139: Winning Their Hearts: Master the Art of Engaging Newsletters with Nicole Kepic

Foreign welcome to the Course Creators MBA podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Destiny Kopp, and I help business owners increase the revenue with digital products and evergreen sales funnels. In this podcast, we go deep into product and marketing strategies for digital product creators. We cover everything from digital product creation, how to market and sell your digital products, and just as important, how to find your ideal customer. Let's jump right into our show and today my special guest is Nicole Kapik. Nicole is a seasoned copywriter for coaches and course creators, helping them stand out from the crowd, attract their ideal clients, and sell out their signature offers with fun feel good copy. When she's not on her laptop, she's usually spending time with her family or staying up way past her bedtime to devour a suspense novel. Nicole, thank you so much for joining me. I am so excited to jump into this topic with you. Today we're going to be talking about how to write newsletters your list will love. And I know speaking for myself here, but I'm sure people who are listening can relate to this. You know, the email sequences like the welcome sequence or launch sequence or, you know, somebody signs up for my list for a specific free gift, those are a little bit easier for me to write. But the weekly broadcast newsletters, that's something that I struggle with. So, so I'm sure others can kind of relate to that. So I am super excited to jump into the topic with you today on this. But before we get started, can you tell the audience a little bit more about you, how you help people and how you got started in all this?

Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me, Destiny. Okay, quick version of my story. I've been copywriting for 20 years. Just outside of journalism school. I hopped right into copywriting. So. So I've been doing this a long time, mostly in corporate writing. All the things you can imagine, video scripts, web copy, print brochures, like basically anything you can imagine. I wrote it. So all was good in my 9 to 5 world. No complaints whatsoever. But then back in 2010, I think it was, I started a side business, freelance copywriting for a few clients here and there. And it just grew and grew and grew on the side. And even though at the beginning I had no intentions of taking it full time, I quickly, well, I shouldn't say quickly, it did take me a while. I side hustled for many years. At one point I just, you know, something in me and my mindset flipped and I thought, hey, why am I not doing this full time? Like, enough of the Nine to five. Let's go full time in my business. So I finally did that in, I think it was December 2020. So just over two years ago, I did the side hustling for so long. Finally went full time in my business. And at that point I switched from writing for big brands and corpor and companies to serving women like me who own their own businesses and are just, you know, so passionate about what they do, but they really struggle with the copy. So, you know, long story short, I write sales page copy, website copy, and, yes, email copy, because that is a big pain point for some people.

And, you know, writing emails, especially the newsletter emails, I think is a struggle for a lot of people. But we know it's important to stay connected with our email subscribers. But can you go into that and expand upon that and tell us why it is so important?

Yes, yes. And I think we've all heard, or most of us have heard from experts like Jenna Kutcher and Amy Porterfield, how with social media, it's like building your house on borrowed land. We don't own that platform. Whereas with email, you know, I don't want to say we own our subscribers, but there's just certainly more control there. And we can just build this nice community of raving fans, people who know like and trust us. So there's something really special in that. But the key is to really, you know, to be as consistent as possible, because it's almost like a friendship. You don't want to just drop in every six months or once a year and be like, hey, I need something. Or in this case, you know, in our businesses, hey, I'm selling something. Like, you want to nurture that. That community so that when you do go to launch something, your course or product or service, they're. They're already like, yes, I'm in. I know you. I trust you. I like you. What it is you're selling, I want in. So, I mean, that's the dream. But, yeah, it's just like, such a nice community of people who just genuinely support you.

So somebody out there, I'm sure is saying, nicole, I agree I need to start emailing my subscribers, but I've been ghosting them for the past, I don't know, three months or more. What would you say to them and what should they do?

Okay, first I would say, like, don't beat yourself up too much about it. It happens to everybody. We all know how fast time goes by. Um, but when you're starting back up again, just kind of treat it like, I Said like a friendship where maybe it's been a while but you just pick up right where you left off. You're visiting somebody and it's like, it's just back to how it was. So yes, you can maybe do like a, like briefly touch on why you've been absent. But you don't have to go into this big apology or story of why you haven't been around. Like people are more forgiving I think than we think they are and half the time they might not even notice. So yeah, basically just dive right back in there.

So let's talk about, you know, kind of delving into this weekly newsletter, you know, writing this, where do we go about getting inspiration for it? How do we write it? What, what is your recommend recommendation in terms of maybe mapping out the next three months of our broadcast newsletters?

Yeah, and I think what you said before is earlier is so true in that when it comes to launch emails or welcome sequence, there's more direction there. So it's, it's easier because of that direction. Whereas with the weekly newsletters it's like, it's so open that people are like, what do I write? I could write about anything, but I don't know what to write about. So I mean I will often suggest a variety of different types of emails. So you might do a behind the scenes email, talking behind the scenes in your business, your process. You might do like a hard sell email, selling your products or service, you know, right to the point. You could do just for fun emails where you're talking about your life for non business things because people want to get to know you too. It's really just kind of rotating those emails so that they're not all the same. And then as for inspiration, honestly I pluck a lot of things from everyday life, just random little stories that end up in my emails. And trust me, I don't have this like really exciting life or anything. Sometimes it's just the tiniest things that I know people will be able to relate to and I, I drop those into my emails and it just kind of sets them apart from how to emails. Like 5 tips for improving your copy. Those kind of emails are great, but you can also find that information on Google or from any other copywriter. So your stories are what kind of set you apart.

