Creative vs. Conversion Copy: 

Nikki: They’re just supposed to make people drool enough until they buy. 

 0:03: That’s how they make money. 

 0:04: Welcome to Email swipes, where we peek behind the scenes at the emails that catch your attention and earn their place in your swipe file. 

 0:11: Every other week, we’ll talk to an email expert about an experiment they ran, and in the following episode, we’ll dive into the strategies and methods used in the email so you can inform and inspire your own email work. 

 0:21: I’m Miki Elvas, the copywriter behind winning emails for 8 and 9 figure sassin e-commerce brands like Shopify, For Sigmatic, and Sprout Social. 

 0:29: And I know that hearing the background stories to these emails will help you turn pie in the sky insights into plug and play actions. 

 0:35: Ready to make inspiration tactical? 

 0:37: Let’s go. 

 0:38: First, a quick recap of the email we discussed last week that we’ll be digging into today. 

 0:44: Gone tomorrow at midnight. 

 0:46: 2 times coffee plus 2 times matcha. 

 0:49: Save a latte. 

 0:50: Shake up your afternoon. 

 0:52: Ultimate smoothie kit, €99. 

 0:55: Save €111. 

 0:57: Up to 50% off is still on. 

 1:00: Pick faves. 

 1:02: Your questions answered. 

 1:03: Do they taste like mushrooms? 

 1:05: Nope. 

 1:06: Functional mushrooms don’t taste anything like portobello or crimini. 

 1:09: They have a slightly earthy flavor that you can’t even taste with all the other superfood ingredients like coffee, cacao, or protein. 

 1:18: I mentioned that I took on this project despite it not being a perfect fit because For Sigmatic is such a cool brand. 

 1:25: This idea is something I picked up from my friend and colleague Mi. 

 1:28: She has 4 F reasons that give you quote unquote permission to take on clients who don’t fit your normal roster. 

 1:36: The 4 reasons are friends. 

 1:38: If the client is a friend or family member and you want to do them a favor, finance, they’re paying really well. 

 1:44: Fun, it’s just a super fun project or client and flaunt. 

 1:47: It’ll look really good in your local bar if you could say that you’ve worked with them. 

 1:51: The 4 F’s are a fun little decision helper, and they helped me be comfortable stepping out of my comfort zone. 

 1:58: By the way, Mal digs into this idea in her program, The Profitable Freelancer. 

 2:02: You can check it out in the show notes. 

 2:04: So take away number one, sometimes it’s OK to take on projects that you are overqualified for or are not so up your alley, if you’ve got a solid reason for doing so. 

 2:13: Our next takeaway is a hotly contested topic between creatives. 

 2:17: What’s better? 

 2:18: Creative copy or conversion copy? 

 2:20: And honestly, the best copy combines both. 

 2:24: Creative copy, that is just pretty words, doesn’t necessarily justify its presence. 

 2:28: And on the flip side, data shouldn’t mean boring. 

 2:31: I wish more creative copywriters would realize this, that the data is not about hindering or limiting our creativity, that there is a huge difference between being data driven and purely spouting data. 

 2:42: Sure, there are instances where you aren’t aiming for action, like when you’re trying to build brand awareness. 

 2:47: This is typically where creative copywriters get up on their soapboxes, but there is no reason that we can’t be using voice of. 

 2:53: Customer digging into the real pain points or motivators to form resonant creative copy. 

 2:58: That sucker punches brand awareness right in the customer’s prefrontal cortex. 

 3:02: So take away#2, the best conversion copy takes your breath away. 

 3:06: Sure, it’s data driven, but it’s gorgeously creative. 

 3:10: There should be a marriage between the two worlds of creative copy and conversion copy, no matter our project goals. 

 3:16: This leads me to our next takeaway, to the way a lot of e-commerce companies view conversion emails. 

 3:21: They think that conversion emails are plain text emails, that every so often, personal emails, 1 to 1 plain text style emails about sale extensions or product launches, those are the conversion emails. 

 3:32: And the pretty typical e-commerce HTML emails, sure, they’re supposed to make money, but in their minds, they’re not supposed to be persuasive or give any information. 

 3:40: They’re just supposed to make people drool enough until they buy. 

 3:43: That’s how they make money. 

