When I started building my business, I thought the point of writing was to prove why I was better than my competition.

So I’d write about features:

• You get more of X
• A deeper explanation of Y
• An improved version of Z

But I realised my error when I began studying marketing.

A great marketer puts themselves in their customers’ shoes. And 9 times out of 10, your audience has tried other solutions. They didn’t get what they wanted. And now they’re searching for what they (think) they were missing:

You.

To prove you’re worth investing in, you need to show why your solution is different.

And if you’re selling knowledge, this means you need a unique system.

I’ll run you through how to design one through the lens of my recent product, Magnetic Emails.

Step 1: What’s the objective?

A system needs a goal to measure its effectiveness. It’s also important because it communicates the ‘Why’ behind the process.

The purpose of the Magnetic Email system is to write high-quality, story-based sales emails to grow your brand and business.

If you can’t articulate the purpose in one sentence, you need to spend more time thinking.

Goal in mind, next you need steps.

Step 2: What’s the process?

The easiest way to design a system is to imagine your customer on a journey.

They’re at point A, where they are now, and they want to get to point B, the desired end outcome—like Bilbo being in the Shire and wanting to get to the Misty Mountains (and back again).

Every journey has obstacles.

You can reverse engineer the roadblocks in the way of success to create steps. This makes your system feel like it has a natural progression.

Now, how many steps depends on what you teach.

But less is better. The simplest system wins (so long it gets results). Which leads me to the most crucial point.

Step 3: Revise before you productize

You do not build the perfect system on paper. You build it with people.

Too many creators skip this point and build an untested system, hoping to get some of that sweet ‘passive income baby’.

This is suicide.

Because products are not just revenue-generating assets. They’re crucial for relationships and reputation, too. If you give your customers something sh*t, don’t be surprised when your business begins to stink.

Find at least 5 people who match your One True Fan profile. Work closely with them and improve your process based on feedback.

Do this well, and it’s time for the icing on the cake.

Step 4: Naming

Naming is an important art because online, it’s not about having the best ideas.

It’s about communicating them best.

The easier something is to understand and remember, the more people act on it (and attribute the results to you).

For your system, you need to name:

The key is to use the ‘sticky statement’ toolkit (something I teach inside High Impact Writing and Magnetic Emails):

For example, the Magnetic Email is 6 simple steps:

Each step has microframeworks.

The Prewrite follows the 3-P process. You set the scene with a snipershot or snapshot approach. You can use ‘7 tools of trust’ to prove your points.

And so on.

The system itself is called the Magnetic Email System—which is metaphorical representation of attracting clients instead of chasing them.

Finally…

Step 5: Make it easy to take

In an ideal world, I wouldn’t be going bald, and customers would execute your ideas the first time they hear them.

But I am, and they don’t.

So you’ll go far as an entrepreneur if you treat friction as the enemy. You must make your system easy to take and retake.

How?

For one, show it action. A lot.

Inside Magnetic Emails, I teach every step with good and bad examples.

Then I write an email live using it. And in the bonus modules, I write 15 more with breakdowns of the copy.

For two, be easy to consume.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand it when I have to sift through a course full of bloated material to find the good ideas.

That’s why I make my course lessons no longer than 5-10 minutes. Plus provide two versions of the course, written and video.

With Magnetic Emails, I also built a summary book giving an overview of the system. Which means every email someone writes, it’s super easy to remind themselves about the lessons.

Systems and success go hand in hand—for you and your customers.

Take them seriously.

Kieran