Dismantling email marketing "nuclear weapons" like a PRO

There's a quote in Star Wars, Episode VIII (The Last Jedi) in which Kylo Ren says the following: "Let the past die. Kill it if you have to. It's the only way to become who you were meant to be." Now, I gotta admit... I absolutely HATED Episode VIII and how it tried to "subvert our expectations"... (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) But what we got instead was a convoluted plot, poor writing, questionable choices by main characters, and just butchering a beloved franchise in general. I remember how pissed I was, coming out of the cinema... Thinking how Star Wars has reached a new low :( (that is, until I saw Episode IX... I just don't even have words for that! It's basically in the same category as the final season of Game of Thrones ) But alas... I still found Ken's quote above memorable... ​ Probably because sometimes you DO have to let the past die to start something new. ​ Whether it's getting out of an abusive relationship... Letting go of a failed business idea... Giving up on something that's never gonna happen (it's OK to give up sometimes)... ...or... Redoing your ENTIRE email marketing system from the ground up 😂😂😂 Because last week, that's pretty much exclusively what I've been working on! You see... I originally started my email list back in 2019... And back then, I honestly thought the key to success was a super-sophisticated, super-advanced, super-automated, and super-(SUPER?!) email system that automatically does everything you'd ever want to do with a subscriber. (well... maybe not *everything* LOL) It automatically follows up... It automatically gives them an at-your-own-pace free course... It automatically pitches them... It automatically deletes unengaged subscribers... It automatically surveys non-buyers... It automatically sends out tons of nurturing emails... And It automatically... well... handles everything based on a pre-built template. So -- starry-eyed and naive as F. -- that's exactly what I did. I found the best person I could on email automation (Brennan Dunn)... ​[Got on this stellar newsletter...]( Bought his truly spectacular course, Mastering ConvertKit (that's still the best in this topic, even today!)... And then I disappeared from the map for about 3-4 months to build this monster. And after a gargantuan amount of blood, sweat, and tears... my system was finally ready! Aaaaaaaaaaand... ... .. . . . . . . . . . ​ It didn't work 😅 ​ Seriously... it completely bombed! Why? Very simple: Not because of what I learned in the course itself... that was AWESOME... But because I didn't have good offers or an "Offer-Audience" match. (which are... like... CRUCIAL when it comes to a business like that) I naively thought a sophisticated system would MAKE people want my shitty offers... But just like you can't MAKE people love you if you have a shitty personality (no matter how hard you try)... You can't magically convert them into customers either if they don't care about your offer. (no matter how slick your copy or how advanced the email system is) Unsurprisingly, this was a BIG and painful lesson for me... And after realizing my mistake and sulking for a while, I did the correct thing and started focusing more on higher-level strategic things that actually mattered. You know, things like creating content, getting traffic, and building sexier offers. So life went on... Years passed... And I added more and more lead magnets, and more and more paid offers to my roster. This was all fine and dandy at the start... ​ But pretty soon, my email system became a convoluted mess! ​ A Frankenstein monster with HUNDREDS of patched-together automations trying to create the illusion of a streamlined system. But in reality, it was faaaar from that. There were too many automations... too many rules... too many sequences... and too many entry points that made it pretty much impossible to accurately track the customer journey of many subscribers. And this resulted in duplicate emails... Misplaced sequences... Incorrect tagging... Unused custom fields... And about 70% of my back-end systems turned off just to avoid potentially breaking things! So it wasn't a good place to be in... And using it felt like trying to do heart surgery on someone patched together from multiple people... and kept on life support. Honestly, I hated it! So that's exactly why -- with the recent launch of my Rapid Lead Activator book... ​ I've decided to completely dismantle this old system... ...and rebuild it into something I always wanted in the first place! ​ And that's exactly what I did this week. I carefully went through EVERY little detail... And eliminated all the parts that were causing the bloating... Deleted things I no longer needed... Added NEW systems I didn't know how to do back then (or ConvertKit wouldn't allow it 4 years ago)... And streamlined everything into a much cleaner, transparent, and powerful system. Honestly... To me, this process felt pretty much like trying to de-militarize the Soviet Union's vast, aging, and incredibly dangerous nuclear stockpile after the fall of the Berlin Wall... And I don't remember a time when I needed to keep so many things in mind at the same time when I was working on something... But ultimately, the process was definitely worth it! Why? Because now I have a clean, transparent, lean, and much more effective system I can be proud of 😇 ​ One that can now effectively do things like: ​ === ✅ Properly onboard new subscribers ✅ Segment them in the right bucket ✅ Do a much more powerful (and versatile) version of a double opt-in... WITHOUT actually doing a double opt-in ✅ Deliver my Imprinting Sequence as effectively as possible ✅ Follow-up with "at-your-own-pace" additional email courses ✅ Give people elastic pitches (based on how much they've engaged before) ✅ Precisely score subscribers numerically on 3 different metrics ✅ Automatically identify and delete TRUE unengaged people (without culling those who aren't really unengaged... but instead are just going through a "passive phase") ✅ Serve dynamic P.S.s with flexible offers based on what they bought so far (!) ✅ Automatically survey certain non-buyers ✅ Give people a 6-month-long "shadow newsletter" based on their segment ✅ Automatically fix typos or formatting issues with first names ✅ Progressively profile subscribers ✅ And many, many other cool things :) === As I said, I'm really proud of these new systems... And I honestly believe they -- together with [The Rapid Lead Activator as my main new front-end lead magnet]() -- will allow me to grow to the next level. (NOTE: If you're already a subscriber and you sign up again, there might still be a few inconsistencies here and there) Anyway... Since I already went into so many details in this story... Here's a question for 'ya: Would you like me to cover these systems in more detail in future emails? Would you like me to create more content on this topic? Hit reply and let me know. I have absolutely no idea how appealing this topic is to you... So please let me know by replying to this email. If I get enough responses, I'll go deeper into some of the specific systems in the list above. -Csaba ​ P.S. -- Needless to say, if you feel like your business could also benefit from systems like the ones listed above... and you need someone to help you strategize and build them... then HIT ME UP! I specialize in ConvertKit because that's the email service provider I personally use... But I can probably also help you if you use something else like ActiveCampaign, MailerLite, SendFox, or MailChimp. (just not that deeply at a technical level) If you want to continue this conversation, hit reply, put "AUTOMATION" in the subject line, and let's talk. Cheers! ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ #conv-rep Please add csaba@gameofconversions.com to your address book or whitelist us. Want to change how you receive my emails? You can easily [Update your profile]( or [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address is: 113 Cherry St #92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2205