Every email list has its chronic window shoppers.
People who read what you write, browse your site, and yet never place that first order.
And unlike the people who unsubscribe and disappear, these ones just… linger.
Meanwhile, you’re paying to mail them every month. If your ESP charges by subscriber count, they’re literally a line item on your expenses.
That’s why when my client came up with Q2 goals, one was to double the number of “never-buyers” — people who opted in and are on the list, but never purchased — that converted via email.
Here’s what we did… and how the results looked.
| Table of Contents |
| The Challenge: Doubling New Customers From Email What We Did The Results: 1.78x, A Serious Showing What We Plan to Do Next Get More Buyers With Email What To Do Next |
The Challenge: Doubling New Customers From Email
This brand has a large email list with a significant portion of “never-buyers”
Buyers are easier to sell to than leads. So the faster you can turn leads into buyers, the sooner you can make repeat sales.
Plus, this brand’s flagship offer is a continuity offer. Easier to sell recurring billing to existing customers who know you deliver.
What’s more…
The continuity offer includes our top 2 sellers as part of the overall offer structure.
This makes it even easier to sell the continuity offer to those people.
More buyers = more continuity customers = grow recurring revenue and recoup ad spend/front-end losses = reinvest for more growth… creates a nice flywheel effect.
That’s why we wanted to focus on converting more of these people.
In Q1 2026, we had converted 32 of these people for $9,916.74.
For Q2, we aimed for double:
64 sales for $19,833.48.
That’s aggressive, especially since we can’t focus ALL our sends on new customers only.
We aimed for those goal numbers and planned to stay positive even if we fell a little short. “Falling short” would be a big improvement.
Good thing is this brand is in favor of and already used to the “mostly plain text” direct response style.
They prefer it, in fact. This helps, because plain text has several advantages over design-heavy stuff that were key to what we wanted to do.
It also has some strong guarantees around its products. Such risk-reversal makes new customers less apprehensive about being burned, which helps us sell more.
What We Did
1. Segmented “Never Bought” Customers
First, we need to know who these people are. So we set up a segment in our email software for people who have never placed an order with us.
This lets us send only to Never Buyers, so we can tailor messaging and maximize conversions without burning the rest of the list out on suboptimal messaging.
2. Selected The Right Offers to Promote
Instead of promoting the continuity offer or more niche products, we chose two entry-level products most likely to convert skeptical, first-time buyers.
They also happen to be the two top sellers, and one is our main front-end offer:
- A blood test (this is the main front-end offer)
- A supplement
The blood test got most of the emails. I’d say about 70% of them. It offers the broadest appeal, and the results help customers choose what products (if any) to buy next — often, the main supplement.
However, we mailed to the supplement sometimes. Some people are looking for that only, not the test.
Lastly…
As mentioned, both products are part of the continuity offer. So the customer can try both without committing.
The push to continuity is natural:
You saw your data and/or started improving with the supplement… why not get on a recurring plan of testing/supplementation + gain expert help in one white-glove arrangement, all at a membership discount?
Perfect setup.
3. Sent The Segment Dedicated Weekly Sends
The brand’s juggling multiple goals, including selling more of:
- The continuity offer
- A specific high-ticket product
So we couldn’t hog the whole week with Never Bought sends. Instead, we carved out 2 days/week for them.
What’s nice is that our 4x/week regular emails (3 push continuity, 1 pushes that specific high-ticket offer) also hit new customers.
That means the Never Bought people got an email almost daily, and ⅓ of those weekly emails were tailor-made for them.
Higher volume than any other segment.
I don’t have the data, but I bet we sold a couple of Never Bought subscribers on our continuity offer, even if most of our new customer sales were the blood test and supplement.
4. Focused on Story-Based Emails
Early in the engagement, we leaned heavily on science and education. It converted, but not that well.
Our audience has seen claims before. And they’ve heard plenty of science, too. Outside of specific topics, they’re not learning anything new. They’re not that interested.
The brand conducted additional research and found the same to be true.
Customers cared about not wasting money, about actually seeing results and knowing it beyond feeling, about feeling like they’re finally in control of their health, about working with experts…
So I’ve been writing more stories recently. A few types I’ve tried:
- Storymonials: Customer stories with bits of their testimonial sprinkled throughout (often as self-supporting lines that add to the story).
