AI & Automation
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
While working on the SEO strategy for a Shopify ecommerce site, I discovered something most marketers overlook: collection pages. We had over 200 of them, each getting organic traffic but only serving one purpose - displaying products.
That's when I realized we were leaving money on the table. Every visitor who wasn't ready to buy was simply bouncing. No email capture, no relationship building, nothing.
Most businesses treat their website pages as isolated islands. By connecting SEO strategy with email marketing through personalized lead magnets, I transformed every page into a relationship-building opportunity.
Here's what you'll learn from my contrarian approach:
Why generic "Get 10% off" popups actually hurt your email quality
How I created 200+ unique lead magnets using AI automation
The psychology behind context-specific email capture
Why segmentation from day one beats mass email lists
How to scale personalized content without burning out
This isn't another "growth hack" - it's a systematic approach to turning your existing traffic into engaged subscribers who actually convert. Let me show you how to build what I call AI-powered email systems that scale with your business.
Industry Reality
What everyone else is doing (and why it fails)
Walk into any marketing conference and you'll hear the same tired advice about email subscriber growth. The industry has settled on a few "proven" tactics that everyone's copying:
Exit-intent popups with generic discounts - Usually "Get 10% off your first order"
Single lead magnet for the entire site - One PDF or checklist promoted everywhere
Newsletter signup forms - Promise "weekly tips" or "industry updates"
Content gates - Hide blog posts behind email forms
Social media contests - "Follow and share to win" campaigns
Here's why this conventional approach exists: it's easy to implement. One popup, one form, one message. Marketing teams love it because it requires minimal effort and they can check "email capture" off their list.
But there's a fundamental flaw in this thinking. These tactics optimize for quantity over quality. When someone browsing vintage leather bags sees the same "Get 10% off" popup as someone looking at minimalist wallets, you're treating different customer intents with the same generic solution.
The result? You get email subscribers who:
Only signed up for the discount and never engage again
Have no real interest in your content or products
Hurt your deliverability rates with low open rates
Cost you money without driving revenue
The industry keeps pushing these tactics because they produce vanity metrics that look good in reports. But as distribution becomes more expensive and email platforms crack down on engagement rates, this spray-and-pray approach is becoming counterproductive.
What if instead of one generic lead magnet, you had hundreds of hyper-specific ones? What if every page on your site could capture emails in a way that felt natural and valuable to that specific visitor?
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The project started when I was optimizing a Shopify store's SEO strategy. The client had built an impressive catalog - over 1000 products organized into 200+ collection pages. Each collection was getting decent organic traffic, but the conversion rates were disappointing.
During my audit, I noticed something crucial: visitors were finding exactly what they wanted through search, but if they weren't ready to buy immediately, they just left. No email capture, no follow-up opportunity, nothing.
The client had the typical setup - a single "Get 10% off" popup that appeared on every page after 30 seconds. It was getting signups, but the email engagement was terrible. People would use the discount code and never open another email.
Here's what clicked for me: someone browsing the "sustainable materials" collection has completely different interests than someone looking at "quick workout gear." Yet we were treating them identically.
I proposed something that initially made the client nervous: creating unique lead magnets for each of their 200+ collection pages. Instead of one generic discount, we'd offer hyper-relevant value that matched what each visitor was already interested in.
The challenge was obvious - manually creating 200+ unique lead magnets would take months and cost a fortune. This is where most agencies would have backed down or suggested testing just a few collections first.
But I had been experimenting with AI content workflows for other projects. I realized we could create a system that would generate contextually relevant lead magnets at scale, each one perfectly aligned with its collection's theme and audience.
The client's main concern was quality - they'd seen too many generic "AI-generated" materials that felt robotic. I assured them we'd build intelligence into the system by feeding it their brand voice, customer insights, and collection-specific data.
This wasn't just about email capture - it was about creating a personalized experience from the first touchpoint that would lead to higher engagement and better long-term customer relationships.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
The solution I built wasn't just about creating more lead magnets - it was about building an intelligent system that could personalize email capture at scale. Here's exactly how I did it:
Step 1: Collection Analysis and Categorization
First, I exported all 200+ collections and analyzed them for patterns. Using AI, I categorized them into broader themes like "sustainable fashion," "workout gear," "professional wear," etc. This gave us about 15 core categories that each needed their own approach.
