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Heyyyyyy!

Welcome to the 54th version of Dark Chocolate, now with a fresh, new look!

As I mentioned in the last email, it’s now a case-study-based newsletter.

Last Thursday and Friday was Diwali, the Festival of Lights!

Firecrackers and lights filled the skies across India.

I love the month of October because it brings the news of my favourite winter with the biggest festivals.

Let’s jump to the business now.

Do you remember I asked you who would be the first creator to get featured in my newsletter?

None of you answered, which makes me a little sad ☹️

But... there's always someone who sticks around!

She guessed it, but she didn’t get it right! Still, I know why she made that guess—IYKYK 😉

So, drumroll pleaseeeeee… the first creator I’m featuring today is…

Matt Lakajev

Creators Spotlight:

Matt Lakajev, the founder of Unlock AI is one of the top creators on LinkedIn and the #1 fastest-growing creator from Australia.

He started out running a café, but even as the owner, he wasn’t satisfied with the profit margin. So, he leapt and transitioned into Sales and Marketing, with a new mission to help others break free from the 9-5 grind.

He often shares his mission with three key goals:

• Helping 10,000 creators make their first sale

• Helping 1,000 creators achieve a six-figure income

• Helping 100 creators reach a seven-figure income

Here’s how it all began.

Now, let’s talk about what Matt actually does.

Matt helps you generate leads and build a seven-figure business on LinkedIn.

He serves two main categories.

One is for creators and the other is for Business Owners.

The first offer is coaching, which he hosts on Skool (costing him $99/month in platform fees).

To acquire clients for his coaching, he offers a free email-based course where he teaches how to create an offer and make sales.

This free course also helps him showcase the benefits of joining his paid community.

He’s even made some lessons from his paid program public.

Plus, he randomly selects profiles to review and provides feedback, which helps him build authority.

But Anirban, Matt knows his ICP, he generates leads from LinkedIn so how does Email Marketing help him?

Well, we will talk about it in the next section.

How he leveraged Email Marketing

As I always say day by day more and more people will start using Email Marketing, why? This is the only way where you own your audience.

No one knows when the social media profile bans you.

But does that mean you can grow without social media? Not possible.

So what is the best way? Send the traffic of social media to the newsletter.

But, Anirban, tell me how Matt generated revenue using Emails

Well, here is how he did it.

Matt started back on 21 Dec 2022 and spent the next 9 months with hard work, breakdowns, and burnt $180,000 of his savings…

After that, he built a $100k MRR business on LinkedIn.

Repeated failure and learning were enough for him to understand what his prospects wanted, and based on that, he designed his coaching and courses.

So here are 3 things he did which helped him to generate revenue with Email Marketing.

1. Lead Magnets

Matt did the same. He created numerous case studies, shared some course material, and used them as lead magnets.

However, you can create 100 lead magnets, but maybe 0 people will check them.

In Matt's case, he has a large following, and most of them are highly engaged and eager for the exact solutions he provides.

So he kept posting his results on LinkedIn and included a call-to-action at the bottom, to invite them to learn for free from his email crash course.

2. Social Media is too crowded

One reason creators focus on emails is that social media is too crowded. Many people try to position themselves as experts and that makes it difficult to sell services.

By choosing email marketing, you can communicate with your mailing list on a 1:1 basis.

This is the same reason Matt chose email as his secondary platform right after LinkedIn; it makes it much easier to sell his coaching programs.

Surprisingly, he simply repurposed the same content he posts on LinkedIn.

3. Persuasion

Email Marketing is the only channel where you get the chance to talk 1:1 so it is always easy to persuade better.

Unlike social media.

Robert Cialdini’s six principles of persuasion can be effectively applied to email marketing, and Matt has leveraged them successfully.

• Law of Reciprocity

• Law of Commitment and Consistency

• Law of Liking

• Law of Scarcity

• Law of Authority

• Law of Social Proof

In this five-day email course, he delivered immense value, used the six principles, and made sales.

And most importantly? The list he made is an asset, it will keep delivering him sales.

Key Takeaways

In the last 50+ editions, I’ve focused on providing immense value, which is why my emails still land in your primary inbox at 10:00 AM every Sunday, and you love it (that goes without saying! 🙈)

The same applies to Matt. In his free email course, he offers more value than many do in their paid products, which truly makes him stand out.

Here are 5 main takeaways reasons his email works

1. How he uses numbers in the subject line

(ignore the 5 mail of the free course)

• $69,000 in 2 campaigns

• 42 meetings and 7 deals

• $660k on WhatsApp in 6 months

According to the Mailmodo, Subject lines that contain numbers see a 17% higher open rate.

(He does the same on LinkedIn, too.)

2. Content Repurposing

Matt has a smart strategy for content distribution. By posting on LinkedIn first, he gauges audience interest and demand. This approach allows him to repurpose his content effectively into emails, maximizing reach across different platforms.

3. Less pushy CTA

They’re less pushy because he focuses on storytelling and providing immense value.

By using the HSO (Hook-Story-Offer) framework, he engages readers without making them feel pressured to act.

It helps him to establish a more organic connection with his audience.

That’s all. I hope you enjoyed the same old dark chocolate, now with a brand-new wrapper.

Did your friend refer you? Well, he/she is such a sweet person.

Here you can subscribe and read more boss 😄👇