Why I quit Instagram, kept Stories, and how over 2 years without regular grid content has impacted my business.

On the 30th of November 2022, I published my last planned reel on my Instagram grid.

I didn’t script what I was going to say. I just set up my phone on its little tripod, hit that big circle button and threw up the words that’d been skipping in the back of my brain like a badly scratched CD ever since I started promoting my business on Instagram 2 years earlier:

“I hate doing it. I hate creating posts for Instagram.”

Here’s the final reel.

It says, ‘Find me on Stories. This grid is dead.’

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In the 2+ years since I published that reel, I’ve only returned to my grid 9 times, and every single 1 of those times, I posted because I felt like it.

But I’m jumping ahead of myself, and I know if you’re here reading this, then it’s probably because you’ve also been searching for the elusive EXIT off of Instagram, too.

And I promise I’ll tell you everything I know.

Just not yet.

Because this erotic small business owner fantasy comes with an important disclaimer.

When I quit posting on Instagram, I was not an influencer with 100,000 followers, so I couldn’t rely on viral popularity to prop up my brand.

I was just a very fucking tired small business owner, mum and carer to a then-toddler with additional needs, and marketing on my grid was (to me) on par with the mental exhaustion Bilbo Baggins experienced when he had The One Ring in his jacket pocket for 60 years.

Keeping Up with The Contentdashians

Marketing my business via posts, carousels, reels, and guides (lolz, remember that absolute fail of a feature?!) felt like being trapped in a never-ending season of Keeping Up with The Contentdashians. Every single morning I’d reach out for my phone, see EVERYONE on Earth had managed to publish something new, and then desperately check that fucking notification icon in the corner to see if, in the night, I’d gone viral or suddenly had 212 enquiries off a post I’d done 2 days ago.

In my mind, that meant I could finally STFU for a week and reap the rewards of 100s of hours dicking around on Canva.

I hated doing it, but early on in my business, I knew I couldn’t stop posting.

Because (and here comes the disclaimer) before you drop a marketing channel, you gotta make sure you have other marketing channels.

And just like everything I write online, please remember this is MY experience, not yours. So I don’t want anyone commenting that they went dark on Instagram with no backup plan, and now they’re a gazillionaire.

I’m a small business owner with almost 14 years of this marketing stuff in my bag, but I’m not Amy Porterfield. I don’t want to be Amy Porterfield. If you want to be Amy Porterfield, stop reading here because the rest of this blog is all about:

🏚️ The impact quitting Instagram had on my small business (good and bad)

🏠 How I’ve consistently marketed my business since

🏡 How you can quit your Instagram too

Ready?

Cool. Let’s get into it.

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The impact quitting Instagram had on my business (good and bad)

I don’t want you to scroll through this tale thinking I’m some steely Maverick who had carefully and strategically planned for the day I’d finally quit my Instagram grid. Cos I wasn’t and I didn’t.

But just so you get a feel for the kind of person I was (and still am), here is my first ever ‘business post’ from my grid:

I published this on March 19th 2020, and it reads:

I’ll try but I can’t promise I’ll enjoy it.

My March goal is to link my business to my social media, so I’m testing out a few templates. I’m also an Aquarius, and I need my freedom, so if I suddenly stop trying, please know that being fecklessly negligent is an integral part of who I am.

And this was my feed a few months into my transition from personal to business account.

Visually, I was battling being a human AND being a business owner. Every time I posted a shitting Canva template, it felt like this creeping virus was slowly taking over my life. And plot twist, that virus was my business lol.

So, was I ever committed to making my Instagram my main marketing squeeze? Not really.

I’d worked in digital marketing for years before I started this business, and from role to role, the most consistent thing about me is how much I’ve always hated writing and creating content for <insert business’s> Instagram account.

What I loved and knew I could commit to was:

🖥️ Getting my website up and running

📝 Writing the occasional blog post

🤳 Showing up on Stories

💌 Eventually, sorting out a newsletter

And that’s what I worked on in the background, but in the foreground, I was a good lil business owner and hired a business coach and a social media strategist (not at the same time. I’m not a sadist) to try and fix my aversion to developing grid content for my Instagram.

Both of them tried hard to get me to develop a posting strategy (and Allah knows I tried). Still, every single time I heard that I needed 3 to 4 posts a week to get that traction, grow my reach and really establish myself, I’d have a Rumpelstiltskin-level tantrum and ‘X’ out of Zoom or my DMs feeling like my mum had just told me to go clean my room and also find a good husband and also stop being so dramatic (not going to happen).

So before you’re all, ‘Maybe you needed a coach/strategist/support network’, no, I didn’t. I know myself well, and I’m a very contrary person who hates being locked into a calendar. If I ran Britain (and I might one day), we’d all live and work according to good vibes, whether or not you’re on your period and how early we see the moon in the evening sky.

So, did my business suffer after I abruptly dropped off my grid?

