basically has to do with how much selling takes place in the sales page vs. the email. 

I’ll do a deeper dive into the buyer's thermostat technique next week.

For today, though: I’ll just talk about the $20k soup kitchen email.

Let’s dive in…

This soup kitchen email is pretty much like a sales page email.

And the reason it’s such a good email to use in your businesses’ email campaigns…

And the reason my clients like this email a lot, too, is because you can basically generate the same amount of email revenue as you normally would, but without having to set up a sales page or offer page or whatever. 

Now, for context…

Maybe you’ve heard of people using “Google docs” as sales pages before?

Maybe not?

Regardless, the soup kitchen email is basically that same philosophy. 

But there’s a particular style that I’ve found works. 

I’m gonna give you the structure of the email.

If I copy/pasted the email in here it might get clipped, and there’d be little room for me to teach it.

However, at the bottom of this email there’s a link where you can get access to the exact soup kitchen email I used, plus a fill-in-the-blanks template version of it. 

Here’s the structure of it, though. 

First, you want to have a unique curiosity subject line. 

I have an entire guide on subject lines that you can read here. 

But envision it, the subject line, is your “headline” of your sales page. 

We’re not using a sales page here, remember? 

But we still need to follow the same conversion principles across the entire funnel. 

The difference is the delivery style.

(think of it like using an email sales page vs. a sales page sales page.) 

For me, I said:

“Were you there? This open house moment was unreal!” 

Next, the opening line, is your “hook”. 

The hook is your “lead” of the sales page. 

Get their attention immediately and get them to keep reading. 

You want them to keep reading to get more information, where you’ll take them through the sales process. 

For me it was like, 

“You wouldn’t believe what just happened at our recent event…

It was an absolute game changer for everyone who attended, and I wanted to make sure you could experience what we all did.”

This hook works, because it’s a guru list, and it’s playing on the fear of missing out. 

Essentially, this incredible thing happened, and by saying, “wanted to make sure you could experience it too”…

We’re basically framing the email as a unique chance for them to not miss out on what all of their peers got to experience. 

Lol. 

That’s what gets them to wanna keep reading…

This might all sound really simple, but it’s crucial to not deviate—seriously. 

So, thus far…

We’ve covered:

Subject line = headline
Hook/opening line = your lead

Next, you go into the offer. 

For the next 48 hours. 

This gives urgency. 

Then, lastly, we lay down the offer itself. 

This is called our “offer section.”

And we list the offer, basically, the same way we would on the sales page. 

Maybe you’ve seen the value stack before on sales page? 

Ya know like those pages that say…

“Here’s what you will get:” 

• Bullet 1

• Bullet 2

• Bullet 3

And so on… 

Now, we’ve covered:

Subject line = headline
Hook/opening line = lead
Urgency = (a way to bridge to the offer)
Offer section = value stack

Lastly, we give the option to buy. 

But the most important part:

Is what you ACTUALLY say in the call to action. 

Do not say “learn more” or “get all the details” or something like that. 

No.

You say “Buy Now”

You wouldn’t say learn more on the button of a sales page right? 

So, this is literally your buy button. 

What I like to do literally is:

>> Buy now for just $xxx $xxx (save $xxx)

Does this make sense? 

So one last time:

Subject line
Hook
Urgency
Offer Stack
Buy now link

In that order. 

You’re basically creating a mini sales page in your email. 

I’ve done this across many niches. 

And I’ve tested different variants. 

Some are longer, some are shorter, this one gets right to the point, while still checking all the right conversion boxes. 

I hope this was eye-opening for you, cause this is a great email that’s worked multiple times for 7, 8 and 9-figure businesses. 

If you want to get the exact email used, plus a fill-in-the-blank template version, click below:

>> Get the fill-in-the-blank $20,000 soup kitchen email template here

(it’s a paid product, but it’s easily worth it and will save you tons of writing and thinking time)

See you next week,
Matt

P.S. That link to the soup kitchen email template includes 6 other templates as well, all of which are used by 7, 8, and 9-figure course and info businesses.

Check them out here, plus get your soup kitchen email template.

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