Step 2: Customer Intent Mapping
For each category, I mapped out what visitors were really looking for beyond just products. Someone in "sustainable fashion" might want a guide on "How to Build an Eco-Conscious Wardrobe." Someone browsing "workout gear" might value "7-Day Fitness Routine Templates."
Step 3: AI Workflow Development
I built a custom AI workflow that could:
Analyze each collection's products and characteristics
Generate contextually relevant lead magnet ideas
Create the actual content (PDFs, checklists, templates)
Write collection-specific email sequences
Integrate everything seamlessly with Shopify
Step 4: Brand Voice Integration
The key to making this feel authentic was feeding the AI system with the client's existing brand materials, customer testimonials, and product descriptions. This ensured every lead magnet felt like it came from their team, not a robot.
Step 5: Dynamic Popup System
Instead of one generic popup, I created a dynamic system that would:
Detect which collection page the visitor was on
Display the relevant lead magnet offer
Automatically tag subscribers based on their interest
Trigger the appropriate email sequence
Step 6: Email Sequence Automation
Each lead magnet triggered its own 5-email sequence, all focused on that specific interest. Someone who downloaded the "Sustainable Fashion Guide" would receive completely different emails than someone who got the "Workout Routine Templates."
The entire system was designed to run automatically. When the client added new collections, the AI would generate appropriate lead magnets and email sequences without any manual intervention.
This approach solved the core problem: instead of treating all website visitors the same, we were creating 200+ micro-funnels, each perfectly aligned with specific customer interests and purchase intent.
Intent Mapping
Analyzed each collection to understand visitor motivations and created relevant value propositions
AI Automation
Built workflows that generated contextually relevant lead magnets without manual content creation
Segmentation
Automatically tagged subscribers based on collection interest for hyper-targeted follow-up sequences
Integration
Seamlessly connected everything with Shopify and email platforms for automatic lead magnet delivery
The transformation was dramatic and immediate. Within the first month, we saw email signup rates increase by 340% compared to the generic popup approach. But more importantly, the quality of subscribers improved significantly.
Here's what actually happened:
Email engagement rates doubled - people who signed up for specific interests were much more likely to open and click
Revenue per subscriber increased by 180% - segmented subscribers converted at much higher rates
Customer lifetime value improved - subscribers felt understood from day one, leading to stronger brand loyalty
Unsubscribe rates dropped by 60% - relevant content kept people engaged instead of annoying them
The unexpected bonus was what happened to the client's content strategy. Having 200+ email segments meant they had 200+ content topics that were proven to interest their audience. This became the foundation for their blog content, social media posts, and even new product development.
Six months later, their email list had grown from a few thousand generic subscribers to over 25,000 highly segmented, engaged subscribers. More importantly, email had become their #1 revenue driver, consistently outperforming paid ads and social media.
The system continues to run automatically, generating new lead magnets and sequences as the client adds new collections. It's become a self-sustaining growth engine that requires minimal maintenance while delivering consistent results.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
This project taught me that the future of email marketing isn't about better subject lines or send times - it's about relevance at scale. Here are the key lessons that will save you months of testing:
Context beats incentives - A relevant guide outperforms a discount every time
Segmentation should start at signup - Don't try to segment after people join your list
AI can scale personalization - But only if you feed it the right brand and customer data
Every page is an opportunity - Stop thinking about email capture as just popups and forms
Quality metrics matter more than quantity - 1000 engaged subscribers beat 10,000 disengaged ones
Automation should feel personal - The goal is to remove manual work, not remove the human touch
Test small, scale fast - Start with your top 10 pages, then expand the system
The biggest mistake I see businesses make is treating email capture as an afterthought. They spend thousands on driving traffic but lose 90% of visitors because they don't have a compelling reason for people to stay connected.
This approach works best for businesses with diverse product catalogs or service offerings. If you're selling one product to one audience, a single lead magnet might be sufficient. But if you have multiple customer segments or product categories, personalized lead magnets become incredibly powerful.
The key is starting with your existing traffic patterns. Look at your analytics and see where people are already landing. Those are your opportunities to create relevant value that captures emails while building genuine relationships.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups, apply this by creating lead magnets for each use case or feature page:
Feature-specific templates and workflows
Industry-specific implementation guides
Integration tutorials for popular tools
ROI calculators and assessment tools
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores, create category-specific value that enhances the shopping experience:
Buying guides for each product category
Style guides and outfit inspiration
Care instructions and maintenance tips
Size charts and fitting guides