Eben Pagan reveals how to persuade masses through systematic follow-up marketing using email newsletters, autoresponders, and customer avatars. He shares how building an email follow-up series increased his business by 10x and demonstrates the powerful four-part framework (why, what, how, what if) for creating compelling content.
Persuade Masses
How to Create a Customer Avatar for Targeted Marketing -- A systematic approach to defining your ideal customer profile for more effective marketing communications
Building a Single Ideal Customer Avatar
Create a customer avatar by combining all your customers into one imaginary person with only the traits of your ideal customer, including demographics, income, fears, and desires.
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Communicate with Impact or Don't Communicate at All
Follow Jay Abraham's principle: 'Communicate with impact or don't communicate at all'—it's better to send no follow-up than mediocre content that wastes people's time.
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How Learners — Give Them Step-by-Step Recipes
'How' learners need specific action steps and procedures—they can't learn from theory and only understand by getting step-by-step recipes they can practice.
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Shared Customer Traits Create Hypnotic Mass Language
Speaking to shared traits of your customer avatar creates 'hypnotic language for the masses' because you're addressing only the aspects all customers have in common.
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What Learners — Big Picture, Proof, System Maps
'What' learners are theoretical types who need the big picture, scientific proof, system maps, and the history behind concepts before they can learn.
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How to Create a Customer Avatar for Targeted Marketing -- A systematic approach to defining your ideal customer profile for more effective marketing communications
Systematic Follow-Up for Prospects Not Ready to Buy
Most prospects don't buy on first contact, so systematic follow-up using email newsletters, podcasts, or video series is essential for building relationships over time with prospects at different stages of the buying process.
Follow-Up Like Visiting a Home — Build the Relationship
Structure follow-up conversations like visiting a prospect's home multiple times, knowing they won't buy on the first visit, focusing on relationship building and understanding their questions and needs over time.
Narrowing Follow-Up Content to Five to Ten Core Topics
Focus follow-up content on only 5-10 topics that customers care most about, because people can't hear their desires or what they want to avoid too often—you can create 100 newsletters from just a few core topics.
Building a Single Ideal Customer Avatar
Create a customer avatar by combining all your customers into one imaginary person with only the traits of your ideal customer, including demographics, income, fears, and desires.
Four Learning Styles — Why, What, How, What If
Use the four learning styles framework (why, what, how, what if) to create compelling communications that address all personality types and create persuasive sequences.
Communicate with Impact or Don't Communicate at All
Follow Jay Abraham's principle: 'Communicate with impact or don't communicate at all'—it's better to send no follow-up than mediocre content that wastes people's time.
Shared Customer Traits Create Hypnotic Mass Language
Speaking to shared traits of your customer avatar creates 'hypnotic language for the masses' because you're addressing only the aspects all customers have in common.
How Learners — Give Them Step-by-Step Recipes
'How' learners need specific action steps and procedures—they can't learn from theory and only understand by getting step-by-step recipes they can practice.
Connect Every Follow-Up to a Specific Action Step
Always connect the appeal of your follow-up content to a specific action at the end, offering more of what they want if they take the suggested action step.
What Learners — Big Picture, Proof, System Maps
'What' learners are theoretical types who need the big picture, scientific proof, system maps, and the history behind concepts before they can learn.
Why Learners — Lead with the Outcome or Lose Them
'Why' learners need motivation and benefits upfront—tell them what outcome they'll get from reading or listening, or they'll click away immediately.
Motivating What-If Learners Through Action and Discovery
'What if' learners solve real-world puzzles by doing and seeing results—motivate them to experiment and discover what happens through action.
Email Follow-Up Series That Multiplies Results 10x
Adding an email newsletter follow-up series can increase business results by 10x compared to having no follow-up system in place.
Power Affiliation Achievement — The Strongest Why Motivators
The most powerful 'why' motivations connect to power, affiliation, and achievement—both toward and away from versions of each.
