3 builders who never spoke to each other

Send an email that asks the reader for nothing

A message with no offer in it, a birthday note, an encouragement, or two questions about what someone is working on, gets replies at rates no campaign reaches, because it is the only mail that week not trying to extract something. Publishing the answers next time makes the list a conversation readers expect to be quoted in.

The method

1. 01

   Use those records to send unprompted personal mail with no offer attached: birthday notes, training tips, encouragement before a big event.

2. 02

   Send your list an email that asks nothing of them except two questions, what they are working on and what they are struggling with, and answer every reply personally.

3. 03

   End each edition with one direct question and then publish the replies in the following edition, which turns the list into a conversation readers expect to appear in.

What it returned

• 95%

  Johnson's handmade list drew replies from around 95% of recipients and left him with hundreds of regular correspondents

• 62,000

  Brad Barrett asks ChooseFI readers weekly what single action they took to improve their life, curates the answers into the next send, and has over 62,000 engaged subscribers.

• Justin did this instead of his usual newsletter and got hundreds of replies, which took him a week to work through; one subscriber wrote back simply to thank him for asking about them.

Sources

• The person on the other side of the screenJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · The person on the other side of the screen · undated
• How Jeff Johnson sold Nike's first shoesHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · Johnson's mailing list · undated
• Friday Feature: ChooseFIBrad Barrett · sparkloop.app · #1 - Cultivating an active community · undated