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What’s up, Funnel Ninja!
We have a special edition this week.
Today we’re breaking down a funnel many of you have been asking for since the very early days of this newsletter.
That’s right—we’re talking about Justin Welsh’s newsletter funnel.
I’m sure most of you are pretty familiar with this guy…
But in case you don’t know him, let me introduce you real quick.
This Week’s Creator: Justin Welsh
Over the past 4 years, Justin has become one of the biggest and most successful creators on Twitter & LinkedIn.
He’s:
- Built an audience of almost 1M followers combined
- Grown his email list to more than 220k loyal readers
- And made close to $10M in revenue selling low-ticket digital products
Now, one of the craziest parts about Justin’s success is that his funnel is stupid simple…
I mean, he doesn’t even have a lead magnet.
His only “lead magnet” is his free weekly newsletter.
But, is the simplicity of his funnels one of the secrets behind his success?
Or…
Has he been successful despite his funnels being so simple?
Make sure to read until the end to find out!
Here’s a sneak peek of all the other stuff you can expect to learn by the end of this week’s Funnel Breakdown:
- How to instantly build trust and affinity with new readers
- A simple formula to create a powerful “transformation” headline
- 2 subtle ways to show social proof and authority in your welcome flow
- 2 advanced ways you can use personalization to boost retention and conversion
- And tons more!
Ready?
Let’s dive in.
Funnel Piece #1: The Landing Page
First, let’s break down Justin’s newsletter landing page.
A few months ago, Justin completely redesigned his website (and his newsletter landing page) and it looks GREAT.
But good design is not enough to get people to give your their email.
Here’re the 4 things that stood out the most from this landing page (copy-wise):
- The name of the newsletter makes it clear who his content is for. This is a mistake a lot of creators make when naming their newsletter: they get clever. Instead, you want to make sure people can get a good sense of what your newsletter is all about just by hearing its name.
- His headline promises a BIG and compelling transformation—yet it doesn’t feel exaggerated (which is good). Probably because he avoided using a specific timeframe or dollar-figure in it. If your newsletter helps people from different experience levels (instead of just beginners, for example) this is a great template you can use for your own newsletter landing page headline.
- He is showing social proof in different ways. In his “subscribe” button he says “Join 200k Readers.” But also he includes testimonials (with pictures to make it even easier for your to recognize their faces) from other big LinkedIn and Twitter creators like Sahil Bloom, Dickie Bush, Dan Koe, and Ben Mehr.
- His newsletter “value prop” is hyper specific. He tells you exactly what you’ll get out of his emails, when you are going to get them, and even how long it will take you to read them.
Now if I had to rate this landing page, I’d give it a 9 out of 10.
Why?
Because even though it has all the puzzle pieces you need for high conversion (benefit-focused headline, clear value prop, social proof, etc.), he’s making one crucial mistake.
(If you are a devoted Funnel Breakdowns reader, you probably know what this mistake is!)
But if you still don’t know, I’ll give you a hint:
This landing page has too many CTAs.
Instead of treading your landing page as another section of your website, you want to make it standalone—and make sure you’re removing all distractions by giving people less things to click on.
Funnel Piece #2: The Thank You Page
Alright, now let’s talk about Justin’s Thank You page:
First things first: Shout out to Justin for having a Thank You Page 😂
Most of the creators we’ve funnel hacked in past few weeks didn’t have one (despite it being a crucial part of your newsletter funnel).
That being said, here’re some of the things that stood out from Justin’s Thank You Page:
- He actually thanks you for opting-in. This sounds obvious but I can’t tell you how many creators forget to do this. Don’t take for granted the fact that someone wants to read your stuff!
- He uses a segmentation survey to gather valuable data from new subscribers. Using this data, Justin is able to personalize the content he sends you & the way he presents his paid offers. Great way to increase retention and conversion.
- Lastly, he does a great job framing his ask to complete the survey so it’s a no-brainer. First, he makes it about you, the reader (”I want to make sure that I send you exactly the type of content and newsletters you want to read”). Then, he ensures you it’ll only take 15 seconds to answer all the questions.
Now, even though this Thank You Page looks great, there’s also a few upgrades he could make to take it to the next level:
- Letting the reader know what they should do after completing the survey. Just as he did a great job setting expectations in his landing page, he should do the same here and let people know what the next steps are once they’ve filled out the survey (i.e. checking out his welcome email).