Yes and no.

🏠 My top 5 takeaways from quitting my Instagram grid and how I’ve consistently marketed my business since then

1) My vanity metrics suffered

I stopped posting on my grid when I had about 1,600 followers. Thankfully, I’m not running a religion or a political party, so I never cared for having a massive following, but it did mean my account growth stagnated.

With no fresh grid content to feed the insatiable Instagram algorithm, I didn’t have fresh bait to draw new people into my business world. So, in the 2+ years since I quit, my account has only grown by about 100 people.

Did this worry me? A little.

But by the time I quit, I’d already started my Extremely Secret Email Club mailing list and had been consistently marketing it on my ‘gram and Stories. Plus (knowing how much I hate pitching in DMs and on social), I built out a detailed landing page for my mailing list with a conversion rate of 30% (which is fantastic), so my website pitches my email list brilliantly (no lead magnet required).

2) Stories are the ultimate sales channel

If you already know me from Instagram, you’ll know that the only part of my account I consistently use is Stories (and now Threads). I LOVE Stories because it’s like a visual diary of what I’m up to personally and professionally. I don’t need to curate it. I can show up, chat shit and leave. And because I’m a yapper and love to yap, it WERKS for me as a channel.

The last 7-days of top Story views.

I’m not sharing this to be like OOOooOooo 160 viewers?! The number (small or big, and let’s face it, it’s small) is insignificant. What I value is the community that tunes in and watches. Because after my mailing list, Stories is where I sell most of my gear.

Oddly, the most potent bit about my marketing is how, unintentionally and naturally, The Mere Exposure Effect nurtures a preference for what I do. I don’t need to show up on Stories like I’m shifting products on TikTok shop. I’m not telling people to ✨✨RUN, DON’T WALK✨✨ to grab a Business Blitz. I breadcrumb what I do like a tap dripping water on a stone. Eventually, and almost unconsciously, people get to know what I do, what I stand for, and what I’m like, and those Stories always end in sales.

Pressure to sell makes you a lousy salesperson, which is why I love Stories. All I’m doing is having fun, sharing my life, and being myself. I share wins and losses openly, and it encourages an active, fun DM situation where I get the support of a community, the friendship of other business owners, and the sales I deserve (without beating people over the head with my messaging).

3) The really important conversations I needed to have with my audience weren’t in the comment section under a graphic of 3 tips to help you write better web copy

Those conversations happened when something I said in Stories or Threads made people visit my website, read MORE of my stuff, and eventually book a call. So, my most significant shift was doubling down on getting people over to my website. If I could do that, I could usually get them on my mailing list too, and that’s where my big sales happen.

4) Dropping 1 thing gave me the confidence to drop more things (and pick up others)

The cool thing about quitting Instagram is once you’ve done it, you get cocky and brave.

You’ve jumped out of the social media plane without a parachute.

You’ve skydived into a sea of fluffy white clouds with no idea how close you are to hitting the ground on the other side of that cumulus cotton wool.

Will you shatter your kneecaps and land in a bloody heap on the floor?

Will you gracefully plop into a pile of 12,000 pillows?

Who fucking knows, and what a thrill it is.

My active mailing list and Stories meant I could drop all the Calendly booking buttons from my website and instead encourage people to email me. Having free time is addictive, and once I got a taste of the hours I freed once I no longer needed to sit and do wanky Canva graphics, I was dizzy with possibility. I love talking to potential clients, but I knew how much time those consults swiped from my writing time, client time, and free time, so I followed my heart and rage-deleted all my Calendly booking links.

Now, I only have calls once I’ve had someone land in my inbox.

The Final Boss I need to battle is figuring out how to improve my email response time because I’ve got more free time, but I’m also terrible at keeping up with my inbox. But that’s a problem for future-Nadia.

And with all that other extra time? I explored offline marketing! Last year, I developed my first-ever in-person workshop. Sure, no one showed up, but the effort I made went into developing pre-recorded workshops, which now live in my shop and bring me a tidy little monthly boost for coffee dates and bakery visits.

5) I’m living the advice I constantly give my clients

Over the 6 years I’ve been running this small business, I reckon 98% of my clients have asked me if they can do less social media. I’m not the only person who hates the constant ‘production line’ push to produce. I work with small businesses, solo businesses and startups with very little bandwidth. None of these business models have a built-in marketing team. So many clients want to build a leaner marketing machine.

I used to tell people it was possible, and I’d be speaking from personal experience because I’ve run a sales team with zero social media. I’ve run a marketing team where email was our primary sales and marketing channel. And I’ve run a community space where we heavily relied on social media and word of mouth.

I’ve seen all types of business work, but in all those cases, I had support. Colleagues. Other smart people helped make these things possible. I wasn’t alone.

Now I’m alone, and in cutting off my grid, my business gets to be a case study, an experiment, and a successful example of the YES I confidently give my clients when I tell them, “You can do it too”, and we strategise a more thoughtful, intentional customer journey for them (and you can do this with me at a fraction of the cost if you click that text-link and buy my customer journey workshop).

