2 builders who never spoke to each other
Earn the address instead of demanding it first
Letting someone use the product and asking for an address at the point of payoff means they are already invested when the request arrives. Small free commitments taken in order, a follow then a subscription then a download, each raise the odds of the next one being accepted.
The method
- 01
Let visitors use the whole product for free and put the email gate on the final deliverable, so they are already invested by the time you ask.
- 02
Ask for small free commitments in sequence before you ever ask for money: a follow first, a newsletter subscription next, a lead magnet some months later.
What it returned
Place Card Me let people build, customize and preview cards freely and only demanded an email at the PDF download step.
Welsh's reasoning is that each free step a reader takes raises the odds of an eventual purchase, and that a subscription in particular makes future engagement much more likely.
Sources
- How to Sell Yourself (without being salesy)Justin Welsh · justinwelsh.me · Principle 2: Commitment & Consistency · 2023-07-01
- Testing an MVP with Google Ads and AnalyticsCory Zue · coryzue.com · Designing the Test into the MVP · 2017-05-17
the second source
Three plays a week, for the phase you are in
No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.
More in email
- Move the audience you rent onto a list you own7 unconnected
- Hold the schedule you promised to hold5 unconnected
- Decide whether cold email is worth what it signals5 unconnected · contested
- Settle who the publication is for before growing it5 unconnected
- Open the list before the product is real4 unconnected
- Send each subscriber the thing they told you they want4 unconnected