- “Parallel Path” stories: Showing how two similar people’s lives differ after making a decision (such as buying your product or the type of solution you offer).
- Before/after stories: Showing what someone’s life is like before and after.
Most have been storymonials, but the other two have made sales when used.
Either way, two factors at play:
- Stories put the reader at the center. The reader can see themselves in the story. They can see themselves using the product and understand its benefits. It’s not abstract nor is it “telling.”
- Stories are entertaining. People love stories. Especially if relevant to themselves. More will get to the end and have a positive feeling about you, even if they don’t buy.
And, for storymonials, the social proof element demonstrates that your product fixes what your customer cares about most, in the customer’s language.
The Results: 1.78x, A Serious Showing
Recall that in Q1 2026, we hit 32 sales for a hair under $10k in revenue.
We have 1 week left at the time of writing, and here are the numbers:
I’m gonna be conservative and say we close things out with 3 more sales, for 57/64.
Using the actual numbers for an Average Order Value (AOV):
$13,844/54 = $256.37
$256.37 x 3 = $769.11
$769.11 + $1,844.00 = $14,613.11
We didn’t quite hit our goals.
And although 10 sales in a week would be HUGE, the most we’ve ever done is 9.
But that’s fine. The client and our team were ambitious. Doubling quarterly performance is no easy feat.
By aiming for this goal, we achieved a dramatic improvement.
Shoot for the moon, land among the stars if you miss.
Now, the revenue improvement was lower. 1.47x, vs. 1.78x in sales. That’s a lower AOV.
It’s not inherently bad, though.
The main point of getting leads is NOT to profit, but, as mentioned, gain buyers.
And hey, we’re still earning more gross revenue anyway. Assuming margins are the same, that’s more profit.
Also, we weren’t getting a ton of conversions before. The ones who DID come through self-selected into buying and thus are the types to spend more on their first order.
What We Plan to Do Next
A few things we’re doing to convert even more new customers in the near future:
1. Mail More
Mailing more to ANY segment resulted in more sales with few downsides (we’ve already cleaned the list and dialed in deliverability).
The takeaway? Write more emails.
Gotta stay on the idea generation game 24/7 to keep putting out stuff the subscribers want to read (and will buy from).
We mail 7 days a week, but 1 of those days has 2 office hours reminder emails. If possible, we’ll squeeze in a send there.
2. Use More Stories (Quantity AND Variety)
In general, the more stories I sent in a week, the stronger the sales data was that week.
In the future, we’ll mix in more:
- Parallel path stories
- Before/after stories
- Founder stories
- Celebrity stories (if allowed)
- Current events
- Cultural/historical stories
But customer stories/storymonials would remain the cornerstone. Nothing beats customers seeing other customers achieve results with the product.
3. Build Out a Post-Purchase Sequence
I told you the whole point of new leads is to acquire buyers. You want buyers because they’re easier to sell to…
And a Post-Purchase Sequence is the first opportunity to make that happen.
A good one of these flows contains emails that:
- Onboard the customer properly (hype + what to expect)
- Get them a result as fast as possible
- Set up the next logical offer to purchase
- Gathers a review if possible
The next logical step for most new customers is to upsell them to the continuity offer.
So by putting this in place, we can turn a larger portion of our growing number of first-time buyers into repeat customers.
See how lucrative that could be?
4. Optimize The Welcome Sequence
If you have lots of customers on your list who have never ordered, your Welcome Sequence isn’t doing its job. It’s supposed to turn those subs into customers on autopilot.
We’re most likely looking at their Welcome Sequence next month to identify areas we can improve to maximize flow conversions.
That’ll leave us with fewer Never Boughts to win over manually.
Get More Buyers With Email
Nothing here is complicated.
Carve out the relevant slice of the audience, select offers that appeal most to them, and mail them consistently with copy that entertains, educates, and addresses objections + an offer to match.
Next, we’re shifting toward retention to keep a larger portion of these larger inflows for longer. We’ll set aggressive goals here again, but dedicate more attention to upping repeat-order rates and whatnot.
New customers in the door + recurring revenue on the back end = fuel for a fire.
If you want this kind of work done for your brand — segmentation, copy, strategy, and execution needed to get more out of your email list — hit reply or DM me on Substack.
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