Be so for real, you didn’t think you’d get through this without a single sales pitch? 😂

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🏡 How you can quit Instagram too

I can’t give you a 10-step plan to quit Instagram because, the truth is, some people need social media, and every business is different. Without sitting and talking to you about your circumstances, I’d say a 10-step universal quitting plan is reckless, and I don’t want you to tell your mum I ruined your business.

Despite my love-hate relationship with Instagram, it’s still a faster path to sales than launching a website without traffic. I’ve worked with plenty of clients in this position, and in their case, they DO need social media because their digital footprint is so tiny you’d have to hire like 43 airport sniffer dogs to try and get a scent of their business anywhere online. In this case, they usually have a website that doesn’t have enough content to rank meaningfully.

However, I CAN give you the 6 steps I’d take if I did this Instagram quitting thing all over again.

1) Prioritise your website

Optimise your pages. Hire an SEO expert like my mate Sarah (not being paid for this plug, lol, she’s just a brilliant client, and I can vouch for her expertise and results).

2) Free option: work on your organic SEO by writing detailed blog posts

Post frequently about your area of expertise. The more high-quality, long-form content you publish on your website, the higher your rank with search engines. Especially if you weave in key phrases like “I quit Instagram”.

3) Experiment with your marketing.

I don’t believe in 1-size-fits-all business models. I believe in custom sizing, which is a perfect fit for you. If you love a specific channel, put more time into it. The more you enjoy your marketing process, the more you’ll naturally do. You don’t need to have LinkedIn or need to have X or need to have Instagram if you’re going to spit and curse your way through every moment you spend on there. Remember, you built a business so you could (hopefully) enjoy a somewhat flexible lifestyle.

That won’t happen if you’re shackling yourself to FIVE POSTS PER WEEK or 10 SALES CHATS PER DAY.

My mailing list, Extremely Secret Email Club, runs in seasons. Each season lasts three months, and I send 12 emails, 1 every Friday morning. Once the season ends, I stop emailing for two to three months and resume my client work.

Would I make more money if I emailed every day or every Friday all year round? Yes, probably.

But I don’t have the capacity to do this, so I don’t. As long as you explain to your audience what you do and why you do it, and it doesn’t feel like you’re constantly taking random action, then the right audience for you will accept that this is how you operate. No biggie.

4) Let go of the numbers game

10,000 followers, 5,000 subscribers, 843 likes, 87 comments, 39 DMs, 1,248 views.

None of those numbers matters if they aren’t converting into paying clients who love what you do, want to work with you, get excellent results from you, refer you, and return to work with you again the next time they need help.

The minute you stop equating those vanity numbers with success, you’ll become more focused on the numbers that matter to your business. There’s no point in spending hours and hours editing pictures and videos if they aren’t generating eventual sales. Period.

You’re better off consistently taking quick and dirty action than constantly aiming for a perfectly polished rectangle feed.

5) Turn your Instagram grid into a beautiful museum/thrift shop

Even though I rarely post, whatever is there still gets used! I frequently switch my pinned posts, so if I do get passing people traffic (and I do), it looks like I’ve cleaned the toilet and put out some lovely flowers for the guests.

I’ve also made it extremely clear that I don’t post on my grid, and if people want to find me, it’ll be on Stories. I think this CTA has really helped bump up my Story views because I’ve been clear about my exit, and this is why I always find fresh viewers hopping on for the ride.

This is my current bio. I have a clear CTA asking people to check Stories or subscribe to my emails. Never assume people will automatically ‘get’ how to interact with your business. You gotta tell ‘em.

I also upcycle the hell out of the posts I wrote. So much of the excellent copy I came up with has ended up in emails, blogs, and even in some of the briefing material I create for clients.

The work you put into your grid before you quit is never wasted. You can even do this thing all the cool kids have been doing in recent years. I think it’s called the ‘9-post grid method’, where you plan and arrange the top 9 posts on your profile so they showcase all the most essential stuff you’d like your ideal clients to know about your business.

Example: 1 post could be about your services, another could be an amazing case study, another could be a post about your mailing list, etc.

6) Start a mailing list and take your audience off social media with you

And I’m not saying this in a fear-monger-y, SOCIAL MIGHT SHUTDOWN TOMORROW THEN WHAT WILL YOU DO?!?!?! way. I just mean, if you like to write emails, this is an excellent option if you eventually want to wean your business off of Mark Zuckerberg’s poisonous teat.

And if you want to get started on step 6 right now, then boy, oh boy, do I have a treat for you.

