That joke about copywriting


Not a podcast person? Click here to skip the Email Swipes updates – but still get my other email musings.

I like to joke that it’s called copywriting because our best variations copy what our customers say – any conversion copywriter worth their salt writes their copy using voice of customer(VOC) data.

But what happens when you don’t have the time or resources to collect VOC?

Behold, my favorite hack:

Other ideas from this episode that you don’t want to miss:

(1:14) Why this dizzying campaign was different than any other Black Friday campaigns I’d worked on previously
(1:52) The #1 thing I love about Four Sigmatic emails
(2:29) How I got around the creative-first approach and snuck in some voice of customer data
(4:48) The surprising results of this launch-heavy Black Friday campaign
(5:19) The 2 things I’d change about this email – and how it influenced our work going forward

– Nikki 🧂

Churn Flags | Nikki * Elbaz

Sporadic observations. Misc. build-in-public experiences. Weekly podcast breakdowns turning 3-star reviews into growth experiments.

Read more from Churn Flags | Nikki * Elbaz

Cover art for my new podcast is down to 3 choices. Which one would you want to see go live? Or better – which would you actually click into while scrolling Spotify? Click your favorite above (or one of these links): Vote A: The Marquee Vote B: The Constellation Vote C: The Slide Can’t decide / want more options – Nikki 🗳️ P.S. Curious about the design notes? I read design briefs the way some people read wine bottle descriptions: half the fun is the how it's explained, no? A: The Marquee....

I have a love-hate relationship with goal setting.On the one hand, there’s the fire and fun of getting everything lined up, of focusing, of creating, of going all in. And on the other hand… there’s all those cancelled gym memberships come Feb 1. So this year, I’m playing with a couple of new ways to plan 2026. 4 ways so far and looking for more. Can you let me know which one of those 4 resonates? Or other methods you’ve seen success with? You can hit reply or just respond in the LI comments....

The top 10 ways Eden, Jo, Abi, Sabine, Michal, Chava, Katie, Gia and Claire, Ross, Jeremy – and yours truly – are actually using AI today? Right here, in this Copyhackers roundup. (Includes chocolate.) – Nikki 🤖 P.S. That customGPT I said I'd create in the roundup? It's waaaaaayyyy better than I'd even dared hope. Totally magical. And you get access when you get the Black Friday Blowout Bundle.