Watching the big dogs of email marketing leave cash on the table
Deploying a subscription-free mastermind to outdo the best of the beasts on X dot com
The start of an evergreen Dan Kennedy quote runs like this:
“Know who your target market is and focus on them exclusively.”
Dan Kennedy is one of the guys I blessed with a guest list entry pass into my subscription-free mastermind.
Along with some other not-so-red-carpet stars like Ben Settle, Gary Halbert, Tim Dillon, John Carlton, BAP, David Heinemeier Hansson and Ken McCarthy.
Yeah, yeah, I know they’re not all marketers. Maybe I’ll explain why un autre jour.
But what’s a subscription-free mastermind?
Well, it’s just a bunch of guys (maybe I should find a girl or two) whose words I inhale like Jabba the Hutt munches down lizards on the way home from a night on the sauce.
Hell, just this arvo, I dragged a paperback of Carlton’s Entrepreneurs Guide to Getting Your Shit Together (Vol 1) to the park and lounged on the grass under a rain starved tree giggling away as I flicked over each page and read.
See, I’m on the Med in the south of France. And due to all the communism they got over here I don’t have aircon. Which is fine cause I don’t like it. I’m convinced it’s bad for your constitution.
But it does mean that my apartment gets as hot as a teenager in Hooters. So, a sea-breezy park with a book in the shade, followed by a dip in the sea, is an all organic reprieve.
Back to subscription-free mastermind
The method behind my madness is simple.
Inside my not so little head (physically and metaphorically), I’m trying to breed into existence a spectacularly special sixth sense.
Not like all woo woo. (Although perhaps a little).
But in the sense of leaning on each one of my wild bunch of misfits as a reference point for whatever piece of writing or idea fishing I’m working on.
So as I watched this video by Max Sturtevant, delivering an email flow audit, I felt my ear drums rattle with the crowd loud drawl of old Dan.
“Know who your target market is and focus on them exclusively.”
But first, let’s be as even handed as a robe clad judge after lunch.
(Evidence suggests you don’t wanna go before a hungry and coffee starved judge).
Most of what’s in the vid is top shelf. I learnt a shit tonne.
For flows and timing and reframing offers and testing and all of that it is 19th century gold rush good.
But….
The video was tactics only.
And old Dan didn’t get the big bucks by leaving money on the table.
He is a principles first operator.
Was something missed?
The ecom bro Sam, who was being audited, (seemed like a great guy and he’s Aussie too so I like him more) said he’d hired someone for sales. They were calling up ‘nearly’ customers that had abandoned cart before paying.
So why not try and find out why they didn’t buy?
You know, do some market research. With the hottest prospects they get outside of a paying customer.
I mean, asking questions is core to any good sales guy’s bread and butter anyway. Or maybe founder Sam should make the calls himself.
Think about it for a split second. (Not a split test).
What could be more important than finding out the answer to why someone went through every step on the journey to buying and then got shy right at the finish line?
They could feed what they learnt back into their copy and ads.
Overcome the objections that Mary Jane Bogun with back pain let wander into her mind just as she hesitated on her mouse before that final click.
They might even discover totally new and fresh new angles on how to position their weed balm and what power words and ideas to use in their messaging.
As the good Lord said, ask and you shall receive.