- Offering some sort of incentive/reward in exchange for filling out the survey. Considering how valuable it is to have this data, it’s in your best interest to get as many subscribers as possible to complete this survey. And the easiest way to get someone to do something is to offer an incentive!
- Adding a short Loom video welcoming new readers. This is great way to delight & start to build more affinity with your readers before they’ve even read your first email (especially when you’re primarily leveraging text-first social media platforms to grow your email list, like Justin does).
Funnel Piece #3: The Welcome Email
Lastly, let’s dig into Justin’s Welcome Email.
Just like with his landing page, Justin did an amazing job with this email.
There’s a few upgrades he could make—but let’s break down what he’s doing well first:
- He starts the email strong with some solid social proof.“Welcome to The Saturday Solopreneur Crew of 200,000+ creators, builders, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs & makers.”
- He immediately reminds you what’s in it for you. After a warm welcome, he shares again the 2 big things he’s going to help you accomplish with each of his emails—so you know exactly what you can expect to learn from him from the very beginning.
- He highlights the fact that each of his newsletters takes less than 4 minutes to read. This can be very subtle—but what he’s essentially trying to do here is make you feel like you’re going to get an absurd amount of value with as little effort as possible. And that’s a fantastic way to get people excited to read your stuff.
- He prompts you to respond & move his welcome email out of the spam folder (if it landed there). This is essential for great deliverability and it drastically increases the odds of your readers receiving (and opening) your emails in the future. Plus, he does a nice job creating some FOMO and framing this ask as if he was doing you a favor. “If you don't do the above, you may not receive any of my emails.”
Now, here’s the 2 upgrades he could implement here to make this email even better:
- Personalizing the list of article recommendations based on your survey answers. I like the fact that he ends the email with a list of curated resources so you can get value from his newsletter right away. But at the same time, this would be way more compelling if he used the data he gathered from his Thank You Page survey to give you a “personalized roadmap” based on your current goals and struggles.
- Introducing one of his low-ticket offers and giving you an expiring special discount as a welcome gift. Lastly, considering how much value he gives away for free on LinkedIn, Twitter, and his blog, he could 100% plug one of his low-ticket products at this stage of the funnel and get a nice boost of sales from new subscribers—especially if he leveraged the segmentation survey data and used offered a limited-time discount that actually expires.
Recap
And that’s a wrap!
As usual, we covered a lot and there are a bunch of tactical golden nuggets in this Breakdown.
So I’m going to quickly recap them all below so you can get a quick refresher and decide which one of these nuggets you’re going implement in your own funnels this week.
But first, we need to answer the question we brought up at the beginning of this email:
Is the simplicity of his funnels one of the secrets behind Justin’s success?
Or...
Has he been successful despite his funnels being so simple?
My take:
A combination of both.
I’m all about simplicity.
In fact, one my “themes” of the year is to mind the Midwit Meme (and avoid being the guy in the middle):
That being said, I also think “simplicity” can (and should) look different as your business grows.
When you’re just starting out, you really don’t need to worry about having a super sophisticated funnel.
You just need to create great content, have a solid landing page, and make sure your welcome flow is nice & smooth.
But when you have a 7-figure business, millions of followers, & a 220k email list, keeping things “too simple” can also cost you a lot of bread.
Obviously, if you’re OK with leaving a bunch of money on the table, then that’s fine.
But if you can considerably increase your income with a handful of one-off upgrades, I mean why not, right?
At least that’s how I see it… 🤷🏻♂️
Now, onto the recap!
Tactics Worth Stealing From Justin’s Funnel
- Use a segmentation survey to gather valuable data from new subscribers.
- Promise a transformation in your landing page headline (instead of just a benefit).
- Constantly remind your readers what's in it for them throughout your welcome flow.
- Prompt your readers to reply to your welcome email (to improve deliverability & open rates).
Potential Upgrades He Could Make (That You Can Learn From)
- Remove all the unnecessary distractions from your landing page (to increase open rates).
- Introduce your low-ticket offers in your Welcome Email.
- Add a short Loom video welcoming your new readers on your Thank You Page.
- If you have a segmentation survey on your Thank You page, offer some sort of incentive in exchange for filling it out.
Boom—now the ball is on your court!
Which of these are you going to implement over the next week?
Hit reply and let me know!
Also, if you have any follow-up questions after reading this issue, be sure to let me know too!
I’m here to help :-)
Until next week,
~The Email Marketing Ninja
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