And I'm kind of maybe, you know, I'm probably in the same boat. I feel like I live a very, very boring like literally it's like taking my kids to the doctor or you know, sitting on my computer making dinner I mean, who wants to hear about that? So what is your kind of tip on pulling out some of those gems, if you would?

Yeah, I mean, like, I feel the same way too. Like, sometimes we feel like our lives are so mundane, but I'll just go back to that. The fact that we don't have to lead these big, exciting, epic lives. Like, we can just pull out the tiniest things. And then my tip there is to always segue your story into some kind of business tie in. So you might pluck a story from real life how you're feeling overwhelmed with, like, whatever it might be. You're feeling overwhelmed with getting out of the parking lot at school when there's 5 million cars trying to get out at the same time. And then you would transition that into, hey, it's kind of like in business where you feel like, da, da, da. And then you tie that in. So the key there is the theme of the story is the same as the theme of the business lesson, if that makes sense. So, yeah, I don't know. It's just like you start to. You start to find these stories or your brain starts to be more attuned to them the more email writing you do.

So as you were kind of talking through there, I was thinking about, well, one of the things I did today was pick up my. My son's graduating from middle school, going into high school. And at the school they had where you could buy these signs for your yards, you know, moving up to, you know, high school or whatever. So I was like, you know, how. How would I take something like that and maybe incorporate it into my weekly newsletter?

Yeah, I have to think about that. But, I mean, the first thing that came to my mind was, okay, your son's in middle school. It's like the first thing that came to my mind as a parent is how time goes so fast. And people always tell you when you have children, it goes so fast. So you could tie that in somehow to. With business. Time goes by fast. Your weeks just fly by. So maybe the message there is you have to be really intentional. Intentional about how you're spending your time. So again, this is just off the top of my head. Please don't be rating.

You're so good. I was thinking about that. I'm like, I don't. I don't even know where I would begin on that. But now that you're kind of, you know, walking me through, I'm like, oh, yeah, I could definitely go in there and incorporate that story into one of my weekly newsletters. There. So, you know, we know that we need to be doing this on a regular basis. It is a struggle for so many of us. But why would you say done is better than perfect when sending these out? Or should it said differently? How perfect does it need to be?

I mean it. In my mind, it doesn't have to be so perfect because I hear of people and I know I've done this myself too, where you wait so long to get the thing out, whatever that thing is, whether it's a course or an email, and you wait so long because you just want it to be perfect. But it doesn't need to be perfect. And I can say with certainty that not every email I've written has been completely stellar. There have probably been a couple duds in there, but if you keep emailing, then your name is still going to appear in people's inboxes, so you're going to get that visibility. So does every email need to be perfect? Obviously, you're going to try your hardest to make it as great as it can be, but it's better to still just get your work out there so that more people can see it. And also sometimes it's funny though, the emails I write that I think maybe this one's not as good, I'll get the most engagement with. So you can never tell what will land with your audience sometimes. So, yes, done is better than perfect, 100%.

So let's talk about some of those kind of measurements that we should be looking at when it comes to our newsletters. What do you what are some of the most important things that we should look at and say, yeah, this one really hit the mark, or maybe this one wasn't as good and what could I do better next time? What do you suggest for people to do there?

Well, open rates are certainly important. More people reading your emails and click through rates. So if you're promoting a course or program, whatever it is you want people clicking onto the sales page. So those numbers are important. But it's funny too, in terms of replies. Some people will read and love and be so into your emails but not reply. Kind of like somebody who's scrolling on Instagram, loving your content there but not leaving a comment. And trust me, it happens because I've had people months down the road say, hey, I've been reading and loving your emails. I think I'm ready to book a VIP day. And I'm like, where did this person come from? So in terms of replies, engagement is always great and you're wanting to get Those replies because those replies will sometimes lead to bigger actions, but they're not always the mark of purchase decisions later on. Because some people will be kind of like silent lurkers for a while before they take action.

And I think, you know, that's an important point. I know for me in thinking about my inbox, there are some people, when their email comes, I will read it and I will save it in my Google Drive or not in my Google Drive in my kind of Gmail folder, if you would. And those are the ones that I am extremely interested in because I might buy from that person in the future. And that's kind of why saving their emails. But I'm certainly in most cases not responding back to their email.

Yeah, and I think that's also because we get busy. But yeah, that just goes to show too that the timing has to be right. So when you have your lead magnet, your welcome sequence, you know, people are most receptive to hearing from you then. But the timing might not be right for them to buy. So and that's totally normal. So they might hang out on your email list like you said, for a long time before they're ready to buy, but they're still enjoying the content you're putting out there in the meantime.

