🕵️‍♂️ Why is everyone replying Madagascar?

Brought by Email-Based Course

Hey thieves!

Two things I hope to have ready for this week:

I’m getting back to work. Plenty to do. Here’s this week’s content!

Stolen Tactics

#1 - You need an email-based course

This is a sponsored tactic by Email-Based Course

Every creator needs email as part of their strategy.

The easiest way to incorporate it is by creating email-based courses (aka EBCs).

EBCs are assets that, once created, work for you and your business 24/7.

They help you:

What’s the advantage vs a regular newsletter?

Newsletters are one-and-done. Once it’s out, that’s it; their impact ends there.

EBCs, on the other side, are always ON. New people come in, go through it and leave feedback so you can continue to improve it forever.

They are also way easier to refer, as they have a specific outcome for the audience member.

It’s a great asset to own as a starting point for new subs.

As a good thief, I asked Will Steiner from Email-Based Course if I could steal a few tips from him, as he’s the #1 expert in the world about EBCs.

Here’s what he told me:

I’m convinced. My goal for March will be to build my own Email-based course!

*******

#2 - Why Madagascar?

Why do I have so many people replying Madagascar to my welcome email?

Because I ask for it. But why?

A welcome email should generate as many replies as possible to help improve future email delivery.

My thesis:

People don’t have time to give thought-out answers to open-ended questions like “Why did you subscribe?”

But they do have time to give a one-word answer.

I incentivize it by adding a storytelling element, telling new subs that Madagascar is the secret code needed to join our Steal Club.

So far, it’s working! I get at least 5 of these a day 😅

*******

#3 - Disappearing newsletter referral rewards

During my newsletter referral stealing research, I found a newsletter writer (Houck) who does something very unique:

→ He only asks for one referral to unlock the reward…but the reward changes every month.

This is smart because it generates scarcity and FOMO.

He says this has 10x the number of weekly subscribers he gets from referrals.

It seems he is no longer doing this but that it was an early growth engine he played with.

*******

#4 - Steal my research method

Many of you ask me where how I spot that many tactics every week.

Well, one of my secret tricks is podcast research.

But the problem is that podcasts are not really that searchable unless you do the following 👇

This is how I often find little nuggets of gold that I later turn into tactics to share in this newsletter.

Should I write more about my research methods? Let me know!

The Vault

🕵️‍♂️ How Jeff Felten found success after niching down. Extract from our pod conversation.

🕵️‍♂️ Find the perfect keyword with low competition and high traffic potential and start getting that SEO juice. Free tool.

🕵️‍♂️ This copywriter went through 300 brand taglines. Here are the 24 rhetorical devices they all use.

🕵️‍♂️ Found this free LinkedIn cheatsheet. It's way better than most paid courses out there.

^{Links with} 👉️ ^{are either ads or affiliate links. I only promote things I fully endorse.}

Last Word

I’m always looking for feedback and love hearing from the readers. How am I doing with The Steal Club?

What do you like most about it? And least? Is there anything you’d like to see more or less of?

Hit reply even if it’s to say hello - I’m always happy to chat with you :)

See you next week with more thefts,

Alex Llull

Chief Thief