I had a conversation with Nicolas Cole recently, trying to soak up as much as I could about how he grew Ship 30 for 30 and Premium Ghostwriting Academy to millions in revenue by leveraging audience and community. During our conversation, we got on the topic of sales funnels. He explained his thoughts and process to me. As he spoke, I suddenly started doodling.
Here’s the thing about community everything, though... it’s too much. There are only so many communities someone can be a part of and engage meaningfully with. Dunbar’s number comes to mind here. The commitment of joining yet another “community” and the cognitive load of bringing and receiving value from it is overwhelming for a lot of folks. And let’s be honest, most things just aren’t worth the investment of your time and energy relative to the infinity many other things you could be spending your time on. Community is amazing and a transformational value for a small handful of things and/or a hyper niche group of users of most products or services, but they generally don’t scale and require a disproportionate amount of effort to get off the ground relative to their value (in most cases). Surveys on the other hand are easy, cheap, ephemeral, and only require a discrete time investment. Moreover, they’re a great onboarding tool for a niche community if that’s a goal, or there’s genuine long-term value from it.
I was waiting for the part where you had some innovation on the current funnel. That is a pretty standard funnel that people have been doing for years.
Lead magnets came form the direct response crowd which is Eugene Schwartz old, posting on social is just another channel to drive people to your lead magnet.
When in NYC next week are there any plans to do a Meetup for readers ?
Thanks for sharing Greg! I recently started my newsletter and this gave me more validity for all the moving parts.
Here’s the thing about community everything, though... it’s too much. There are only so many communities someone can be a part of and engage meaningfully with. Dunbar’s number comes to mind here. The commitment of joining yet another “community” and the cognitive load of bringing and receiving value from it is overwhelming for a lot of folks. And let’s be honest, most things just aren’t worth the investment of your time and energy relative to the infinity many other things you could be spending your time on. Community is amazing and a transformational value for a small handful of things and/or a hyper niche group of users of most products or services, but they generally don’t scale and require a disproportionate amount of effort to get off the ground relative to their value (in most cases). Surveys on the other hand are easy, cheap, ephemeral, and only require a discrete time investment. Moreover, they’re a great onboarding tool for a niche community if that’s a goal, or there’s genuine long-term value from it.
I was waiting for the part where you had some innovation on the current funnel. That is a pretty standard funnel that people have been doing for years.
Lead magnets came form the direct response crowd which is Eugene Schwartz old, posting on social is just another channel to drive people to your lead magnet.
Great read!
Thanks for sharing :)
you really think it's still early on notion templates? seems past, but i usually jump off the train too early on stuff like this
Super helpful to hear about the funnel in the context of a smaller (i.e. content driven) business. Enjoyed this one!