3 builders who never spoke to each other

Ask new trial users what would count as success

A two-line note from a named person with no pitch attached costs the recipient nothing to answer, which is why it collects replies where a standard intro email collects none. The answers tell you what the user came to do, and reading each new subscriber's own site before writing turns the exercise into research.

The method

1. 01

   Email every new trial user within a day with one question: what would make this trial a success for them.

2. 02

   Keep that email to two lines from a named person at the company, with no offer, pitch or call request attached, so answering costs the user nothing.

3. 03

   Email each new signup asking for a phone call, block a full hour for it, and build the conversation around the chronology of their purchase.

4. 04

   Look at every new subscriber's profile and site and send them a personal note yourself.

What it returned

• 67%

  For one client this email got a 67% open rate and an 11.2% response rate, against practically zero responses to their standard intro email, and 47% more opens.

• 60

  Justin schedules these 60-minute calls with Calendly.

• 10

  Rand Fishkin did this for every SparkToro subscription in year one, which is also how he learned that strategic marketing agencies, his largest single group, were still under 10 percent of unique subscribers.

Sources

• The hidden reasons why people are using your softwareJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · How to do a Jobs to be Done interview · undated
• SparkToro's Year One Retrospective - SparkToroRand Fishkin · sparktoro.com · A Look at Marketing & Traffic · undated
• The First Question to Ask Trial UsersGreg Kogan · gkogan.co · 2015-07-21