Goldilocks and the 3 subscriber phases... - Kit Approved Expert | Email Marketing Strategist John Bellingham

25th April, 2025
A NEWSLETTER FOR SOLOS
Read time: approx. 4-5 mins

Goldilocks and the 3 subscriber phases…

Email Marketing

The Three Phases of an Email Subscriber Relationship*

I see it way too often – email marketers who collect new subscribers and immediately start to sell to them. 🤦🏻‍♂️

It’s an instant turn-off (at least, for me) and sets the tone of the relationship off on the wrong footing.

Don’t get me wrong, the entire reason for having an email marketing system is to generate profits for your business – it’s not normally for charitable purposes.

You’re a subscriber to my email list, and I hope that at some point in the future (if not already!) you’ll see enough value in what I sell to buy from me.

The same is true of your business.

Phase 1 of 3 – Help solve the problem they showed up with

I’ll use my business as an example; let’s say someone downloads my free guide “The Email Marketer’s Starter Guide“.

What is the subscriber looking for at that moment?

Well, they obviously want to get started with email marketing – they’ve likely been online and stumbled upon my content.

So, the challenge they have at that moment is not knowing how to get started with email marketing, so it’s my job to uphold my promise of showing them, via my guide.

After they get the guide, I start to drip-feed them complementary supporting content via an email sequence to help them get started (and to keep them engaged with the guide).

Phase 2 of 3 – Build trust and collect data from them

With their initial challenge addressed, you now need to gain the subscriber’s trust by continuing to deliver helpful emails.

Sprinkled among your helpful content, you should collect useful info from your subscribers that will guide you in what to share with them in future.

A simple example is to ask them, “What’s your biggest challenge right now?” – based on their response, tailor your content accordingly.

An example of options I might give my subscribers;

I want to grow my email subscriber list
I want to automate my email marketing system
I want to increase my sales via email

Depending on how they respond, I would then move them into an email sequence that best serves that particular problem.

Phase 3 of 3 – Offer them a paid solution to their problem

In my experience, once you have completed phases one and two, subscribers fall into one of two camps;

In the first camp are those you’ve given helpful content to, and they either achieved what they wanted or just gave up and did nothing.

In the second camp are those subscribers who decide, “I’ve tried this myself, but I still need (or want) help – I’ll ask John to help me.“.

Either way, it’s a win-win situation – no matter which camp they’re in, they’ve had the opportunity to have their problem solved. They can choose the free or paid option.

♻ *A point worth noting here is that this 3-phased approach runs on an never-ending cycle. Once you’ve sold (or at least, offered) a paid solution, get back to sharing ever-helpful content until it’s time to make that next paid offer.

Kit Feature

Integration with Canva

*This feature is only available to Kit subscribers on the ‘Creator’ or ‘Creator Pro’ plans.

If you’re a Canva user, you’ll be familiar with creating a graphic or image that you want to use in your Kit email, so you go through the process of creating it, downloading it (from Canva), and finally uploading it to Kit as a .jpg or .png.

It becomes a bit of a trudge, especially if you’re doing it repeatedly for multiple emails – I know I do it a few times every day!

But no longer! 😃

You can now integrate your Canva account with your Kit account. This means that as soon as you’ve created your Canva image, it appears automatically inside Kit’s media gallery.

To set it up, do this;

Navigate to the menu option, ‘Automate‘ > ‘Apps‘

Then head to the Canva app and click on the ‘install’ button; (I already have it installed on mine, below);

Once installed, you’ll now have direct access to your Canva image library, from the Kit editor;

When you click on the Canva logo, on the right-hand side of the screen, you’ll see all your Canva images listed;

It’s a simple feature, but oftentimes it’s the simple ones that become the most useful!

Tech you might find helpful

Cursor Pro

In my business, I do a LOT of screen sharing, giving demos of Kit and other platforms.

One of the challenges viewers can have is trying to follow my mouse around the screen to see exactly what I’m doing.

For this, I use a little tracking tool called ‘Cursor Pro‘.

It basically follows the cursor around your screen and puts a circle around it, making it easy to see;

Goldilocks and the 3 subscriber phases... 6

It comes with a bunch of settings you can tweak, choosing your colours, the shape of the highlighter, and how to use the magnifier feature; 👇

It costs $14.99 (one-off purchase) and is available from the Apple Store (for Macs) – there is a free Windows® version, called ‘Cursor Highlighter Pro‘, available from the Microsoft Store.

Have you heard of…

The Goldilocks Principle

Also referred to as the ‘just right‘ principle, it’s based on the story of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears‘ – the one where Goldilocks tries porridge that’s too hot, too cold, and then just right.

Behavioural science has shown that when we, as business owners, can use this principle when presenting products and services, making it more likely for customers to buy from us.

If you look for it, you’ll see it in action in everyday places, especially with online platforms – they make an offer and present 3 options, a low-entry one, a mid-level one, and a high-end one.

The rationale behind it is that people, when faced with this kind of offer, switch their brains to a ‘which one of these looks best for me‘ thought process, rather than ‘should I buy it or not‘ (the default position when there’s only one option).

Here’s a simple example to demonstrate the principle in action; this is a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform offering licensing options to its software:

The page above shows three options for prospective customers: low, medium, & high.

If you’re considering buying this software, you’ll look at the three options and think, which one best suits my current needs? (or maybe even your anticipated needs).

You’ll likely think… “If I go for the 5-license option, I’m getting 5 x times the value for just twice the price.” – I’m not suggesting that’s necessarily true, just that it’s a thought process many people are likely to run through in their minds.

You’ll then likely make a comparison (even if it’s subconsciously) between options #2 and #3 – and you’ll think… “Yeah, I’ll never need 15 website licenses.” (unless you build websites for a living!) – “Option #2 is perfect for me!“.

You see what’s going on here, right?

You’re being positioned within a range of options, and mentally you’re justifying the most relevant and appropriate tier for your needs.

Contrast this with the following landing page mock-up, and things look very different;