The “Slippery Slide” Sequence
How one founder turned cold leads into loyal readers, and how you can too.
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A SaaS founder had a product they believed in. They knew it could help people, but their email list didn’t seem to care.
Every week they sent nurture emails packed with features, screenshots, and stats. A few opens here, a click there, but mostly silence. It felt like talking to a room full of people scrolling their phones.
Then they discovered the Zeigarnik Effect — the brain’s tendency to focus on unfinished tasks more than completed ones. They realized every email they sent tied off neatly at the end. No mystery. No reason to come back.
So they rebuilt their sequence to end each email mid-story, leaving just enough tension to make the reader need the next one. Not a cheap tease, more of a genuine open loop that created anticipation.
Opens started stacking instead of dropping. People replied asking, “When’s the next one?”
Their list began binge-reading like it was a Netflix series.
🚀 The Big Idea:
Most SaaS nurture sequences die in isolation.
A prospect reads one, maybe clicks, then forgets you exist.
Why? You give them closure.
The fix is to build curiosity loops. End each email before the full answer, so they must open the next.
🔬 The Breakdown:
The Slippery Slide sequence keeps readers hooked because it uses two proven psychological triggers:
Zeigarnik Effect – People remember and focus on unfinished tasks more than completed ones. When you end an email without full resolution, the brain treats it as an open loop. It wants closure, and the fastest way to get it is to open the next email.
Variable Reward – Similar to slot machines or binge-worthy shows, the exact payoff isn’t predictable. Sometimes they get the fix, sometimes a twist, sometimes a full solution. This unpredictability makes the sequence addictive.
Combined, these create anticipation and pattern recognition:
The reader expects value every day.
The value is incomplete until they consume the whole sequence.
They feel invested, so missing an email feels like losing progress.
It’s not persuasion through pressure.
It’s persuasion through compelled curiosity, which converts at a higher rate because the reader chose to keep engaging.
💥 The Slippery Slide Template:
Email 1 — Hook (Day 0)
Purpose: Open the loop.
Subject: “The mistake that kills 80% of SaaS conversions…”
Body: Show the problem with a short story or stat.
Tease: Hint at the fix without revealing it.
CTA: “I’ll send you the exact 3-line fix tomorrow.”
Email 2 — Fix, But… (Day 1)
Purpose: Give partial relief. Add a twist.
Subject: “Here’s the fix - but it won’t work unless…”
Body: Reveal the fix, then add a condition that must be met for it to work.
CTA: “Tomorrow, I’ll show you how to make it bulletproof.”
Email 3 — Payoff (Day 2)
Purpose: Deliver the complete solution.
Subject: “Now it works every time.”
Body: Show the fix + condition working together in a real example.
CTA: Link to your offer, trial, or booking page.
⚡ Trigger Words for Cliffhangers:
“Tomorrow I’ll show you…”
“The twist changes everything…”
“This one thing makes or breaks it…”
“You’ll see why in the next email…”
⏰ Timing Schedule:
Day 0: Hook Email immediately after signup.
Day 1: Fix-But Email exactly 24 hours later.
Day 2: Payoff Email exactly 24 hours after that.
🛠 How to Automate the Slippery Slide in HighLevel with AI:
The magic isn’t only the copy, it’s sending the right email to the right person at the right moment.
Here’s exactly how I’d build it in HighLevel with AI baked in:
1. Personalization Based on Reader Behavior
Goal: Every subscriber sees messaging that feels like it’s written for them.
Custom Fields: Create fields like First_Name, Signup_Source, Primary_Pain_Point. Collect these via forms, lead magnets, or quizzes.
AI Segmentation: Use HighLevel webhooks to pass engagement data (opens, clicks) to an AI model via Make. AI updates tags automatically — e.g., clicks a pricing link → tag Pricing Curious.
Dynamic Content: Use conditional logic in emails: ROI-focused examples for Pricing Curious, feature wins for Feature Curious.
2. Send Times Optimized for Opens
Goal: Hit their inbox when they’re most likely to read.
Track Behavior: HighLevel logs open times.
AI Prediction: Feed this history into an AI script to calculate each contact’s “prime open window.”
Smart Send: Use workflows to “Wait until optimal time” based on a custom field updated by AI.
3. Branching Logic if Someone Clicks or Replies
Goal: Make the sequence feel like a conversation, not a broadcast.
Click Triggers: Click on [Link A] → tag Interested in X.
Reply Detection: Route replies to CRM. AI classifies them as: ready to buy, objection, info request.
Path Changes:
Ready to buy → move to sales pipeline.
Objection → AI writes a tailored response, then resumes sequence.
Info request → send a bonus “Email 2.5” to answer, then rejoin sequence.
Result: The sequence adapts in real time, keeping momentum without losing prospects to one-size-fits-all messaging.
Question of the Week
If you were to build a Slippery Slide for your own SaaS, what would be your Day 1 hook? Drop it in the comments - I’ll give feedback and ideas.
See you soon!
Barret J. Nobel
DadFit Automations & Ghostwriting
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