Katelyn Bourgoin’s Why We Buy – Become A Smarter Marketer

Katelyn Bourgoin's newsletter made $750K in 2023 and closed out the year in 2024 sharing that she had made $425K in 90 days.

She has been featured in quite a few of our deep dives (for good reason), but now, as we venture into new formats, Katelyn's Why We Buy is the first of our newsletter content breakdowns.

Each week I deep dive exceptional newsletter content to show you how top creators craft engaging emails, structure their newsletters and seamlessly build trust and authority—so your newsletter can fuel growth and sales on autopilot.

Before we dive into her content, though, I want to start by sharing one of my favorite quotes from Katelyn regarding her own content:

“I had been subscribed to, over the years, probably hundreds [of newsletters]. And they all follow the same playbook. They were often these long meandering stories from whoever the author was…

I wouldn’t be reading newsletters, I’d get stuck in email funnels. You sign up for X freebie and suddenly for the next 2 weeks you’re going to get this drip sequence that’s pushing you towards buying a thing. And I was like I don’t want to buy your thing, I just wanted that cheat sheet, or I just wanted that PDF. So I was subscribed to many, and I was reading almost none.

And so I thought, what if I didn’t promote at all through our newsletter, what if I used it almost primarily, exclusively, just to educate and inform and delight people.”

Now, Katelyn definitely does promote with her newsletter (driving hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales), but she primary educates, informs and delights people.

And in this deep dive we're going to take a look at how she does exactly that.

📬 The Value Proposition

Katelyn recently had a landing page upgrade, but this gives us an opportunity to take a look at some of her copy in multiple perspectives.

From there we can gather exactly what Katelyn's goal is [for us] with Why We Buy and move directly into how she delivers on it.

Let's start by comparing her Main Header Text [H1]:

1. "Discover why people buy so you can market smarter"
2. "Become the smartest marketer in the room"

This is the main value and promise Katelyn plans on providing. 

She is promising to make us a smarter marketer.

But how is she going to do it...?

If we move down to her Sub Header Text [H2] above her subscribe CTA we see:

1. "Why We Buy is the only newsletter that makes buyer psychology fun"
2. "Stop guessing what works. Get the free newsletter helping 63,353 marketing geeks to sell more (and look like a genius) using buyer psychology"

One note is that Katelyn went from a bit of an unorthodoxed landing page to a much more traditional style with her new landing page stacked from H1 -> H2 -> CTA.

NOTE: If you jump back to our 4X4 Landing Page Guide you can also make quick note of all the key points Katelyn hits in hers.

But, before we get too carried away, let's discuss the value prop we see in her sub header.

She's going to make us a smarter marketer by teaching us buyer psychology.

Boom. That's her value prop. 

Now let's take a look at how she does it.

Katelyn makes us smarter marketers by teaching us buyer psychology with breakdowns of psychological biases, and/or breakdowns of brands and how they use psychology.

She actually breaks these into three categories:

1. Cognitive Bias
2. Brand Profile
3. Deep Dive

You can see three newsletters above where she broke down:

1. Stealing Thunder
2. The Endowment Effect
3. Action Bias

But what you don't see are some of the other breakdowns she has done like:

1. Brand Profile: Fenty Beuty
2. Deep Dive: Buying Triggers
3. Cognitive Bias: Social Doubt

Note: Katelyn has also tested out a couple other categories like "Brainy Best" and "Brainy Battle" but these three categories have been running for quite a while now.

📬 Sections 1-4: Header Through Introduction

Each of Katelyn's newsletters start the same. 

Here's what we can see at quick glance as the first four sections:

1. Header Branding
2. Did You Know?
3. Sponsored Content
4. Introduction Section

So let's break down what we need to know about each of these sections, starting with her header branding.

Header Branding is one of the 3 must have sections within a Creator Newsletter. This is a no-brainer, and not surprising to see in Katelyn's.

Next up we have her "Did You Know Section", which is immediately different and brilliant.

This section shares what may look like a fun marketing fact, but what is actually a curiosity driven insight essentially hooks us into reading her entire breakdown.

Next up we have Katelyn's sponsorship section. Right under her Header Branding she tells us "Brought to you by [Sponsor]", and quickly has this section just below. 

Note: Different creators have their sponsors in different placements depending on their package and how they sell it.

And then lastly we move to her introduction section. Katelyn always leads with "Imagine this..." which brings us into a story driving right into the meat and potatoes of the newsletter...

📬 Sections 5-6.5: The Core Content

We get into the core content in sections 5-6.5.

And the reason I'm saying 5-6.5 instead of 6 or 7 is because Katelyn technically has 6 sections, but when she does a Brand Profile she adds in another mid-section.

Let's break it down:

1. Cognitive Bias: When Katelyn does a Cognitive Bias breakdown we get "The Psychology Of" section leading directly into "How To Apply This".
2. Brand Profile: When Katelyn does a Brand Profile we get "A Look Inside" leading to a mid-section (not shown above) which is "How [Brand] Uses Psychology" and finishes with "Thinking About Your Business".

Both formats deliver on her promise of making us smarter marketers by teaching us buyer psychology.

And, as you can see, Katelyn does not shy away from using awesome colors and images in her newsletter to draw attention and make it fun.

Yes, that is Shaq in the left-most image, and no that does not even begin to show off how much of a meme and content queen Katelyn is.

Main Takeaway: Katelyn keeps her emails FUN while delivering tons of value and teaching us in every single one.

From there, we only have a few more sections to discuss as she closes up her email..

📬 Sections 7-9: Wrap Up Through PS Section

Katelyn finishes off her core content with "The Short Of It" section (in each type of newsletter category she sends) which gives a quick wrap up and sometimes provides a link to more content, or even a plug for one of her programs.

Next she finishes off with two more "Must Have" sections of your newsletter:

1. The Branded Signature
2. The PS Section

Having a Branded Signature is extremely important and powerful. Your audience subscribes to A LOT of lists and sees a lot of people on social media. 

Will they always remember your name? No. But they do have a much better chance at remembering who you are when they see your picture with it as well.

Then, to finish off Katelyn's PS Section is one of the best places for newsletter operators to make passive sales.

Katelyn has done some testing with this section, at one point keeping it plain-text under her Branded Signature, but now opting to put it into a boxed section to draw more attention and separate it from the rest of her email.

📬 Key Takeaways

Katelyn is an incredible marketer/writer and her newsletter stays true to her promise in making us smarter marketers by teaching us buyer psychology.

Katelyn makes money by selling us digital products (courses, cohorts, and playbooks) that build on that buyer psychology, helping us to better grow and monetize our audience.

The value proposition and Flagship Offer(s) are directly aligned. 

But, that's not all she does well, of course. 

Here are a few more takeaways we can learn from Katelyn:

1. Lead with value.
2. Deliver on your value proposition/promise.
3. Teach incredible insights, but also keep it fun.
4. Hook with value and keep your reader engaged.
5. Branding is crucial (Header Branding, Colors, and Branded Signature).
6. Let your reader build a habit by keeping the content unique, but consistent.
7. Make your readers smarter (or better) with your content.

And I'm sure we can probably find a slew of other takeaways to add to this section, but I'm going to finish there and let you pull out the rest for yourself!