🔍 How Pat Walls Optimized Starter Story To Collect 2k Emails A Day

Hi, Everyone! 

Today we have an exclusive case study for you. Pat Wall from Starter Story shared on Twitter that his site went from collecting ~200 to 2k emails a day, 10x in 3 months. He said he did it with little improvement every day. You know we are all about actionable tactics. So Alex jumped on a call with him to get all the details to share with you. Enjoy!

Spending your marketing budget based on guesswork is like going to Vegas and betting your entire life’s savings on roulette.

Marketers waste millions each year in irrelevant ads, copy, and campaigns that consumers ignore.

And Attest’s consumer research platform helps prevent you from being that marketer.

How?

Imagine having your target customer in the room with you 24/7 to help you plan and execute.

Plus, here’s why I love it:

• It connects you to millions of your target audience, with answers back in days (or hours).
• Its insights tell you how to adapt and pivot for success
• You don’t need to be a skilled researcher to use it; it’s easy and intuitive to get started and comes with unlimited access to a team of research experts to help you learn.

So, for the sake of your marketing budget, stop guessing and start using stress-free consumer research here.

We talked to Pat Walls from Starter Story to learn how he went from collecting ~200 to 2k emails a day, 10x in 3 months.

How?

• Deliberate email capture widget placements
• Thoughtful value propositions
• Placements throughout different stages of the funnel
• Tailoring it to different audiences.

Let’s break it down from top to bottom.

Audience: Site visitors

Placement: Top menu bar

Value proposition: Join the starter story community

Pat placed an always-on email collector on the top menu bar. Wherever they are on the site, visitors have a way to join the starter story community by giving their email.

Audience: Visitors land on the home page

Placement: Above the fold, front, and center

Value proposition: For free, access 4,329 case studies with founders to learn how they start their successful businesses.

It exists above the fold and leads with a strong value proposition, prompting a visitor to exchange their email for a library of case studies.

Audience: Visitors scroll down the home page

Placement: Below the fold, within content blocks

Value proposition: Find your next business idea

For visitors not convinced to sign up above-the-fold, Pat tests a different value proposition with a below-the-fold email widget that blends into his case study catalog page.

Audience: Founders

Placement: Below the fold, within content blocks

Value proposition: Get your business story in front of thousands of readers

If the visitor is a founder, Pat also ensures an opt-in funnel for them.

Audience: Visitors with exit-intent

Placement: Full-screen takeover

Value proposition: For free, join 90k other subscribers to learn business ideas, marketing strategies, and money-making opportunities.

For visitors with exit extent, Pat uses a full-screen takeover to get them over the hill and on his email list.

And he uses all the convincing elements:

• Clear headline (Want to discover ideas to make money?)
• Social proof (Join 93,457 business starters)
• Objection Tackling (5 Minutes (Saves time), Free (Doesn’t cost money))
• Re-iterates the value proposition (Business ideas, marketing strategies, and biz opportunities)

Audience: Readers of a case study

Placement: Embedded within case studies

Value proposition: For free, join 90k other subscribers to learn business ideas, marketing strategies, and money-making opportunities.

Within each case study, Pat places email capture forms giving readers easy access to sign up for the newsletter, and works as a bridge for readers enjoying the content.

Audience: Readers of multiple case studies

Placement: Email-gated case studies

Value proposition: Get a 15% discount for unlimited access to case studies.

For high-intent visitors having reached the limit of free case studies, instead of forcing them down a conversion funnel, Pat opts for collecting their emails first and offers 15% in return.

The redirect page after email submission gives people more information on why they should become paying members.

Audience: Case Study Readers

Placement: Bottom menu bar

Value proposition: Specific lead magnet offering 52 businesses you can start with $1k

Quality email subscribers are engaged, readers. So, when someone makes it to the bottom of a Starter Story article or case study, Pat gives them a frictionless way to join their email list with a strong value prop.

• He doesn’t ask readers to sign up - he gives readers a reason to sign up.
• He doesn’t just give readers one reason to sign up, but different reasons to sign up (multiple value props).
• He makes it simple for readers who want to sign up - to sign up by placing email capture throughout the site.
• Each email capture form includes the “sign-up secret sauce: Value prop, objection tackling, social proof, specificity, call to value.
• Each form has a clear value proposition that speaks to the audience's motivation at different stages of the funnel.

Needless to say, it’s a masterclass on building an email list:

I love this guide by my friends over at Inbox Mailers. I've used it for Marketing Examined, and our open rate is near 50% with over 50k subscribers.

• How to automate perfectly timed promo emails.
• Workflow to revive up to 23% of your unengaged subscribers.
• How Cross-Network Email Triggers can revive your dead list and increase your click volume.
• Steps that protect your emails from mass deletions.

You can snag it here.

• Avocados from Mexico bring ChatGPT to Super Bowl Commercial
• Are we entering an age of “deinfluence”?
• Twitter Rolls Out Search Keywords Ads
• Have you watched ‘The Last of Us’? Read how HBO Max marketed the show into a global hit
• TikTok Ban Faces Obscure Hurdle: The Berman Amendments

*Want to sponsor Marketing Examined? Fill out this Typeform here.*

This one was a grinder. We scheduled an interview, but the audio didn’t pull through on the recording. But here we are. Case study complete.

You enjoy it?

We’re outta here!

Alex & Chi