I offer a self-paced email marketing course twice a year to help you transition from quiet, drafts-folder dweller to send-button-smashing FREAK. In 8 emails delivered over 4 weeks, I share practical, instructional support to get you off the grid and into that inbox. It’s called Hit Send, and you can sign up for the waitlist for the next 2025 round below:

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🔖 Bookmark this: the best guide in the world for writing your email welcome sequence

If writing your email welcome sequence makes you want to set fire to your home with your laptop inside, give me 10 minutes to walk you through this thing before you need to file a fraudulent home insurance claim with Santander.

Over the next 3 billion words, I will teach you everything you need to write a welcome sequence for your small, service-based business. 

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Before you continue, please note there are a few provisos to this email marketing guide.

Rule number 1. I can’t kill anybody.

Rule number 2. I can’t make anybody fall in love with you.

Rule number 3. I won’t be addressing product-based businesses or people with lead magnets.

When you’ve got physical products like candles, keyrings, or flux capacitors, your welcome sequence will be very focused on your product range, and incentives to get potential customers to shop their first order ASAP (free shipping, discounts, limited-time offers), so there’s less ‘soft sell’ and more straight-up sell-sell.

This is not to say that some of the stuff I discuss below won’t apply, but this probably isn’t the best blog post for you. Sorry, Etsy friends.

As for my magnetic pals, when you start your subscriber journey via a lead magnet, you’ve already qualified someone’s interest with something very specific (your checklist, e-book, quiz, whatever), so your sequence will need to take this into account and link back to the magnet (getting people to download it and use it and then connecting all that back to your biz, what you do, etc.).

Honestly? Most lead magnets SUCK. So, maybe just don’t do a lead magnet and read on.

In all cases, this guide is best for coaches, therapists, copywriters, designers, strategists, consultants, and anyone else with a service-based business.

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Back up, back up, what IS an email welcome sequence?

Excellent question.

When someone lands on your website, you probably have a newsletter form on your homepage, right?

And it’s probably some variation of this:

Um. I’ve noticed you around. Uh, I find you very attractive. Um. Would you go to bed inbox with me?

Your potential client flings their name and email address at you, hits ‘submit’ on the form, and then…

Well.

Nothing.

In many (very sad) cases, that’s where your customer journey ends.

(Except for that dry-ass confirmation email, which everyone leaves with the soulless template copy provided by their ESP.)

No onward relationship.

This is why I’m sitting here writing this. Many small business owners get as far as the sexy form bit on their website and forget to do anything with their subscribers afterwards.

The welcome sequence is the series of emails that should happen once your new subscriber submits their details. It’s the courtship phase of your relationship, where things start to get hot, heavy, and personal.

And the best part?

It’s automatic (supersonic, hypnotic, funky fresh).

So all you have to do is sit the f*ck down, write it once (very well), schedule it via your email service provider of choice, and it’s done forever (or at least until you review it in 3-6 months and figure out if it’s leading to paying clients overtime).

But why do I need a welcome sequence? Can’t I just keep DMing everyone forever?

Shortish answer: you need a welcome sequence if you want your potential client’s undivided attention, and the only place you can get that online is 1-1 in an inbox. Email marketing is like a never-ending trust fall. Every time you send out an email, you put a little more of yourself out there, and over time, this type of intimacy-building marketing tends to turn into sales.

Another shortish answer: look, yeah, I’m not going to do that pitch everyone does about how if you don’t have a mailing list, your dog will die, and Meta’s SWAT team will swing down from your living room ceiling, wearing hazmat suits, screaming at you to give up your Instagram credentials and spraying you down with pesticide.

I’m not writing this to convince you to do email marketing.

Your best marketing is going to happen on the channels you enjoy using.

With this in mind, please don’t read on if you’re going to cack yourself with anxiety thinking you need to set up your mailing list now.

There’s no point doing this unless you’re going to want to do it properly. (And I get enough shit emails to tell you not everyone should be doing email marketing) so genuinely, think this through.

And now, without further ado, here is my 5-email breakdown of what you can include in your email welcome sequence.

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Email 1 | Welcome Email (send immediately)

Subject line idea: Did we just become best friends? / Let’s get started, Nadia/ Your new fave email is here / <drops bags> Hunny, I’m home!

Content: your welcome email gets a 4x higher open rate and 10x more clicks than any other email type you send. So you don’t want to f*ck this up, mmmkay?

I’ve done something RIDICULOUSLY generous for this first prompt, and I’ve written an example for you. I’m not doing this for the rest of the emails cos I’m not running an email-writing charity, and you do, unfortunately, need to pay me if you want emails this good.

Thank your subscriber for signing up for your emails: I’m super jazzed to be in your inbox right now. I know it’s a big deal handing over your email address, so I promise I’ll keep it safe, and I’ll try not to send you emails that make you go, OH MY GOD HERE WE GO AGAIN, ANOTHER FUCKING EMAIL, WHEN WILL THEY STOP?!

In fact, I keep a CSV file of my email list on a USB port I wear around my neck like a sexy little dog collar. So even if I fall into a large vat of chocolate at a chocolate factory (which, tbh, has only happened once), your details are safe with me.

