Tom Alder Onboarding Walkthrough (Happy Subscribers LM)
Chenell Basilio
Mar 15, 2026
Transcript
00:00
I wanna walk you through one of my favorite examples of a great onboarding sequence for a new subscriber.
00:05
So let's jump over and check this out.
00:07
This one is from Tom Alder over at Strategy Breakdowns and this is his landing page.
00:13
It's super clear.
00:14
Same thing I talk about, right?
00:15
Make it simple.
00:16
All you're asking for is someone's email address and that's that.
00:20
So this is super clear, right, what we're doing.
00:23
learn the strategies that built the great the World's greatest companies Great headline.
00:27
A brief weekly email on the playbooks and growth hacks behind the successful software, Internet or media companies.
00:32
Great sub headline and then a quick little bullet point list of things you'll get 80,000 strategy nerds from Google, Meta, Atlassian, Stripe, Snap.
00:42
And then he has, this nice gif of an issue of the newsletter.
00:46
I'd probably say to change this since it's now July 3rd, 3rd of 2025.
00:51
However small things that most people probably don't notice.
00:55
but this is all, all the pages, right?
00:57
Great page, super clear.
00:59
All right, let's get into.
01:00
Once you enter your email, this is the page you end up on.
01:04
So I kind of alluded to this before in the Sniper links example, but I want to showcase it again.
01:09
So got the same little guy here, but now he's moving.
01:13
Right?
01:13
Almost there.
01:14
Check your inbox, confirm your email and then he gives you the sniper links for either Gmail or Outlook, which the Outlook one actually isn't a sniper link.
01:21
It's just a link to open Outlook.
01:23
But let's keep going.
01:24
Okay, so once you actually get into your inbox, this is email you get, right?
01:30
Confirm your email with a little bullet or a target here.
01:34
This is his emoji for this email.
01:36
I he has the same GIF here, which is super fun.
01:38
And then he has it here too.
01:40
And this looks like a window, like a, a Mac based window.
01:44
It's pretty cool.
01:45
Hey, from Sydney, it's Tom here.
01:46
Thanks for subscribing.
01:47
Our case studies will help you level up your strategy skills in just three minutes per week.
01:51
There's the bullseye again.
01:52
To complete your signup and receive tomorrow's case study.
01:55
So he's alluding to getting something once you actually do these things.
01:58
Reply to this Email and say hey and then click this link to confirm.
02:02
Thanks for joining.
02:03
Glad you're here.
02:04
From Tom Alder.
02:05
And then he has a little GIF of him waving.
02:07
So super, super fun.
02:09
And then from a cafe somewhere in Sydney.
02:12
And if you know Tom at all, if you've seen any of his content on social, he's always posting a screenshot of his workspace in a cafe.
02:18
So this is super on brand.
02:19
Love that.
02:20
Okay, so let's click the link and, and see where we end up.
02:24
Now this is probably my favorite part of this whole strategy, so pay attention.
02:28
and it says you're in welcome.
02:30
Same emoji.
02:30
He's getting.
02:31
You used to seeing this emoji and remembering it's from him.
02:33
From now on you'll get our weekly or around weekly newsletter containing three minute strategy case studies that make you a more effective strategist in the Internet era.
02:42
You'll also receive regular behind the scenes emails with stories and resources from around the strategy breakdowns ecosystem.
02:49
Now let's get you started with a quick strategy case study on Apple.
02:53
Okay, so remember this is like the, the thank you page.
02:56
I usually am a big fan of having much more in the welcome email.
03:00
Right.
03:01
I usually want you to keep them in your ecosystem.
03:03
Do all these things.
03:05
Tom is just doing two reply, click this link.
03:08
He's subtly dropping hints about the emoji.
03:11
He's letting you know who he, who he is, at the same time this welcome page does a lot of the heavy lifting.
03:17
So let's keep going.
03:18
we're going to get you started with this quick strategy case study on Apple.
03:22
Now this is probably his most popular case study.
03:24
Just calling that out.
03:26
Okay, so you can either scroll down or click and then it's like taking little micro moments if you've ever heard that term before.
03:34
get people to do little, little things that kind of move them along and keep them engaged and, and clicking this button is one of those.
03:40
Okay, so we have this nice little graphic here how Apple makes you spend more.
03:45
That's interesting.
03:46
And then he goes into the actual case study.
03:48
Apple has mastered the art of making their upsell seem irresistible.
03:52
And then from here you can click over and say hi to Tom on LinkedIn LinkedIn and then he's asking for another micro moment.
03:58
And look, if you look down here at the UTM parameters he's seeing, you're clicking down to chess move.
04:05
So he's going to be able to see how many people get through and click down, which is fun.
04:10
Okay, so then you keep going, right?
04:12
He's asking, he's giving us a short piece of content and then we keep going.
04:16
Short piece of content, keep going.
04:17
So good chess move.
04:19
The what?
04:20
And then he starts digging into their ecosystem, some images and then he starts telling you about the Center Stage effect, which is one of the ways that Apple gets you to spend more money.
04:31
And you keep going.
04:32
Now at any point you could bail and say, I don't have time for this.
04:35
That's okay.
04:36
He's not asking you to pay attention to the whole thing, but he's giving you the option to easily keep reading.
04:42
And on, mobile.
04:43
This looks great.
04:44
It's the same thing.
04:45
Right?
04:45
So we're starting, he's starting to showcase some of the tactics and strategies he's teaching.
04:50
keep going, keep going.
04:52
Next.
04:52
Okay, that's all for today's case study.
04:54
Want to go deeper?
04:55
If you enjoyed this, check out our flagship product, Strategy Hub.
04:58
And then he links over to this course.
05:01
I think these go to the same place.
05:02
Let's see.
05:03
Yeah.
05:04
Okay, so this is just a sales page essentially right now if we look, Strategy Hub is not cheap.
05:10
Eight hundred and ninety seven dollars.
05:12
or you can get a team license for 494 per person.
05:15
I don't think he expects people to actually buy from this and don't.
05:18
However, he's teaching them that he has a product for sale and so over time he's showcasing.
05:23
Hey, here's the strategy.
05:25
I'm going to keep telling you about the Strategy Hub.
05:28
Super smart.
05:28
It just like gets you, bought into the fact that you're going to see this again.
05:32
It's not pushy, it's not anything.
05:34
It's just getting you bought in.
05:36
Right.
05:37
And so I just, I love this as an onboarding.
05:39
Like remember, this person just subscribed maybe recently, so they just clicked over from your confirmation email.
05:45
You're almost there email.
05:46
They're going to the thank you page which also ends up being like this.
05:50
Welcome.
05:51
Come read the best piece of content we have.
05:54
So good.
05:54
If you enjoyed this, I think you should check out the Growth Vault.
05:57
It's the place where I am constantly adding new ways and ideas that I'm finding for people to join your email list.
06:04
we have monetization tips in there, retention.
06:06
So you're spending all of this time getting new subscribers, but are you actually keeping those people happy?
06:11
Are they going to stick around?
06:13
That's to be determined.
06:14
And I think that the Growth Vault is a great place to get some ideas and actually see exactly how other people are doing these things.
06:21
I've also thrown in my full subscriber onboarding course, which kind of just walks you through how to make a new subscriber happy.
06:27
Like, how do you get them excited to open your emails, read your work, share it with friends?
06:32
those are the important things that will keep your list growing and healthy.
06:36
So I think you should check out the Growth Vault.
06:38
You can go to growthinreverse.com vault and check it out there.
Tom Alder Onboarding Walkthrough (Happy Subscribers LM) — Tella