the truth about subscriber acquisition

I did a coaching call with a customer the other day.

He helps SaaS founders with marketing and sales.

Yet after growing his business to a pretty comfortable revenue level and building a list of 1,000+ subscribers strictly through ads…

He realized something:

The audience he had wasn’t the audience he wanted.

You see, all of his marketing spoke to beginners.

And while there were plenty of these folks who were willing and able to pay him…

Many struggled with basic mindset issues.

And I know from experience that can be frustrating AF to try to coach people through.

Anyway…

By the time our call took place, he’d since pivoted to a partnership model targeting much bigger companies…

Which meant a new ad strategy…

And subsequently, less emphasis on email.

In fact, he felt a bit sheepish about showing up to our call in light of this.

But here’s what I told him:

That’s exactly how it should be.

You’ve got to solve for subscriber acquisition first.

Once you’ve figured out how to get the right people onto your list, then you can start worrying about what to send them.

Because a chicken shawarma ain’t worth much to a vegan.

Or somebody who just ate.

(Hence why I shared two of my favorite ad copy frameworks with him instead.)

Regardless, the good news for you is…

There’s lots of acquisition channels that can work:

- Paid ads
- Social media
- Recommendations

So before you start mailing daily…

Pick one and get it working.

Confirm you’re attracting the right people.

Then ramp publishing frequency as your list grows.

Winning isn’t just about doing all the right things.

It’s also about doing them in the right order.

Happy Friday ✌️

Jim Hamilton