Introduce them to who you are: I’m Nadia. I’m a copywriter and business strategist. In another life, I worked in Dubai with brands like Carrefour, Cartier, Priory, Dubai Design District, Meraas, and Privilee. I’ve been head of sales in a San Francisco-based SaaS startup, I’ve been a marketing and communications manager at a luxury membership company, and I’ve even run a co-working space in an art district.

Right. Now that I’ve done the LinkedIn bit, let’s never talk about that stuff again.

I just need you to know I’m kind of a big deal, and you can trust me with your digital marketing. In fact, I’m so clever I have to roll my huge brain around on a special little gold trolley cos it’s too big and heavy to keep inside my skull.

(For balance, a project manager once threw a whiteboard pen at me during a board meeting, and this other time, I lost a sale, and the head of sales lobbed his phone at my head.)

Brief intro to what you do/what you help them with: These days, I apply my big brand knowledge to small businesses and startups. My special skill is making website copy un-boring. My special-er skill is helping fix bad marketing and sales.

Let them know how often you plan to get in touch: you can expect me to land in your inbox once a week/once a month/whenever I muster an email’s worth of words.

And recap what you’ll talk about: I want you to have a gold trolley for your brain, too, so all my emails are designed to get you thinking smarter about your copy, marketing, and sales. If you take my advice, there’s no reason you can’t fix your small business without paying me oodles to do it for you. (But it’s cool if you want to pay me oodles one day too. I only need to make 76 more oodles to retire, so it’s all for a good cause.)

CTA time! Always give your sub summin’ to do even if you just want them to visit your website and check out your services: Now we’ve had fun in your inbox, let’s have fun on my website. Click here (link to your services page), and I’ll blow your mind with all the things you can make me do for you.

OR

Now you know all my secrets, the power imbalance is making me feel weird, so please hit reply and tell me what you do for a living.

Note that this is just a suggestion.

The idea is that your sub is MEGA digging you right now, so strike while the iron is hot and get them to engage with you ASAP. This could mean getting them to book a consultation call, offering an incentive to book a service, or even just asking them to follow you on social media!

Goal: first impressions are everything, daaaarling. You need to shine. Make sure your sub knows what they’re getting themselves into, and give them a little action to do cos you want to train them to ENGAGE from early on in the relationship.

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Email 2 | Tell your origin story (2 days later)

Subject line: Why I do this/ Storytime!/ I bet you’re wondering how I got here/ Open for cringe pic of me

Content:

Think origin story. Think Peter Parker getting bitten by a radioactive spider. Think opening credits with a rousing Hans Zimmer soundtrack. It’s time to share the big story.

The thing that got you into doing what you do now.

And it doesn’t HAVE to be one of those tear-jerker LinkedIn stories about finding a dog on the street and feeding it half a burger, then going for an interview the next day and finding out the dog you helped is the CEO of the company you’re interviewing at, and he’s so impressed by your altruism he gives you the job.

The origin story I tell in my welcome sequence is a very modest tale about how I almost died of boredom fixing CVs for people in my local coffee shop. I decided to pivot because I’m terrified of boredom—doing boring work, reading boring words, and now I spend my days fighting boring marketing.

Hot tip: If you’re stuck with how to start your origin story, then find a picture of yourself from the time when you started your business, or just before.

Maybe you worked somewhere funny?

Maybe you were just miserable in a dead-end job.

Maybe it’s you on the front cover of TIMES magazine.

Whatever it is, a picture is a good way to kick things off when you’re stuck.

Remember, the origin story is not your life story. So please don’t trauma-dump on your subscriber. It’s weird. You’re only two emails into your relationship.

The origin story email is also the perfect time to explain your mission, your values, and why what you do is special (and so different from everything else out there). You can even weave in a testimonial if you’re feeling daring.

Goal: By sharing your brand story, you’re building on that budding connection you’ve got going on, and you’re embedding yourself in your subs' brains like one of those parasitic yeerks from Animorphs (if you get this niche reference, I want you to go back to my email and hit reply because you’re my best friend now).

CTA: Your subscriber is getting to know you, so why not ask a little about them too. Ask them to reply and tell you their weirdest job before they started doing what they do now.

Whatever you ask, do make sure it’s small.

A common mistake I see online is people asking their audience MASSIVE asks (and then being super surprised when no one takes them up on it).

You want to breadcrumb your requests and make them low effort.

Someone who doesn’t even know you isn’t going to sit and write you a 500-word response to your email (unless your mum is on your list). So try to make it easy for people to engage with you by keeping your questions easy to respond to.

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Email 3 | Spotlight your top service (4 days later)

Subject line: worst coach ever/ bad designer ruined my life/are you still doing this?/Got website shame?

Content:

It’s finally time to sell your thing. You’ve warmed up your sub, so now they’re really digging you, it’s time to connect all the lovely brand stuff with what you actually sell.

