This Black Friday - Sell with stories

The framework for my most successful email template

Author

Tim Hanson
November 26, 2025

Day 284/100

 

Hey—It's Tim. 

Black Friday is in 3 days and you know what that means.

Emails.
A lot of emails.
I’m praying for your inbox.

We sent 2 a day for 12 days last year.
24 emails in 12 days.

And you know what? It worked.

I had someone tell me “why are you sending so many emails?”
They could have unsubscribed…
And then I checked 2 days later. They had signed up.

Everyone's going to be doing it.

Your competitors. Your vendors. Every SaaS you've ever signed up for.

So do it too.

But here's the thing:
Most Black Friday emails are just feature lists with a discount code slapped on.

"50% off our Pro plan! Features include: X, Y, Z. Use code SAVE50."

Boring.

Here's what works better:

A story.
Not a case study.
Not a testimonial with bullet points.

A story with a person, a problem, and a transformation.

We ran a story email last year. I run at least one with every promotion. And they print money. Here is my go to story framework.

How To Sell With A Story (The 5-Step Structure)

Step 1: X had a problem

Introduce the character. Give them a name if you can (real person is best).
State their problem clearly. Make it specific.

Example:
Sarah is a content marketer at a 50-person SaaS company.

Every December, she makes the same promise to herself: "Next year, I'm getting ahead of content."

Every January, she's scrambling.
No plan. No topics lined up. No content calendar.
Just panic-publishing 2-3 blogs a month and hoping they rank.

By February, she's already behind.

Step 2: X couldn't fix it

Agitate the pain. Show what happens when they try to solve it themselves.
Make it worse before you make it better.

Example:
Sarah knows she should be publishing 10 blogs a month.

That's what her competitors are doing.
That's what her boss expects.
But she's one person.

And every blog takes 6 hours if she wants it to actually be good.
She can't write 10 blogs a month without working weekends.

She tried.

It lasted 3 weeks before she burned out and rage-quit at 11pm on a Sunday.

Step 3: They tried everything...

Show all the solutions they attempted. Explain why each one failed.
This discards your competitors without naming them.

Example:
Sarah tried hiring a freelance writer.
$200 per blog. 4 blogs a month.

The drafts came back sounding like they were written by someone who'd never used the product.

Because they hadn't.
She spent 4 hours editing each one anyway.

So she tried an agency.
$4,000 a month for 8 blogs.
Better quality. Still didn't sound like her company's voice.

Still needed 2 hours of editing per post.

So she tried AI writing tools.
Jasper. Copy.ai. The ones everyone talks about.

After she spend hours building out workflows, the content came out fast.
It also came out sounding like a robot having a stroke.

Her boss asked "Did AI write this?"
Yes. Obviously.

Back to square one.

Step 4: Then they found this...

Introduce your solution. But don't lead with features.
Lead with what it let them DO.

Example:
Then Sarah found the 30-Day Content Challenge.

Not another tool subscription.
Not another "figure it out yourself" course.

30 days of someone telling her exactly what to do. Every single day.

Day 1: Here's how to pick your topics.

Day 5: Here's how to outline all 10 blogs.

Day 12: Record yourself talking about blog #3. Upload it. Watch it turn into a draft.

Day 20: Edit it to 85+ VIBE and Float in 20 minutes.

Day 25: Publish all 10. Set up your internal linking.

Plus:

Weekly calls where someone reviews her work and tells her what to fix.

A Slack channel where she can ask "is this good enough?" and get an actual answer.

Software (Penfriend) that gives her feedback right next to each sentence. Not vague "make it more human" advice. Specific: "This sentence is 52 words. Split it. Readers lose focus after 25."

30 days. 10 blogs. Built together.

Not alone. Not guessing.
With a system she can repeat every month.

Step 5: Now they're happy because...

Show the outcome. The transformation. The new state.
Sell them who they become, not what they get.

Example:
By December 25th, Sarah has 10 published blogs.
That sound like her.
That she's actually proud of.

That rank in Google and show up in ChatGPT.

But more importantly:

  • She has a system.

  • She knows how to go from idea → published in 2 hours now.

  • She knows how to use Interview Mode (talk for 15 minutes, get a draft).

  • She knows how to edit to 85+ VIBE/Float (the scores that mean it's ready).

  • She knows how to structure her content calendar for Q1.

January 1st, she's not scrambling.

She's a week ahead.
She publishes her 15th blog on January 2nd.
And her boss says: "How are you shipping so fast?"
She doesn't tell him about the challenge.

She just smiles.

The Full Story (Summarized)

Sarah is a content marketer who starts every January behind.
No plan. No content calendar. Just panic-publishing 2-3 blogs a month.

She tried freelancers ($200/blog, needed 4 hours of editing).
She tried an agency ($4,000/month, didn't sound like her company).
She tried AI tools (fast but sounded like a robot, VIBE score: 34).

Nothing worked.

Then she found the 30-Day Content Challenge.
30 days of daily emails telling her exactly what to do.
Weekly calls reviewing her work.

Penfriend giving her sentence-level feedback (not vague advice).

By December 25th: 10 published blogs + a repeatable system.
By January 1st: She's ahead for the first time in 3 years.

That's the transformation.

From "scrambling every January" to "ahead before January even starts."

Why This Story Structure Works

1. It's about a person, not a product

Nobody cares about your product.
They care about people who are like them.

Sarah is relatable. She's every content marketer reading this.

2. It agitates every solution they've tried

Freelancers? Expensive and need editing.
Agencies? Better but still not your voice.

AI tools? Fast but robotic.

You just disqualified your competitors without naming them.

3. It shows what your solution enables, not what it includes

Not: "The challenge includes 30 emails, 4 calls, and Penfriend access"

But: "Sarah knows how to go from idea → published in 2 hours now"

One is features. One is transformation.

4. The ending sells an identity

"How are you shipping so fast?"

That's who they want to be.

The person who ships fast.

The person who's ahead.

The person their boss is impressed by.

Sell them that.

Now Here's The Cheeky Part

That story?

That's not hypothetical.

That's the exact Black Friday offer I'm running this week.

The 30-Day Content Challenge.

It starts December 2nd.
30 daily emails. 4 weekly calls. Private Slack. 20 Penfriend articles.

We build 10 blogs together. You walk away with a system to ship 10/month.

$197 with code EARLYBIRD

Plus personal onboarding from me.

Plus we do your keywords together before Day 1.

You start a week ahead of everyone else.

After tomorrow:

$297 (no code, no onboarding bonus)

After Monday December 1st:

Closed. Can't join mid-challenge.

Code: EARLYBIRD

So yes, I just taught you how to sell with a story.

By selling you with a story.

Meta? Sure.

Effective? Also yes.

See you Thursday.

✌️ Tim "storyseller" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

Same brain, different platforms: X, Threads, LinkedIn.

P.S. The structure works for any offer

Replace Sarah with your customer.
Replace "content challenge" with your product.
Replace "10 blogs" with your outcome.

Same 5 steps:

  1. X had a problem

  2. X couldn't fix it

  3. They tried everything (discard other solutions)

  4. Then they found this (your solution)

  5. Now they're happy because (the transformation)

Use this for your Black Friday emails.

Or any emails.
Stories sell better than feature lists.
Always have. Always will.

P.P.S.
Yes, I know what I did here
I taught you the structure. Then used the structure on you.

In the same email.

That's called "showing your work."
You're welcome.

 

Penfriend.ai
Made by content marketers. Used by better ones.
 

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