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The reason most people’s emails don’t get opened isn’t because they have a bad subject line or because they’re not “providing enough value” or because they need to segment their list better or whatever some marketing guru told them to do.
It’s because they’re writing like robots trying to sell something instead of humans trying to connect with someone.
And the difference between those two things is everything…
When I started writing my weekly email diaries back in early 2025, I had maybe 100 subscribers and absolutely no idea what I was doing. I just knew I was tired of Instagram captions that felt performative and limiting and like I was trying to say something meaningful in a format that wasn’t designed for depth.
So I started writing emails the way I would write to a friend I hadn’t seen in a while, telling them everything that was happening in my life, what I was thinking about, what I was struggling with, what I was excited about.
I called them diaries because that’s genuinely what they felt like, not newsletters in the traditional marketing sense, just weekly updates from wherever I was in the world about what was actually going on behind the scenes.
And people started opening them at insane rates, like 52% open rates when the industry average is supposedly 20% or so, and I realized it wasn’t because I had some genius subject line formula.
It was because I was writing love letters instead of marketing emails.
What I Mean By Love Letters
When you write a love letter to someone, you’re not thinking about conversion rates or click-through percentages or whether you’re providing enough value or if your call-to-action is clear enough.
You’re thinking about the person on the other side and what you want them to know and how you want them to feel when they read what you wrote.
You’re being honest and vulnerable and real in a way that makes them feel like they know you, like they’re getting the actual unfiltered version of you instead of some curated highlight reel.
You’re writing because you have something to say, not because it’s Tuesday and you’re supposed to send an email on Tuesdays.
That’s the difference.
Most email marketing advice tells you to write like a salesperson trying to get someone to do something, and then people wonder why their emails feel awkward and forced and why nobody opens them.
But when you write like you’re sending a love letter to someone you care about, everything changes.
How This Actually Works In Practice
My email diaries aren’t perfectly structured or optimized or designed to maximize anything except connection.
Sometimes I write about building my business from a cafe in Bali. Sometimes I write about struggling with imposter syndrome or comparing myself to other creators. Sometimes I write about what it’s actually like to live the location freedom life everyone romanticizes on Instagram.
I’m not teaching in every email or providing a step-by-step tutorial or making sure there’s a clear takeaway.
I’m just showing up as a real person sharing my real life and real thoughts and real struggles and real wins, and that’s what makes people want to keep reading.
Because people don’t open emails because they’re getting value, they open emails because they’re getting connection.
They can get value anywhere.
There are a million blog posts and YouTube videos and Instagram carousels teaching them how to do whatever thing they want to learn.
But connection? That’s really rare. That’s what makes someone actually care about hearing from you week after week.
When I write my weekly diaries, I’m not thinking about what my audience needs to learn or what problem I’m solving for them or how I’m going to transition into selling something.
I’m thinking about what I would want to read if I was them, what would make me feel less alone or more inspired or like someone out there gets it.
And weirdly, that’s what sells better than any perfectly crafted marketing funnel I could create.
Why This Method Works When Everything Else Doesn’t
The love letter method works because it builds trust in a way nothing else can.
When someone reads your emails every week for months and feels like they know you, like they understand your story and your values and your approach to life and business, they’re not just aware of you.
They’re connected to you in a way that makes them want to support you and buy from you when you have something to offer, not because you convinced them with some clever sales copy, but because they genuinely believe in what you’re doing.
That’s why my email list converts at like 28% when I launch something, which apparently is insane compared to industry standards, but it makes perfect sense to me.
These people aren’t cold leads who clicked on an ad and downloaded a PDF.
They’re readers who have been getting love letters from me every week, who know my whole story, who feel like they’re part of my journey.
Of course they’re going to buy when I have something that can help them.
The Actual Method
If you want to write emails people actually open, stop writing marketing emails and start writing love letters.
- Write like you’re talking to one specific person you care about, not a faceless audience you’re trying to convert.
- Be honest about what’s really going on, not just the highlight reel version you think people want to see.
- Share your thoughts and observations and behind-the-scenes in a way that makes people feel like they’re getting the real you.
Don’t worry about providing value in every email or having a clear call-to-action or making sure everything is perfectly optimized.
Just show up consistently and write something real and let the connection build naturally over time.
What I Use To Send These Love Letters
I send my weekly diaries through Kit (formerly ConvertKit) because it’s the only email platform that doesn’t feel like it’s built for corporate newsletters.
Clean interface, easy to use, and it lets me write emails that actually look like emails instead of marketing campaigns.
If you’re thinking about starting your own email diary or newsletter, this is what I use and genuinely love. You can try it here – they have a free plan up to 10,000 subscribers which is more than enough to start.
The tool matters less than the actual writing, but having something simple that gets out of your way makes it easier to just show up and write every week.
And that consistency? That’s what builds everything else.
