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Imagine this…

You’re mindlessly scrolling through Instagram when an ad steals your attention.

Because it’s not an ad for just anything.

It’s for a newsletter that promises to teach you the psychology behind why people buy so you can sell more stuff *and* look like the smartest marketer in the room.

“Damn, I’ve gotta see what this is about,” you think as you click the ad and enter your email on the opt-in page.

A few seconds later, a welcome email flies into your inbox and asks you to pick which is your top business goal:

1. Increasing conversions
2. Identifying best-fit buyers

You click “increasing conversions,” and a free gift to help with your goal arrives minutes later.

Over the next few days, you receive emails jam-packed with actionable, science-backed ways to increase conversions.

Each email feels tailored to you and is genuinely helpful. You’re impressed.

At the bottom of the very last email, you’re asked to refer a friend who would love this newsletter.

The cherry on top? You’ll unlock a sweet prize for making the referral.

“No brainer,” you think as you click the button to refer your best friend and two teammates.

Within hours, they also subscribe to Why We Buy 🧠 and the cycle starts all over again when they refer a friend too.

How is this newsletter using flywheels to grow its subscribers?

In today’s edition of Why We Buy 🧠 we’ll explore Growth Flywheels—why the most successful businesses in the world use them to grow smarter (instead of harder).

Let’s get into it.
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🧠 The Brilliance of Growth Flywheels

Flywheels are pretty magical.

​​Imagine a virtuous cycle where every effort amplifies the next rotation.

It starts slow, but as momentum builds, a snowball effect kicks in, allowing it to not only keep going but to increase results (even if you’re away on vacation).

That’s a flywheel.

Nathan Barry, the founder of ConvertKit, notes there are three criteria a flywheel must meet to be effective:

1. The activities flow smoothly, like a river, from one point to the next
2. Each rotation is easier than the last rotation
3. Each rotation produces more than the last rotation

You may not realize it, but every ultra-successful company uses flywheels, from Amazon, Vanguard, and Dropbox.

And smart creators like Sahil Bloom and Jay Clouse also build flywheels to power their businesses.

Let’s look at one of Jay Clouse’s flywheels.

Each week Jay writes his newsletter and then posts the topic to social media (along with a link to subscribe).

When you join, you get an automated welcome sequence that includes this million-dollar question: “If I were to dedicate one issue of my newsletter to an issue you were specifically facing, what would that be?”

Jay then uses those answers to inspire future newsletter content.

The result of this flywheel? Constant content ideas (goodbye, writer’s block!) that will continuously grow an engaged audience because he’s writing on topics his audience is most interested in.

Tl;dr: Flywheels are the key to running a successful business by working smarter—not harder.

This means more efficiency, more sales, and, ultimately, less work for you. Sounds good, right?
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🤑 How to Apply This

Alright, so how are smart businesses combining flywheels and buyer psychology to drive growth?

Multi-level marketing​
​Focus on the messenger as much as the product

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, multi-level marketing companies (MLM) are incredibly effective flywheels.

And MLMs like Arbonne *don’t* use random TV actors to sell their health and beauty products…

It uses your neighbor, aunt, or best friend.

By leveraging those in our inner circle, we’re more likely to buy because we listen to and buy from people we know, like, and trust.

Known as ‘Independent Consultants’, they’re incentivized to:

1) sell more (because their income is tied to individual and team sales)

2) recruit others (because they can earn bonuses and get a commission from the sales of people they recruit).

And as new Independent Consultants join, the flywheel gains more momentum.
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Smart Stuff You’ll Love 😍

Wanna see your brand here?​
​Advertise with us​

Brand​
​Create an identity your audience wants to show off

People care about how others see them. That’s human nature.

This is why brands that help us showcase *who we are* can grow very quickly. It’s called identity signaling.

For example, when you buy a pair of TOMS, they donate another pair to someone in need.

So not only are you helping someone else, you’re also signaling to others that you’re charitable (a highly desired group to belong to). Which can lead others to follow in your footsteps *literally* and buy their own pair of TOMS.

As Jonah Berger says, brands that are “built to show are built to grow”.

It’s no wonder that TOMS has given away 100,000,000+ shoes.
​

Newsletters​
​Get paid to grow your audience

Right now we’re working on building our own growth flywheel at Why We Buy 🧠.

First, we’ll invest in paid growth channels to attract new subscribers.

Then we’ll segment new readers based on their top business needs, WOW them with a personalized welcome sequence and helpful freebie, casually promote our relevant digital products—like Wallet-Opening Words or Clarity Call Cheatsheets—and then ask them to refer a friend at the end.

This last small ask leverages Reciprocity Decay. We’ll make the ask soon after providing a ton of actionable value, so new readers will be more likely to comply.

This strategy will (hopefully) attract more organic subscribers through referrals AND help us recoup money spent on ads through product sales… so we can reinvest in more paid growth.

If all goes well, we’ll get paid to grow our list, FAST. Or at least we’ll break even and build trust with new readers just in time for our new product launch (coming in September). 👀

At the end of every month, we’ll share more specific details on the flywheel we built and tell you how it’s going—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

(Psst… if you missed my LinkedIn post explaining why I *had to* pivot to a more sustainable business model, you can check it out here.)
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💥 The Short of It

Flywheels are the key to creating a thriving business where momentum builds faster… without YOU needing to work harder.

If you want to intentionally be lazier and still grow your business, you need to build flywheels.

To start making our initial flywheel rotations in Q3, we’re partnering with these amazing brands: ConvertKit, Studio, and Superside.

And we’ll be keeping you updated every step of the journey as we grow Why We Buy 🧠 into a $2M/year business.

Stay tuned.

​
Until next time, happy selling!

With ❤️ from Katelyn​
​

Katelyn Bourgoin Why We Buy 🧠 Helping 260,000 smart people learn buyer psychology Advertise with us > Follow me on Twitter & LinkedIn

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Psssssst: Steve Sheiner used 2 science-backed copywriting techniques when he wrote this 5-star review for Wallet-Opening Words.

Do you know what they are? Hit reply to share your guess.