Latest / The Newsletter Podcast with Fexingo: Substack, Beehiiv, and Email Newsletter Business / How Newsletter Writers Use Swipe Files to Boost Conversions
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this marketing newsletter called 'The Copy Cure' — not the biggest name out there, but a really sharp one. Founder is a woman named Sarah. Luna: I think I've seen that one. They do a lot of breakdowns of famous sales letters, right? Lucas: Exactly. And Sarah told me that for the first year, her paid conversion rate hovered around 1.8 percent. Solid, but not great. Then she started doing something different: she built what's called a 'swipe file' — a collection of the best subject lines, calls to action, and landing page copy she could find. She studied them, adapted them, and within three months her paid conversion rate hit 2.4 percent. That's a 34 percent improvement. Luna: And she's not ripping anyone off — she's learning the patterns. Lucas: Right. The whole idea of a swipe file is that you're not copying; you're recognizing what works and why. It's like a musician learning chord progressions from their favorite songs. You internalize the structure, then write your own melody. Luna: So where did she get her swipe material? Lucas: She started with old-school direct mail — specifically, the promotions from a company called Boardroom Inc. They were masters of the long-form sales letter in the eighties and nineties. She pulled out their subject lines, their bullet points, their guarantees. Then she moved to modern stuff: really good emails dot com, which archives thousands of high-performing email campaigns. And she built a simple Google Doc with categories — 'Subject lines that use curiosity gaps,' 'CTAs that imply scarcity,' 'Landing page headlines that promise a specific result.' Luna: I love that. It's systematic. Most of us just wing it when we write a subject line. Lucas: Exactly. And the research backs her up. There's a study from the Journal of Consumer Psychology — the term 'pattern recognition' in copywriting isn't just a metaphor. When readers see a familiar structure, they process it faster and with more trust. Luna: So the swipe file lowers the cognitive load on the writer and the reader. The writer doesn't have to invent from scratch, and the reader feels like they're reading something that's already credible. Lucas: That's the insight. And I think a lot of newsletter creators shy away from this because they think it's cheating. But every major copywriter in history — Claude Hopkins, John Caples, Eugene Schwartz — they all kept swipe files. The difference is they adapted, not copied. Luna: Sarah from The Copy Cure — what's a specific example of an adaptation she made? Lucas: She found a Boardroom letter that started with a subject line: 'The secret that doctors won't tell you.' She adapted it for her newsletter as: 'The email subject line trick that most marketers won't share.' Same structure — 'the X that Y won't Z' — but completely different context. It became her highest-converting subject line the next month. Luna: So it's about the formula, not the content. That makes it scalable. Lucas: Exactly. And you don't need to be a professional copywriter to do this. Anyone can start a swipe file today. Open a blank doc, and next time you get an email that makes you click, paste the subject line. Next time you land on a landing page that makes you want to buy, paste the headline. Over a month, you'll have twenty or thirty examples. Luna: What about ethics? There's a fine line between borrowing and stealing. Lucas: Great question. I'd say the rule is: never copy a unique selling proposition. If someone has a specific claim — 'I helped 500 people quit sugar in 30 days' — that's theirs. But the form? 'I helped in ' — that's a template. Use it. Luna: And give credit when you're teaching, not when you're selling. If you write a blog post about your swipe file, name the sources. But you don't put 'inspired by Boardroom' in your subject line. Lucas: Right. Now, there are a few go-to resources if you want to build a serious swipe file. One is Really Good Emails — they categorize by industry and goal. Another is the Swipe File website — just swipefile dot com — which collects classic sales letters. And the book 'The Copywriter's Handbook' by Robert Bly has a whole chapter on swipe files. Luna: I'd add that you should also swipe from outside your industry. Sarah told me she got some of her best ideas from nonprofit fundraising emails. The urgency and emotional appeal there is intense. Lucas: That's a pro move. Because if you only swipe from competitors, your copy starts to sound like everyone else's. But if you borrow from a completely different vertical — say, a charity or a SaaS company — you bring a fresh angle. Luna: So let's say I'm a newsletter writer with 500 free subscribers and I want to get my first ten paid. How do I use a swipe file this week? Lucas: Focus on one piece of copy: your landing page headline. Go to Really Good Emails, find ten landing pages from newsletters in adjacent spaces — not direct competitors, but adjacent. Paste the headlines into your swipe file. Then write down the pattern: 'How to without ' or 'The that.' Then write your own version using that pattern. Test it against your current headline for a week. Measure the conversion. Luna: That's actionable. And free. You don't need a tool or a course. Lucas: Exactly. The barrier to entry is just a doc and a habit of noticing. And honestly, if these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used — maybe you've built a swipe file, or tested a subject line — a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going. Buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Luna: Yeah, it makes a real difference. Small amounts add up. Lucas: They really do. OK, back to the drill: once you have your swipe file, the next step is to organize it. Group by emotion — fear, greed, curiosity — or by tactic — lists, questions, how-tos. The more organized it is, the faster you can pull from it when you're stuck. Luna: And then refresh it quarterly. What worked last year might not work now. Lucas: Absolutely. Copy trends change. The curiosity gap subject line was huge in 2020; now readers are a bit more skeptical. So you have to keep feeding your file with fresh examples. Luna: One last thing: there's a great podcast episode — actually, it's from 'Copyblogger' — where they talk about the 'swipe file mindset.' The idea is that you're not just collecting copy; you're collecting psychological triggers. So when you see a headline that works, ask yourself: 'What human desire is this tapping into?' Lucas: That's the level-up. Because then you're not just copying a sentence — you're understanding the mechanism. And that's what Sarah from The Copy Cure did. She didn't just copy the subject line; she understood that the 'secret' pattern triggers the desire for insider knowledge. So she applied it to her own niche. Luna: And that's how you go from a 1.8 percent to a 2.4 percent conversion rate. Not by being more clever, but by being more systematic. Lucas: Exactly. So if you take one thing from today, start your swipe file tonight. Even five entries. Because the best copywriters don't write from scratch — they write from a library.