Broadcasts and Basic Automation
Everyone who opts in lands on one house list and hears from you every week, so the list keeps making sales between launches.
By James Schramko · Updated November 2026
You have an email list and you send to it when you remember. Some months that is twice. Some months it is nothing. The people on it signed up because they wanted to hear from you, and most weeks they do not.
The fix is one house list that gets one email from you every week, and a short automation that puts every new subscriber onto it. That is the whole system. Two kinds of email run it: fresh emails you write each week, and automated emails that send themselves when someone opts in.
What Your Email Service Must Do
You will need a quality email service that gives you at least:
- good deliverability
- automation
- behavioural tags and segmentation
I use Brevo. Any service that does those three is fine. One that does not will cost you more in lost sends than it saves in fees.
The Rules I Send By
- The prospect should be better off for receiving the email. So do not call them blasts.
- Send more emails and you will make more sales.
- Multiple emails per week keeps your send reputation and deliverability scores good.
- Only send emails to people who asked for them.
- Make sure the promise of the opt-in is met.
- Emails should be relevant.
Three Broadcasts Worth Sending
News. If you have a show, a podcast, regular content or an informative newsletter, a broadcast makes sense. I let people know when there is a new podcast. Ideally most of your email database, your house list, receives these. It is fine to send them to paying clients as well.
Case studies. If you had no show you would at least want to send a case study on a regular basis. When they are close to real time they get the most traction and make more sales. They reduce risk, increase trust, show proof and demonstrate your ability. A great way to sell.
Affiliate promotions. Send one regularly. These can be a new offer, something fresh in your ecosystem that your prospects should know about. Choose things you would recommend without the commission.
Pick one of the three for this week. News if you have a show. A case study if you do not.
The Super Signature
Every broadcast ends the same way, with a Super Signature. The idea is Dean Jackson's.
Here are three ways I can help you:
Way 1 (Book)
Way 2 (Program)
Way 3 (Service)
Those are examples. List yours in order of generality and ease of access, and make them compelling. The signature does the selling so the body of the email does not have to.
The Opt-In Automation
A lead magnet is anything someone opts in for: a multi-email campaign, a checklist, a PDF book, a free training, a summit, a challenge, a document. Each one needs a small automation behind it, four emails long:
- Deliver the thing you promised.
- Ask the prospect how they liked it.
- Make an offer.
- Add them to your house list. Let them opt in or out.
Step four is the one that matters most. It is how every new subscriber ends up on the weekly email. A drip that follows an opt-in is fine; the list depends on it. What does not belong anywhere in it is a deadline invented for the sake of pressure.
Self-Diagnostic
Open your email service and count the sends to your house list in the last four weeks. Fewer than four means the list is cooling and your deliverability score with it.
Look at your most recent lead magnet. After it was delivered, what did the subscriber get next? If the answer is nothing, they never reached your house list and your weekly email never reached them.
What To Do This Week
Write and send one broadcast to your house list this week: news if you have a show, a case study if you do not. Put a Super Signature at the bottom. Then open your newest lead magnet and build the four-email automation behind it, ending with the subscriber landing on the house list.
Quick Reference
- One house list. One email a week, at least.
- A good service: deliverability, automation, tags.
- Send news, case studies and the occasional affiliate promotion.
- Every broadcast ends in a Super Signature.
- Every opt-in gets four emails: deliver, ask, offer, house list.
- Only send to people who asked. Meet the promise of the opt-in.
Deciding what your weekly email should carry, and what goes in your Super Signature, is work I do with Mentor clients.