Align the Opening Appeal to the Closing Action Step
Always connect whatever appeal you started with to an action step at the end. If someone opens content about avoiding rejection, offer them more rejection-avoidance techniques in your product. This aligns the entire communication and is highly persuasive.
Most Businesses Skip Live Customer Calls and Pay the Price
A customer avatar is when you combine all your customers into one imaginary person with only the traits of your ideal customer. Define their gender, age, location, income, specific wants, and fears to create a precise profile you can speak to directly.
Four Learning Styles — Why What How and What If
The four learning styles are: Why (need motivation and benefits), What (want theory and big picture), How (need action steps and procedures), and What If (learn by experimenting and seeing results). Address all four in sequence for maximum persuasion.
5-10 Core Topics That Generate 100 Newsletters
Focus on only 5-10 topics that your customers care most about. You can create 100 newsletters from just a few core topics by approaching them from different angles, because people can't hear their desires too often.
Email Newsletter Follow-Up Can 10x Your Business Results
According to Eben Pagan, adding an email newsletter follow-up series can increase business results by 10x. He estimates his business would be one-tenth the size without his email newsletter system.
Communicate With Impact or Don't Communicate at All
No. Follow Jay Abraham's principle: 'Communicate with impact or don't communicate at all.' It's better to send no follow-up than mediocre content that wastes people's time, because everyone is time-poor.
How an Email Newsletter Series Became a Business Multiplier
I estimate that my business would be one tenth the size that it is right now had I not put together this email newsletter series and then turned it into a set of autoresponders.
How Much Email Follow-Up Can Lift Business Results
It's really amazing that technology can really automate the building of relationships.
Desire and Avoidance Are the Two Levers of Persuasion
A person can't hear their desire or what they want to avoid too much.
Communicate With Impact or Don't Communicate at All
Communicate with impact or don't communicate at all.
How Many Follow-Up Topics to Focus on in Content Marketing
How many topics should you focus on for follow-up marketing content?
Connecting Follow-Up Content Directly to Sales
What are the four learning styles for persuasive communication?
Send Follow-Up Content Even When It's Not Perfect
Should you send follow-up content even if it's not great?
Four Learning Styles That Drive Persuasive Communication
How much can email follow-up increase business results?
What a Customer Avatar Is and How to Build One
What is a customer avatar and how do you create one?
Communicate With Impact or Don't Communicate
How do you connect follow-up content to sales?
Concepts
Questions
Canonical Teachings
Canonical Answers
Eben reveals how adding systematic follow-up transformed his business, estimating it increased results by 10x. He explains why most prospects don't buy immediately and how automated email sequences can build relationships over time with people at different stages of the buying process.
The key to persuading masses is speaking to what prospects have in common through a precisely defined customer avatar. By combining all customers into one ideal profile including demographics, income, fears, and desires, you create what Eben calls 'hypnotic language for the masses.'
Rather than creating variety, focus deeply on the 5-10 topics customers care most about, approaching them from different angles. Eben demonstrates how he created 100 newsletters from just a few core topics, following Jay Abraham's principle to 'communicate with impact or don't communicate at all.'
Based on Harvard research, this framework addresses why learners (need motivation), what learners (want theory), how learners (need action steps), and what if learners (learn by experimenting). Using all four in sequence creates persuasive communications that connect with every personality type and drives action.
Claim: “Focus on creating new topics and content variety to keep follow-up communications interesting”
Reframe: Stick to only 5-10 topics customers care most about and find 100 different ways to approach each one, because people can't hear their desires too often
Claim: “Send regular follow-up communications to stay top of mind with prospects”
Reframe: Only send follow-up communications that have real impact—it's better to send nothing than mediocre content that wastes people's time
Moving The Free Line
Discover the counterintuitive marketing strategy that helped Eben Pagan generate millions by giving away his best ideas for free.
How To Design Follow Up Newsletters
Learn Eben Pagan's proven formula for follow-up newsletters that turn skeptical prospects into paying customers through strategic relationship building.
Relationship Based Marketing
Learn how to transform marketing from pushy sales tactics into genuine relationship-building that converts prospects into loyal, long-term customers.