This is your first ‘deep pitch,’ so describe your client’s problem in detail. Make it clear. You can use before-and-after photos, benefits, features, a testimonial, a case study, or a locket of your grandmother’s hair. Do whatever you need to do to make your services (or the service you’re most keen to sell) easy to understand and access through this email.

In my welcome sequence, my service-selling email is called ‘Nightmare on Homepage Street’. I use it to describe how terrifying it is to stare at a blank page and not know how to write or structure a homepage. This email consistently brings in fresh business because it clearly explains my ideal client’s problem. I also love doing Homepage Revamps (where I revamp homepage copy), so it’s a win-win.

My CTA is to book a consultation, because I want you to take a bigger step with me and think about talking to me about your business now. And that might happen if you feel like I GET your problem space and I speak to those frustrations with a clear solution.

The goal is to invite people to work with you, whether that’s getting them to take a first step and have a chat or, if it’s a low-cost service, straight-up asking them for the sale!

Most small business owners I talk to tell me they're scared to sell over email because they’re worried subs will be put off by the sales chat.

Newsflash: you’re running a business newsletter for your business. If people don’t like you selling business, respectfully, they need to GTFO and unsubscribe.

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Email 4 | Teach ‘em something educational (6 days later)

Subject line: my best tip ever/ fix any email with this tip/ fix your website in 5 minutes/ my fave copy hack

Content:

Sending emails is a delicate balance of give and take. The privilege of being in someone’s inbox is always only 1 unsubscribe button away, so if you send a sales pitch one day, try to follow it up with a nice juicy carrot the next day.

Remember, this tip is going in your welcome sequence, so make this tip/trick/hack something timeless and special.

A good place to start is brainstorming the most frequent complaints/pain points clients share with you. Or let them in on the easiest, most effective fix you can make in the next 5 minutes.

Easy actions are super motivating, and you want your subscribers to feel successful, excited and a little bit giddy that they’ve been able to do something alone (with your helpful guidance).

This is more of that breadcrumbing stuff we were talking about.

If 1 tip is doable, they’ll be more likely to open the next email and the next email and keep trying your methods (and build a preference for the way you teach and do things).

Also, it makes you look hella smart, and we LOVE a thought leader.

Goal: show off your knowledge. Establish yourself as a bit of a smarty pants. Give them value. Keep your subscribers keen for more of your beans. You want to be known as the go-to for what you do. So showcase that knowledge proudly.

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Email 5 | Wrap it up + keep ‘em keen (8 days later)

Subject line: That’s a wrap / you made it! / I’m sick of me, are you?/ No more emails for you (for now)

Content:

It’s the end of the road. Thank your sub for their time and attention, and let them know you’re done showering them with welcome emails.

Some people like to send gifts at this point in their journey (like a free download or WTV). I’m not this kind of person, but I’m also not against it. Especially if you’ve hinted that there’s a gift waiting at the end of the welcome sequence earlier in your other emails. Then, you’ve given the sub another incentive to open your emails. Win.

Now’s also a good time to remind them that moving forward, they can look forward to getting your daily/monthly/whatever-frequency emails.

At this point, I like to ask for feedback about my emails and I do this with a form, but you can simply ask them to reply to your email. Feedback is a great way to learn if your welcome sequence is hitting the mark with your subs.

Finally.

Chuck in one more CTA inviting them to stay inside your little world with you and connect on social media. If you want, ask them if they have any email topic suggestions for future mail!

Goal: the welcome sequence is all about bonding with your sub, so ensure you underscore how happy you are to have them along for this newsletter-sending ride.

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4 bonus things ‘cos it’s already 12:15am and I might as well die writing this blog post.

1. Don’t use 5-10 CTAs at the bottom of each email. You’re giving me decision fatigue, and it makes me want to scream.

Focusing on just 1 problem, story, or idea can make emails easier to write. When you finish, neatly tie up your email with one call to action. Make it easy for people to make decisions.

2. Keep your formatting simple

Do not send people a solid wall of text. Let your sentences breathe. This is an email; it’s supposed to be quick, fun, and light.

3. Don’t copy people

What works for me won’t necessarily work for you. Similarly, my content goals are not necessarily your content goals. So before you try to emulate someone else’s style, just know that it probably won’t get you the same results because you don’t know the strategy behind that copy.

4. Have a strategy

Sometimes writing emails is difficult because you don’t know why the hell you’re even doing it. If that’s you, consider hiring someone like me to help you work through it with you.

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If you thought that was a fun read, you’ll probs enjoy learning from me with my 4-week, 8-email-long programme: HIT SEND. I’m in the middle of a launch, but I’ll add a link to the waitlist for future runs once I finish this one.

Are you destroying your small business with these 6 craptastic headlines?