 3:45: But it doesn’t have to be either or. 

 3:47: You can 100% have pretty image-driven emails and also inch people towards their decisions. 

 3:54: What’s interesting is that For Sigmatic did put an FAQ at the bottom, but you can weave this kind of objection smashing copy into the entire email. 

 4:02: It doesn’t just have to be this apologetic little footer at the bottom. 

 4:06: So take away#3, put some persuasion into your pretty. 

 4:09: And if you want some pretty plus persuasion inspiration, we’ve got episodes from the likes of Drizzly, Power Up Toys, and Aurora, who are all e-commerce brands that do this well. 

 4:20: If you’re asking me, OK, Nikki, you said you swiped from customer reviews to write your emails, but which reviews do you use? 

 4:26: How do you know which ones make a good email? 

 4:27: and how do you turn one line into a whole email? 

 4:30: Can you give me an example? 

 4:32: If you’re asking those questions, my masterclass breaks it all down for you in just 31 minutes for only $43. 

 4:38: The link is in the show notes. 

 4:39: It’s a game changer for planning email campaigns. 

 4:42: So take away number 4. 

 4:43: If you want your customers to fill your content calendar for you, go buy the masterclass. 

 4:49: OK, so I’m not giving away all my turning reviews into email secrets, but I will give you a peek at my creative brainstorming process. 

 4:56: It’s not that exciting, but hey, it works. 

 4:59: The first thing I do is write down every word that comes to mind that’s related to whatever idea it is that I’m trying to represent. 

 5:05: I just jot down everything. 

 5:08: So for coffee, I might write things like morning, hot, caffeine, Colombia, Java, ground, machine, jittery, mug, aroma, Starbucks, roasted, latte, beans, oat milk, you get the point. 

 5:17: We just go on and on, and they’re all totally out of order. 

 5:21: Then I categorize them, cultural references in one section, sensory words in another, origin words, etc. 

 5:27: etc. 

 5:28: Once they’re in categories, I do another round and I get more words that have to do with those words. 

 5:34: They’re kind of secondary words. 

 5:36: Honestly, I don’t usually use the words from the second patch, but it’s worth it for the times that I do. 

 5:41: Sometimes I’ll do this on paper as lists, sometimes I’ll do it on paper as mind maps. 

 5:45: Other times, I’ll go 21st century and use a spreadsheet. 

 5:49: Anyway, once I have all my words, I start looking up idioms, rhymes, synonyms, and start playing with them to get snow clones or punchy lines or if any of them will fit my favorite formulas. 

 5:59: Sometimes this will even trigger a third round of word brainstorming, and I’ll start all over again, and voila, creative copy. 

 6:06: So take away number 5. 

 6:07: If you want to copy my brainstorming process, be prepared for a lot of words and a little magic. 

 6:13: 01 of my favorite tools is the reverse thesaurus, really useful for breaking out of your basic instinctive definition of words. 

 6:21: The biggest wins in the segmented variations in this campaign were the ones with different offers. 

 6:26: Same copy, different offers. 

 6:28: Sure, some of the copy needed to be different. 

 6:30: We wouldn’t tell them to try again if they’ve never bought, but it definitely didn’t need to be so dizzyingly different. 

 6:35: I’m a little so boxy about this. 

 6:37: I think brands either don’t segment at all or spend too many resources on segmenting every nitty gritty. 

 6:43: It’s the best practice that’s bandied about a lot, segment, segment, segment. 

 6:46: And yes, you definitely should segment. 

 6:49: Just not super duper nitty gritty billion iterations that don’t actually make a difference segment. 

 6:53: Your strategy needs to be just that, strategic. 

 6:56: As experts, it’s our job to advise strategies only when we’re 90% sure that they’ll do the job. 

 7:02: It’s a lot of work to segment. 

 7:03: It’s not something you just try and see how it goes. 

 7:06: So take away number 6, segment smart. 

 7:09: Make sure your segmentation strategy is pulling its weight. 

 7:12: Thanks for geeking out with me about that email story. 

 7:15: If you enjoyed either of these episodes, you’ll probably enjoy getting my emails, plus you’ll never miss another episode. 

 7:20: Sign up at Nikkialbus.com/subscribe, and yes, that link is in the show notes.