So let's switch gears just a little bit. Nicole and I want to talk about selling in the newsletter emails. So what are some different ways that somebody can kind of incorporate, you know, maybe a flash sale or you know, selling their online course or their membership? What are your recommendations there?

Yeah, and the first thing I'll say there is, I remember somebody told me about a year ago, oh, you should never sell an emails. And I thought, whoa, whoa, like no, you absolutely should sell in your emails, especially if you're selling from a place of serving and you might not want to do it all the time, but absolutely use your emails to sell to your audience. So with that said, yes, I have three ideas for how you can structure different selling emails just to kind of keep things fresh and rotate them. The first one would be the by the way, sales email. So the structure for this is you have the body of your email. It's a story, it's a lesson, it's something. But the key is it's non sales related. So you're not trying to sell something in the body of your email. But then in your PS you say something like hey, by the way, did you know I have this new course available? Or P.S. by the way, are you struggling with this? Here's something that can help so the key here is that it's, it's not really front and center that you're selling, it's only in the ps. But this is also really powerful because a lot of people, especially nowadays, are skimmers. They're going to skim through your email and more times than not, they're going to go right to your ps because like, who can resist reading a ps, right? So it's kind of like it's not in your face, but it's still prominent. So that is one way to structure a selling email. The second one I like to call the Smooth Segue email. And, and this is kind of like what we talked about earlier where you're having a story introducing your email. Like in the beginning of your email, you're telling a story plucked from everyday life. And then you have a line in the middle of your email that's kind of like a segue, a transition, like, you know, I'm sharing this because, or here's how this relates to business. Or, you know, don't you find this happens in business too? Dot, dot. And then you go into your business tip or business lesson. So again, the, the point here is that you're going to have the same theme in the beginning of your, in that story and then in the business tie in the lesson that you're sharing. So that's the Smooth Segue email. And the last one is the Sell with Confidence email. And this is basically like, you know, you have a great product, you're so proud of it, you're just going to sell it right from the get go. Like, why are you going to like, have any kind of rambling in the beginning? You're just going to go right into it, diving into selling. And, you know, that's why it's called the Sell with Confidence email. And sometimes people really appreciate those emails because they're like, hey, I don't have time to read through a story. I just want the information. So that's why I say it's nice to kind of rotate these different styles so you're not always doing the same thing.

I love that suggestion about kind of, you know, mixing it up and to kind of put some, you know, flavor in there in your newsletter, broadcast emails. And going back to your, by the way, sales email, I just want to make a comment there and say that that one absolutely does because a few months ago I did one of those ps and it was for an affiliate product that I was promoting and I got so many sales off of it just from that P.S. and I wasn't even going to put it in the email and I thought at the last minute I'm going to go ahead and throw it in because it kind of goes, it goes with what I'm talking about and I really think some people are going to be interested in it. So it was like a fluke that I did.

Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. And I think that approach works for people who are really shy about selling. Like it's a great way to start because again, it's not so in your face. It's not obnoxious in any way. It's just kind of like, hey, by the way. Yeah, so I'm so glad that worked for you.

Nicole, any last minute tips for the audience before we hang up here?

You know what I would just say to always remember with email, especially with email, it's like you're writing to a friend one to one. It's a one to one conversation. So keep it conversational. Inject your personality where you can. Like I said before, people can get facts and figures on Google or from other people in your industry, but what sets you apart is your personality, your approach, your stories. So keep it conversational. I say that too because many of us have come from corporate so we're used to writing emails that are like, you know, as per my last email or effective immediately, like using corporate speak. But this is absolutely a place where you can show your personality and just kind of tone down the corporateness.

And I would have to say I can raise my hand and say, yes, I come from corporate marketing and that was me. So I really had to work really hard to get over that. Now Nicole, can you tell people where they can find you? And I think you have a free gift for them also.

Yes. So you can go to my website. It's my first and last name. Nicole kepic.com I'm also on Instagram. I hang out there a lot at NK Copywriting so. Or you could just look up my name and. Yeah, and my freebie. It's actually related to sales, sales page copy. Which you know, ties in because you obviously want your copy to be consistent and cohesive across all the channels. And it's a small video. I think it's about 15 minutes and it's five must haves for a high converting sales page. But honestly these tips can be used in your sales page, your website copy or your emails. They're pretty versatile tips and we'll make.

Sure that those links are in the show notes so people can find you and grab your free gift. And Nicole, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing all of these great tips about broadcast newsletters.

You're welcome. Thank you so much too.

Thanks for listening all the way to the end. If you found value in this episode, I'd love a quick review on whatever podcast platform you're listening on. If you don't know what to say in the review, just say Destiny. I loved your episode on whatever topic you're listening to. This will help us get our content out to more people just like you. Have a great rest of your day and bye for now.