Happy New Year 🎉 This first Growth Hack of 2025 is:

1. Completely ad-free

2. A huge new life / business update from yours truly

3. A detailed breakdown of exactly how I have been, and plan to continue, generating a ton of leads & new clients this year (which you should steal).

So let’s start off the year with a hard truth no one in marketing wants to talk about:

98% of your market isn’t ready to even consider buying from you right now.

Yet every cold email sent asks for a call RIGHT NOW. Every B2B ad begs people to sign up for a free trial TODAY. Every social post screams “BUY NOW!”

This is not how marketing is supposed to work.

Sure, those tactics might convert some people who are already in the market but that’s literally only 2%. While you’re begging for calls and free trials, you’re completely ignoring the other 98%. That 49X larger piece of the pie? Those are the people who will buy from you tomorrow, next month, or next quarter… if you just had a plan to warm them up a bit.

That my friends, is exactly why everyone talks about building a personal brand.

Because having a personal brand is one of the most powerful ways to warm up your market and give them a reason to choose you when they are finally ready. I’ve seen it firsthand. I’ve spent the last three years creating Marketing Max, building an audience of 117,000 people who have come to know, like, and trust me via my daily newsletters… and when they need marketing help guess who they think of first? Me! That’s why I’m always oversubscribed with F-CMO work while others struggle to get 1 client.

I’m constantly warming up the 98%… because warming up the 98% works.

“But Max! I don’t have the time or patience to build a personal brand!”:

I get it friend. Not everyone wants to post nonstop on social media, churn out daily LinkedIn updates, or spend their life on TikTok. Take it from me, it’s a GRIND.

But if you have read this far and are interested in warming up the 98% to get more clients, users, or customers without ever posting a TikTok or writing a tweet. I have something for you! Something new & special.

It captures today’s buyers (the 2%) while nurturing the rest (the 98%) so they come to you when they’re finally ready. It’s a strategy the biggest companies in the world use.

How We Got Here

You might not know this but I bootstrapped and sold my 7-figure ads agency after driving $100M in revenue for clients, almost exactly three years ago. After some time off I launched @MarketingMax to share everything I’d learned. That three-year journey was spent perfecting methods to turn newsletter subscribers into qualified leads for my advertisers.

But, something funny happened. Around early September of 2024 (just 3 or 4 months ago) a handful of advertisers started asking me to use the methods I spent 3 years perfecting (to turn my newsletter subscribers into their customers) to help them start & grow their own branded newsletters and turn their subscribers into their customers.

I said yes to a few clients and the success was not only insane, but almost instant. Better (& simpler) than any other lead gen service or funnel I have ever run myself.

Nathan said “We are booking 5 to 10 qualified calls a week from our newsletter that Max and his team help us with. The strategy is insane and just works!”

Jordan Ross said “This has already directly led to $100,000 in revenue for us!”

Turns out the best lead gen funnel was right under my nose this whole time.

🙏🏼 LIFE UPDATE: I spent the holidays winding down all of my other projects and businesses (except my ad-supported newsletter business) to go all-in on building this lead gen funnel as a fully Done-For-You service for anyone who wants leads.

That’s how much I believe in this.

Introducing:

Max’s Lead Ads Funnel

Here’s exactly how simple it is & how you can apply it (with or without my help)!

Step 1: Ask for Something Easy

We run Meta or LinkedIn ads to our target audience, asking them to subscribe to our newsletter. Not book a call. Not start a free trial. Just subscribe.

Why? Because people are conditioned to skip ads or really anything in their feed that look like a sales pitch. When you run ads saying “book a call” people roll their eyes. It’s white noise. But asking people to subscribe to a newsletter feels approachable… like we’re giving them something great(value), not asking them for something big (time).

Think about it like a farmer’s market. Are you more likely to stop for the guy yelling, “I have the best oranges! Give me money for them!” or the stand offering free slices?

Exactly. The free slice wins every time.

“Oh, so you probably use a lead magnet to get them to give you their email, right Max?”

Nope! We don’t use “lead magnets” like ebooks or templates. Why? Because people give you their email, download the freebie, and then ignore everything else you send. With a newsletter, we’re setting the expectation upfront… they’re signing up to get free value from us every week.

Step 2: Optimize the Landing Page to Death

Once they click the ad, we send them to a landing page specifically designed to collect their email. This step is where most companies lose money because their pages are unoptimized.

I’ve spent the last two years A/B testing over 200 variations of landing pages. The result? I’ve taken my cost per qualified subscriber from $5 to ~$1 just by testing different headlines, designs, and layouts on the landing page. If you skip this step, you’re throwing money away.

Step 3: Qualify the Leads

Here’s the secret sauce. After someone gives us their email, we send them to a quick typeform that disguises our sales qualifying questions as “collecting more info about our readers so we can write more tailored content” questions. This does two things:

• A) It tells us if they’re a good fit for what we’re selling.

• B) It tells us if they’re in the market to buy now.

If they’re qualified and ready to buy, they’re given the chance to book a call immediately (hello, 2%). If not, we thank them, confirm their subscription, and let them know to look out for our weekly newsletter.

This step alone surfaces the hottest leads without wasting time on people who aren’t ready yet.

Step 3.5/Pro Tip: The Follow-Up

For the people who are qualified but didn’t book a call, we follow up with a fractional SDR. A quick, personalized nudge can often turn hesitation into action. I have an awesome Fractional SDR in Eastern Europe that pays for himself 10X.

Step 4: Weekly Newsletter Touchpoints

This is where the magic happens. Once someone is on our list, they get a weekly newsletter packed with value. Every email subtly reminds them that when they’re ready to solve X problem, we’re here.

No pressure. Just consistent, high-value touchpoints that keep us top of mind.

💡Insight: A recent study said every B2B buyer needs to see or hear your brand at least 11 times before they can even decide if they want to book a call or sign up for a free trial. Think about that… 11 times!! Do you have a strategy to deliver 11 touchpoints? You likely don’t, until you implement my Lead Ads Funnel 🙂 

Why It Works

This isn’t some fancy gimmick. It’s just smart marketing:

1. It captures the buyers ready today without alienating those who aren’t.

2. It builds trust with the 98%, so when they’re ready, they think of you first.

3. It creates consistent touchpoints without feeling pushy or salesy.

The result? My clients are seeing dramatically lower lead costs, more qualified opportunities, and a much higher close rate on sales calls because people show up already sold on the “why you” question. It’s what I experience with @MarketingMax

So of course the results have been amazing. It’s how marketing is supposed to work.

(Want my team to do it for you? Apply here.)

How to Use This Funnel

You can copy this system right now 100% on your own by:

1. Run ads for newsletter subscriptions, not demos or trials.

2. A/B test landing pages to drastically reduce your cost per lead.

3. Qualify leads post-opt-in with a typeform.

4. Deliver a weekly newsletter that’s actually valuable.

5. Follow up with high-value leads who didn’t book.

It’s disgustingly simple. More simple ads, more value emails. That’s it.

Or, if you want to skip the trial-and-error in setting this up or running this ongoing to get an avalanche of leads, my team, the same people who write & grow my daily newsletter, can handle all of this for you 100% hands-off here.

So all you have to do is approve the meta ads, weekly newsletter sends, and show up to the calls that get booked on your calendar.

Our newest client saw 7 booked calls in the first 10 days.

See if you are a good fit for it here.

Welcome to 2025, let’s ride 🤠 

-@MarketingMax