When you’re sitting down to write the most important newsletter of your life, where do you even start? If you’re Anne-Laure Le Cunff, you go back to your foundational perspective – then mix your tried and true template with a meta reveal to share the story, capture its weight, and inspire action.

About our guest

Anne-Laure Le Cunff is an award-winning neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and author. She founded Ness Labs, an online learning platform offering evidence-based resources for professional and personal growth, which weekly newsletter has more than 100,000 readers. She is also a researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience of King’s College London, where she studies the neurodevelopment and evolutionary neuroscience of curiosity. Previously, she was an executive at Google, where she led digital health projects. Her upcoming book, Tiny Experiments, will be published in March 2025.

Ideas you don’t want to miss

(08:52) How Anne-Laure approached the creation of the “the most important newsletter I have ever sent”

(09:58) Her super simple content strategy and how it’s led to list growth

(14:24) The foundational analogy Anne-Laure uses that earns her audience’s trust and loyalty

(11:55) How Anne-Laure gives neuroscience emails a personal touch

(16:14) Why sending this book reveal newsletter felt nostalgic

(22:35) The creative solution that “allowed” Anne-Laure to market her book while still providing her trademark neuroscience content

(27:25) The 3 phrases of the Ness Labs’ list growth that attracted 100K subscribers in just 5 years

Links from this episode

Take a look at the email we’re talking about today

Become the scientist of your own life when you subscribe to Anne-Laure’s emails.

Anne-Laure’s book, Tiny Experiments, will help you rethink your approach to goals, creativity, and life itself. Preorder now (until March 2025) to access exclusive bonuses.

Plan more effective campaigns with my Promo and Launches Playbook or with my Campaign Ideation Masterclass

Free consult when you sign up to Kit (formerly ConvertKit) using this affiliate link. Terms and conditions here.

Get inspired like Anne-Laure does with James Clear’s 3-2-1 Newsletter

Connect with Anne-Laure Le Cunff on LinkedIn and Instagram

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Let’s dive into the strategies and methods used in the Doodle welcome email, featured in Episode 32.

Ideas you don’t want to miss

(03:47) Takeaway 1: Know your audience and tailor your strategy to their reality.

(04:35) Takeaway #2: Always remember that your first sell is the internal team, not just the subscribers.

(05:42) Takeaway #3: Weigh the pros and cons. We may be best serving our customers, even if they think we’re doing things wrong.

(07:17) Takeaway #4: Know your lines. What matters to you as a brand? What matters to you for your customers?

Links from this episode

Take a look at the emails we featured in Ep. 32

Learn the amazing benign violation theory from Nick Guadio in Episode 9

Hannah taught us the say-do gap in a LinkedIn post, but she also came on for an amazing episode

Hear Rand Fishkin question standard business practices in Episode 30 (also hear about the SOC2 compliance requests they know they can tune out

Listen in on some of the hate mail Drizly got from Jared Jones in Episode 18

Hear how Alex Sanfillipo of PodMatch tunes out insulting feedback in Episode 28

Plan more effective emails with my Ecomm Playbooks or SaaS Success Pack

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Get Nikki's email musings at ⁠nikkielbaz.com/subscribe ⁠

Let me know what you thought about the episode by emailing podcast@nikkielbaz.com

Subscribe to Email Swipes and never miss another episode

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When your market is challenged by a huge pain point but doesn’t have much experience with paid software plans – how do you gain trust and credibility to win upgrades? If you’re me, writing emails for Doodle, you throw in some comic relief – and show up when they need you, with a behavioral-based onboarding flow that goes heavy on voice… and increase paid conversions by 64%.

Ideas you don’t want to miss

(03:21) The goal of the emails in this sequence – and why things are different nowadays

(03:57) Why we decided to go hard on voice

(05:05) How this email was misunderstood

(05:56) The good, the bad, and the ugly feedback we got from this sequence

(06:49) What contributed to the resounding success of this email sequence

Links from this episode

Take a look at the email we’re talking about today

Plan more effective campaigns with my Ecomm Playbooks or SaaS Success Pack

Free consult when you sign up to ConvertKit using this affiliate link. Terms and conditions here.

Follow Nikki on LinkedIn

Get Nikki's email musings at ⁠nikkielbaz.com/subscribe ⁠

Let me know what you thought about the episode by emailing podcast@nikkielbaz.com

Subscribe to Email Swipes and never miss another episode

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Google Podcasts

Or find on your favorite podcast player