EMAIL COURSE TEMPLATE: FIVE DAYS AND A FOLLOW-UP

Replace everything in [square brackets]. One email each morning, in this order. If your email tool adds the "Day N of 5:" prefix itself, delete it from these subject lines.

---------- DAY 1 ----------
Subject: Day 1 of 5: the one thing to stop doing
Preheader: Two minutes and one piece of paper, and you have started.

Welcome to [the course title]. Five emails, one each morning, and by day five you will have [the outcome].

Here is the thing I want to take away from you first, because it is the belief that makes [the thing you teach] harder than it needs to be: [the common assumption]. It sounds responsible. It is the reason most people stall, and it is the reason the obvious approach does not work.

What is actually true is narrower and more useful: [the reframe, in one sentence]. That is it. Everything in the next four mornings follows from it.

You do not have to believe me yet. Do this instead, and it takes two minutes. Get one piece of paper and write down [the concrete two-minute observation] exactly as it is today, not as you would like it to be. Do not fix anything, do not tidy it, do not look anything up.

That piece of paper is what days two to five work on. If you do nothing else this week, you have still got something you did not have at breakfast.

Tomorrow: the step almost everyone skips, and why skipping it costs more than doing it.

Call to action: Open [the one-page worksheet] and write down [the concrete two-minute observation].

---------- DAY 2 ----------
Subject: Day 2 of 5: the step everyone skips
Preheader: Unglamorous, twenty minutes, and it decides the rest.

Look at the paper from yesterday. Somewhere in it is the thing this email is about.

Almost everyone doing [the thing you teach] skips [the groundwork step], because it produces nothing you can show anybody and takes twenty minutes. Then they spend weeks on the visible part, it does not hold, and they conclude that [the thing you teach] does not work for them.

It does work. It is just that [the groundwork step] is what the visible part stands on. Here is the whole of it.

First, [the first sub-step]. Second, [the second sub-step], which is where people stop, so be warned that it will feel like nothing is happening. Third, [the third sub-step], and then stop. Do not go further today, even if it is going well, because the next part assumes this one has settled.

The test that you have done it properly is [the observable signal]. If you do not see that, the usual cause is [the usual cause], and the fix is [the fix].

Tomorrow is the one people come for: [the main method], written out in full.

Call to action: Do all three sub-steps on [the one-page worksheet].

---------- DAY 3 ----------
Subject: Day 3 of 5: [the main method], in full
Preheader: The middle of the course, and the part you keep.

This is the email to save. Everything else in [the course title] exists to make this one work.

Here is [the main method], start to finish. Begin with [the input you need]. You already have it from days one and two. Then [the first move], which usually takes [the rough time]. Then [the second move]. The order matters: doing them the other way round produces [the wrong result], which looks correct for about a week.

When you are done you should be able to say [the sentence a reader can now say] out loud, and mean it. That sentence is the point of the method. If you cannot say it yet you are missing [the missing input], which is worth going back for rather than pushing through.

Two notes. [the first note], which almost nobody is told. And [the second note], the difference between this working once and working every time.

Tomorrow: the four things that go wrong, and how to spot each of them early.

Call to action: Work through [the main method] on [the one-page worksheet].

---------- DAY 4 ----------
Subject: Day 4 of 5: when it goes wrong
Preheader: Four failure modes, and the early warning for each.

A brochure would not include this email. That is roughly why it is the most useful one.

[the main method] fails in four recognisable ways, and all four are cheap to fix early and expensive to fix late.

The first is [the first failure mode]. The early sign is [the early sign], usually about [the timing]. Fix it by [the fix].

The second is [the second failure mode], the common one. It happens because [the cause], and the tell is [the tell]. Fix: [the fix].

The third is [the third failure mode]. Not your fault and not always fixable; what you do is [the mitigation].

The fourth is doing everything correctly and getting no result for [the waiting period]. That is not a failure mode, it is the normal timeline, and it belongs on this list because it is where people abandon something that was working.

Check your own work against those four before tomorrow. Most people find one.

Call to action: Run the four checks against what you built on [the one-page worksheet].

---------- DAY 5 ----------
Subject: Day 5 of 5: what you have now
Preheader: Where you started, where you are, and one invitation.

Last one. Before you read any of this, go and find the paper from day one.

On day one you had [the starting state]. Today you have [the finished artefact], you know [the main method] well enough to run it again without me, and you know the four ways it goes wrong and what each one looks like early. That is [the outcome], which is what this course promised on the sign-up page.

What to do next week, in one line: [the single next action], then leave it alone for [the interval]. The commonest mistake from here is [the post-course mistake].

And one invitation, the only thing I will ask you for in this course. [the single honest invitation: what it is, who it is for, what it costs, and what happens if they say no.] If it is not for you, that is a complete answer, and the worksheet is yours to keep either way.

Thank you for five mornings. That is more attention than anyone owes a stranger. [your name]

Call to action: [the single honest invitation], stated once, with its price and its shape.

---------- DAY 6 (THE FOLLOW-UP, OUTSIDE THE COUNT) ----------
Subject: One more thing, after [the course title]
Preheader: A question, and what happens to this list now.

You finished [the course title] yesterday. Thank you for five mornings.

One question, and I read every answer: what was the hardest part of the course for you? Hit reply and tell me in a sentence. Those answers decide what the next version fixes.

And what happens now: [one of three, and the same one the sign-up page promised: this list becomes your newsletter and arrives this often; nothing more arrives from this list; or the next thing is coming, and roughly when].

[your name]

Call to action: Reply to this email with the hardest part.

The annotated version, with why each email is shaped the way it is: https://www.5dayemail.com/guides/5-day-email-course-template