How to mine your email list for product ideas
(Read this before launching your next offer)
A few days ago, I was on a call with a creator who has a 90,000-person email list.
They’re generating around $100k/year from paid subscriptions.
But they know they are leaving a LOT of money on the table.
The problem is…
They have no idea what product to create next.
They’ve tried a few things but nothing has really stuck.
So, here’s the framework I shared with them.
It’s a 3-step process to find validated digital product ideas without having to create anything first.
Step 1: Run a survey
Before you build anything, you need data.
And the easiest way to get that data is by asking your audience directly.
(That’s one of the big and most underrated benefits of having an email list!)
Now, you don’t need crazy amounts of data in order to start validating product ideas.
There’s just 4 big things you need to know:
Who they are - What’s their role? What industry? What stage of business or career? (The way you frame this question will depend on your specific niche.)
Their biggest challenge - What’s the #1 thing they’re struggling with right now (related to your topic)?
Their biggest goal - What are they trying to achieve in the next 6-12 months?
Context-specific question - Anything else that could be super high leverage for you to know based on your niche. For example: If I were running this, I might want to know which email marketing tool they’re using for their newsletter.
That’s it.
Literally 3-4 questions max.
All you’re trying to do is identify patterns - common problems, common goals, common archetypes.
So once you’ve built your survey, send a quick email to your list asking them to fill it out.
Now, I have 2 pro tips for you here:
Send at least 2-3 emails about the survey. Most people won’t see or act on the first one. Also, tell them you’re trying to better understand what they’re struggling with so you can better serve them with your content and future products. People appreciate that.
Incentivize completion. Give away something valuable for free to anyone who fills it out. Maybe a paid resource you normally charge for, or exclusive access to something. This dramatically increases completion rates.
Step 2: Analyze the data
Once you’ve sent your survey to your email list, wait a few days.
Keep reminding people to fill it out. (Remember: 2-3 emails minimum.)
Then, after a handful of days, you should have enough data to run an analysis.
Here’s my recommended approach:
First, dig into the data yourself (manually!).
Go through the responses and see what patterns or interesting trends you notice.
What problems keep coming up?
What goals are most common?
Are there any surprises?
This manual pass is important because you’ll pick up on nuances that AI might miss.
Then, use AI to go deeper.
Export your survey results as a CSV file and upload it to ChatGPT or Claude.
Ask it to analyze the data and identify:
Common pain points and challenges
Recurring goals and aspirations
Patterns in who your audience is (roles, industries, stages)
Potential product opportunities based on what you’re seeing
Here’s the key:
Don’t jump straight to brainstorming products.
First, focus on identifying problems worth solving.
Once you’ve identified the most common and most painful problems your audience has - that’s when you start brainstorming product ideas that could help them solve those problems.
Quick side note: If you want help figuring out which product formats to start with, check out the 10K Product Accelerator guide I put together. It breaks down different product formats and how to think about which one makes sense for your situation.
But here’s the thing:
Even once you’ve identified problems and brainstormed some product ideas...
You do NOT want to jump straight to building yet.
Instead, do this first:
Step 3: Test with an affiliate offer
This is the part most people skip.
Once you have the survey data and you’ve identified a potential product idea...
Don’t build it yet.
Instead, find someone in a similar niche who has already created a similar product.
Then run an affiliate campaign for their product to your list.
This is way better than rushing to create your own product because:
You get to test offer-market fit without building anything
You still monetize your list (affiliate commission)
You see exactly how your audience reacts to the offer
You learn what messaging resonates (and what doesn’t)
If the affiliate offer bombs, you just saved yourself months of work building something nobody wanted.
If it sells well, you now have validation that your audience has an appetite for that type of product - and you can go build your own version.
Either way, you win.
Now, just one pro tip here:
Look for offers that are easy to track.
Courses and digital products work great.
Service-based affiliates (like agencies), on the other hand, are harder to track and have more friction.
The prompt
Here’s a prompt to help you create your survey questions AND draft the email to send to your list:
