R3 for Email - S1 Step 2: The Great Filter
R3 for Email - S1 Step 2: The Great Filter
R3 for Email I guardianmarketing.substack.com I ExperienceR3.com
This is Step 2 of Stage 1 - The Great Filter. As always we work backwards in R3 - starting with the end to assure we build the path which will lead new prospects all the way to raving fans (Stage 4).
If you haven't read Step 3 of Stage 1 before this, go start there (this article will continue where that one left off):
Notice how thus far I'm talking about creating an experience for your prospects through a system, and doing so in a way where buyers naturally buy (you don't have to use any overt manipulation to create a buyer) - I'm highlighting this point because the outcome I aim for in constructing an email system is not the sale itself.
That might sound counterintuitive.
But it's based in a simple principle - I can't control whether someone buys or not.
That is their choice.
Their action.
Yes that action and choice can be influenced, however it cannot be directly controlled. And I like to build my systems around things which I can directly control.
You CAN build systems around a specific outcome. Selling a specific product or service. Funnels are examples of this.
But what I have observed about systems designed to sell a specific product, is that eventually the system will break. Markets change, people change, sentiments change, needs change. Products and sales funnels are ultimately designed to speak to one individual to serve and solve one problem. If the individual changes, if the problem changes, then the sales funnel breaks. Also there is a limited supply of attention for solving one problem. This is why ad campaigns must constantly be refreshed.
On the other hand ...
Even though people change, markets change, products stop being useful those people can still be interested in and follow you, your brand, your business.
In my observations, the successful long term personalities, brands, businesses, entrepreneurs, who have audiences following and listening to them for years have built those audiences around something much deeper than solving problems and selling things.
And that something ... we can control.
So if instead of building our email system around things we can't control - whether people buy, whether the product/service/solution stays relevant - we build our email systems around what we CAN control ... that underlying deeper connection that doesn't seem to change, then we'll always be speaking in a way which resonates and keeps people waiting for the next useful or interesting thing they can get from you.
The side effect of building an email system around what you can control, is that you can construct it in a way that the ultimate outcome - the sale - is an inevitable conclusion.
I might not be able to directly control the sale, but I can create the scenario where the choice to buy is so obvious to the prospect that given the right opportunity, that purchase for them is certain. Then all we need to do is build this system and strategy such that the certain action happens in a way which is growth positive for the business.
How can we be certain of the outcome when building our system?
Because we started in Stage 41, with the people who've bought, and we’ve walked all the way back to this point where we know the connection which brought them in and set them down the path of buying.
So,
What CAN I control?
Well, I can control who is paying attention to the emails and why they are paying attention to them.
Instead of designing your system strategy around components which change (where you don't have control, trying to force the sale), I focus design around the components of a system which DON'T change ... or which change very little.
Those components are the Philosophies and Principles which drive people's actions.
Instead of building an audience of people who we think are likely to buy our product, we build an audience of people who align strongly with the philosophies and principles which drive our business. When you have an audience of people who strongly align in this way, they are highly receptive to the strategies/tactics/tools which can clearly implement those philosophies and principles.
(Side note, see
for more on his Clarity Hierarchy2 which I’ve adopted and woven through all this)In other words, you build an audience of people who are hungry to hear what you have to say because they have strong belief alignments, and then you present them products and services which are informed by those belief alignments and which serve their problems now.
The likelihood they become customers is therefore based in fundamentals which rarely ever change.
In the future when the problems change, the offerings can too, but you maintain your audience attention without breaking the system because the principles and beliefs rarely change.
That is where inevitability emerges.
An audience of people who believe what you believe, who have a strong principle based alignment, for whom your implementation of those principles (your business) becomes the obvious next best step for them.
Here's the real magic ...
We are going to have certainty that the audience we are speaking to DO have that principled alignment, and are on the path of inevitability, because of the way we bring them into our email system (our little email world).
And it's probably not what you think.
If you've dabbled in the email marketing world you've probably run into the idea that your ads and your opt in should be designed to create the ideal lead for your email list. If your ads and your opt in are made in the right way with the right words to call forth and stir action in your ideal lead, THAT is how you craft the ideal email list.
It's not a bad idea.
Yes the copy used to get people to opt in, and the offerings we use to get people to opt in are all important for identifying and bringing the attention of the right people ...
BUT
Because of the way people's attention, interest, and importantly TRUST, works, you can't create the same kind of filter on the front end of your email list.
You may have heard the phrase "join the conversation in your prospect's mind."
This is especially important on the front end, in ads, in lead generation opt in tactics, because at that point you are catching someone's attention from the middle of their everyday life, attempting to turn their attention and momentum your direction with an action or two.
That necessarily must feed whatever the conversation is going on in their mind in the moment.
Often times that means feeding a desire, solving a problem, or providing a solution they are ruminating on. The person who is dissatisfied with their weight is much more likely to be compelled to action by a simple food plan that solves all their eating problems, but will most likely glaze over a principle based explanation of their health (like the concept of "enough" ... unique mechanisms not withstanding).
That's all a whole 'nother' conversation unto itself.
Point is, because you are addressing people within a moment in their everyday life and they have no idea who you are, because you are addressing a much larger wider colder audience, you've typically got to focus on what to do - rather than why you do it.
And THEN
Once you have their attention with the what, you take that opportunity to bridge them into your world with the why.
As an example from my Yoga Client, one of the opt ins we used was in essence "get a free week of our online yoga training." We gave away for free dozens of hours of training so people could test drive the online program (and those interested would buy into the remaining couple hundred hours). We knew our cold prospects were at the point of trying to figure out what training to buy or what kind of practice to focus on - we got them in on the thing, and then I brought them through "why this really matters."
The why part made purchasing obvious for the right people and those "Good Fit Now"s bought without any convincing.
And I did that with …
The Great Filter Email Series
We can have certainty of the right attention by using our first introductory email series as A Great Filter.
When you speak on a level of principles, it creates a natural filter of "Good Fit" and "NOT a Good Fit."
Those who resonate, keep paying attention.
Those who don't, stop paying attention.
And so the primary tactical application I use to create these systems is an introductory series every new lead must go through, which is highly principle based.
It's sole purpose is to get people either saying "heck yes give me more of this" or "what the hell is this, I'm out."
That second one often looks like nothing. They stop reading your emails. And then eventually you can remove them from your list.
You want the simplest implementation of this?
Take your entire set of principles and philosophies which you identified in Stage 4 - this is essentially what drives why you do all the things you do and represent the deepest common connection amongst those who became raving fans.
Create a 5-7 day (daily) email series where you illustrate each one.
Are there elegant ways to do this?
Are there different tactical implementations?
Is there more and less effective writing for engaging people's attention and communicating the entire symphony of understanding including all the accompaniments necessary?
Yes on all accounts.
(If you find yourself struggling to take a few principles and turn them into emails, break them down into 5-7 useful individual and specific "aha" moments. Think through the principles/beliefs/why's and search for moments which make you say "oh yea, that makes a lot of sense, why didn't I think of that before." You may often be able to break down a single principle into multiple emails)
But,
I also know from experience of guiding other people, that even if you just start by directly explaining to people what you believe and why (even if it seems inelegant and blunt), those who resonate will be drawn forward to raise their hand, either actively clicking/responding or passively simply by continuing to read and pay attention.
Those who don't, will stop reading.
A system is perfectly designed for the outcome it produces.
THIS one is designed to create an attentive and hungry audience of people who are most likely to become raving fans. It’s designed be an inevitable system of business growth - not by engineering sales, but rather by engineering audiences that are uniquely hungry for YOU, everything you stand for, and all the things you can offer them which align with those beliefs/principles/identities, even if there's nothing they want to buy now, or they want to buy everything but can't yet.
Part of the reason this works so well is most people take a lot longer to buy than you think, no matter how slick your copy, so beyond a certain point (which happens to be a very low bar) I find it less useful to try to sell, and more useful to get someone so hooked that it's near certain they'll buy sometime in the future as long as they keep being connected and paying attention.
Everyone who is ACTIVE (reading/clicking/replying), after reading and engaging with this introductory series is someone who connects with why you do what you do.
This dynamic is actually measurable.
And since you can measure it, you can impact it, you can change it.
It's measurable if you make every new lead go through your principle based intro email series before they get anything else from you.
If you make everyone go through your filter, dance your dance, jump through your hoops, then everyone on the other end who is still engaged and reading is, measurably, as ideal a prospect as you can possibly get. They are in the same place your raving fans were when they first got started, and are therefore the most likely people to become raving fans of any set of prospects you could have in your business.
What about after the series?
After they go through this series, you must transition them into a long term plan which continues the style of principle useful based engagement, while opening doors so that your "good fit now" people take action in that first 90 day window, and also so that "good fit later" people continue following with interest until they are ready to move forward (which may be years later).
The transition into this happens within days or weeks of your new email lead joining your world. Statistically most likely before they become a customer.
The longer term plan is typically based around some consistent periodic "broadcast" communications - daily, weekly, twice weekly, monthly, etc. Woven in may be launches and promos, or other series designed to spark the action of those who are ready to move forward.
I wrote about this more in Stage 3, so head over there for further details and ideas:
There's no correct way to conduct your strategy. It all depends on you, your business, and the kind of experience you wish to create for your prospects and customers.
(NOTE: In the final version of R3 for Email I'll include several examples of Great Filter email series across multiple industries. I’ll also elaborate more on tactical construction and implementation of email series.)
And the final article of Stage 1, Step 1, will bring us through bridging people from first point of attention (typically an ad) into our email world so they can get this series (aka, "The Opt In").
Be Useful. Be Present. Love the Journey.
Joseph Robertson, CMO Man Bites Dog
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