When small business owners like you and me aren’t running around wearing giant foam animal heads, braying at the full moon and smearing our shit up the walls, we’re usually trying to come up with another excellent headline for a:

🤢 Sales page

🤢 Landing page

🤢 New service/product

<Insert other pain-in-the-ass headline jobs here>

So if you’re staring down a blinking cursor right now and wondering what to plonk in your ‘H1 header’, stick your fingers on ice for a second and read on, because I’m going to help you not sound like Marie Forloe, Amy Porterfield, Jenna Kutcher, or any of the other millionaire grifters pushing ✨MeGa KilLeR CoPyWrITiNg TeMpLAteS✨ online.

But before I walk you through the 6 (terrible) headlines I want to banish from the internet forever, I want to chuck a disclaimer on this situation real quick.

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These 6 headlines suck not because they were always terrible. But because they’re now used SO frequently, the people who read our business copy online are immune to them. They are unmoved by them, indifferent to them, and do not click buttons or buy your things because of them.

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The simple fact is:

Every single headline your audience reads needs to latch their attention like a Dyson sucking on a dirty rug. Every sentence they read thereafter must pull their eyes down the page with the same irresistible crumb-gobbling strength.

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If you’re unsure what I mean, (or you’re keen to prove my point that most people only read headlines), here’s a scary statistic to scare you.

On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest.

As a copywriter, it’s my job to compel even the most reluctant readers to read, but it’s very hard to do that when, right now, it feels like most small business copy online has been written by the same 3 (terrible) copywriters. So I spend at least 67.5% of my client projects prying services and products out of car crash copy situations, and desperately pumping life back into them with my keyboard.

So this blog post is 1 part (aggressively) loving request to step away from nothingy headlines that kill sales (no one reading your copy = no sales), and 1 part helpful nudge towards helping you replace very boring, done-a-million-times-before headlines with better words and ideas that’ll catch attention and keep people reading.

Cool?

Let’s get into it.

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1. Ready to change your life? (or any other massive ask which NO ONE is ‘ready’ to take)

Especially hate this type of question when it’s written above a button to buy a product or service because it sets the bar too damn high. 

How sure are you that your service will actually change someone’s life?

If you’re a doctor about to perform open-heart surgery,  then a changed life is an almost 100% guaranteed outcome for the person booking surgery. 

But if you’re selling (any kind of) coaching, copy, wellness services, alternative therapy, or those smelly things filled with lavender you keep in your drawers so your undies smell nice, then be wary of massive statements that:

1️⃣ you can’t prove

2️⃣ you can’t deliver

3️⃣ will annoy me

The best remedy for this type of headline is to delete it and replace it with a question which reflects the actual result you can deliver. So if it isn’t a massive life change (it isn’t), then you could coax a click with a question like:

💥 Ready for copy that’ll 3x your click-through rate?

💥 Ready to stop using terrible clichés in your copy?

💥 Ready to stop asking people if they’re ready?

Tbh, just stop asking people if they’re ready and write copy that gets people ready to click without you having to ask if they’re ready because guess what, if they’re ready, they’re going to click. Wow. This was annoying to write. Let’s move on.

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3. I’m just like you / I’ve been where you are / I was just like you

Yesterday, I saw ‘I was just like you’ emblazoned on a homepage under a picture of a perfectly made-up white woman sitting on the floor of her (long and expensive-looking) hallway with a wine glass in one hand. She was smiling like Princess Diana at that White House dinner where she danced with John Travolta. 

John Travolata dancing with Princess Diana at the White House Dinner. Iconic.

You know. 

Regal-hidden-pain-style. 

Princess Diana smiling despite being married to an absolute weasel. 

I gotta assume she thought this was what a breakdown looks like in the wider world?

A better photo probs would have been someone lying in bed with greasy hair, wearing crumpled, lightly sweaty pyjamas, watching their 4th True Crime documentary of the day. 

But in general, it’s always tricky when we say things like ‘I was just like you’ because you haven’t got a clue who might land on your page.

Honestly.

What are the chances they’re just like you?

let me answer that for you.

Slim to none, mate.

If you want to highlight your potential client’s problem state or current challenge (the thing you solve for), then I beg you steer clear of super wanky, faux-empathetic statements.

Relating to a potential client’s challenge doesn’t have to be as literal as claiming to have the same life experience (because you probably don’t).

If your website is full of this stuff and you’re hurredly rushing to throw a tea towel of shame over your screen, then drop the towel and do this instead:

Offer a few old clients or potential new clients a coffee chat, and ask if they can spare 30 minutes to talk to you about their actual problems. Customer research is a super easy way to pick up on the challenges your copy needs to address because you’re taking the words straight from your intended audience’s collective mouth.

Here’s an example:

Say you’re a wellness coach and 4 out of 5 people you work with complain to you about stress-induced lack of sleep. This is fantastic (for your copy), because you now know you need to talk about stress and lack of sleep.

How could this turn up in your business? (Great question)

You could share a blog post or email about why a lack of sleep leads to poor well-being. You could host an online clinic where you talk about 5 foods that’ll help you sleep better. Or connect how what you do in your coaching sessions will facilitate better sleep and less stress over time.

You see what I mean?

You don’t have to struggle with the same problem your client has to be good at solving it.

All you have to do is show your audience (through your content) that you’re educated and experienced enough to provide the solution.

So a better headline might be:

😪 Let’s talk about all the ZZZ’s you’re missing

😪 Burnout: the hidden cost of sleepless nights

😪 You know what’s sexy? 8 hours of sleep (I’ll show you how to get ‘em)

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4. What if I told you…

This old chestnut sets off every single alarm bell in my brain because it’s usually followed by a statement like ‘You can have it all’ or ‘You really CAN make £5,000 a month on Instagram’. And in all cases, it’s always a red flag for me because I KNOW the next section is going to be:

INTRODUCING MY 6 WEEK, 1-1 PROGRAMME: FUCK YOU, PAY ME. A SAFE SPACE FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO STOP PLAYING SMALL 💸🤑🛍️

A good rule of thumb when shopping for online services is that if it promises outrageous results, it’s usually referring to an exceptionally tiny sample of clients who have actually had consistent £5,000 months off the programme described.

It is very very difficult to replicate and achieve the type of results these people promise. 

And I think that’s a crime. 

If you’re dead set on using ‘what if I told you…’ then a good way to fix this offender is to pair it up with a statement that breaks with your reader’s expectations like:

⚡ What if I told you marketing your business really does suck?

⚡ What if I told you I only made £12 in June?

Ofc my fave way to deal with ‘what if i told you…’ is to delete it, but that’s neither here nor there.

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5. I’m so glad you’re here

This is the most disingenuous statement you can put on a website because no one says I’m so glad you’re here in real life unless you’re waving down a passing police officer ‘cos you’ve just seen someone getting mugged at the bus stop, or you're reading this blog post 500 years ago when 'glad' was still a popular and widely used word. 

If being glad is something you’re known for, by all means, rock it.

But if it isn’t something you’d ordinarily say, I’d give it a miss.  Also, it’s piss poor headline copy, and no one is hanging out and reading past this statement.

This is a good (bad) example of this copy in the wild. It’s a homepage banner with the words ‘Welcome! I’m so glad you’re here’ emblazoned in purple next to a relaxed white woman walking down an empty sandy beach wearing a teal cardigan and blue jeans. We don’t know where ‘here’ is or why we’ve made this person glad, but if I see this on any website, I’m bouncing immediately. 

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6. Subscribe to my newsletter

Mmmm no. I’d rather eat a dirty nappy.

If your newsletter invitation is still the default ‘subscribe to my newsletter’ copy then you don’t deserve people on your mailing list.  

Here’s looking at you, Lego.com:

HOW is this the newsletter copy on the actual Lego.com website?! 🤣 Respectfully, their Head of Marketing needs to fire themselves. NO ONE is filling out this form with the promise of getting "Digital Marketing Emails". Embarassing. 

⬆️ This is the kind of lazy copy I combat daily.

Got a newsletter? Give me a damn good reason to give you details. 

Earn my email address. 

Want a good newsletter form? 

Visit my homepage. 

Do you know how I know it’s good? 

An actual paying client plagiarised it off me almost verbatim. 

When I confronted them and asked them to change it, they acted utterly baffled, stopped replying and unfollowed me (all signs of innocence ofc).

Here are 2 other examples of cool newsletter copy:

I found this lead magnet gem on marketingexamples.com (one of my fave places on the internet).The cool thing about this is they’ve highlighted a MAJOR pain point for plant parents, and they’ve offered a valuable bit of content to solve it. 

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Oh look, it’s copy I wrote for my client The Future Kind Collective, a company culture consultancy. The good thing about this headline is it speaks to 1 of their key client demographics (people who work in management) and explains in the copy underneath the name of the newsletter what you can expect to get and why it’s valuable to running your startup. 

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When your headlines ain’t headlining, ask for help

If you’re feeling quite sensitive after reading this, then please allow me gently kiss you on the forehead and tell you we can fix this.

It’s what I do, It’s what I live for.

And if you’ve been following me for a while then you’ll have heard me say this 100,032 times before, but as with all the advice I share, the key is CONTEXT.

So if you’ve written an excellent sales page or social post where 1 of the above headlines is making you an absolute killing, then good for you.

But as a copywriter, it’s my job to stand on my lecturn and shake my fist at poorly communicated brand messaging, and I’d rather not leave you alone with all these bargain bucket headlines.

I want to elevate you, and everything you do, ya know?

Read this far and think you need a little headline help?

You can email me at nadia@imnadiaamer.com with the subject line PLEASE HELP ME, and I’ll get back to you. My Calendly is currently unavailable because I simply don’t have enough childcare to have an open calendar, so I’m only taking on clients privately until the end of 2024.