Only Once in Action: NeoMails, SmartBlocks, and AI Twins

1

Overview

In my previous essay, I introduced the Only Once theory, a radical reimagining of marketing, challenging the wasteful status quo where brands repeatedly pay to reacquire their own customers. This reacquisition cycle, responsible for an estimated 50-80% of a brand’s digital advertising budget and totalling to $350-560 billion in annual AdWaste, isn’t just inefficient—it’s a fundamental failure of modern marketing. The solution lies in a powerful trinity of innovations that together enable brands to acquire customers just once, then build lasting, profitable relationships.

At the heart of this transformation is NeoMail, which turns traditional email from a one-way broadcast channel into an interactive “hotline” for continuous customer engagement. By leveraging AMP and CSS technologies, NeoMails are 15-second daily engagement vehicles that create consistent touchpoints that maintain brand presence. They enable in-email actions, from purchases to feedback, without requiring clickthroughs to external sites. Enhanced with Atomic Rewards (Mu) to drive opens and ActionAds for monetisation, NeoMails are more than just links to websites—they become destinations themselves, dynamic microsites delivered directly to the inbox.

The second pillar, SmartBlocks, revolutionises how brands collect and utilise customer data. These interactive containers, seamlessly embedded within emails, enable progressive profiling through natural, rewarding interactions. Instead of interrupting customers with surveys or forms, SmartBlocks gather zero-party data—information voluntarily shared by customers—through engaging elements like polls, quizzes, and preference selectors. Each interaction delivers immediate value while deepening customer understanding, creating a virtuous cycle where better insights lead to more relevant experiences.

The final component, AI Twins, enables true N=1 personalisation by creating individual digital replicas that anticipate each customer’s needs. Starting with Adtech Twins built from public data, evolving to Madtech Twins combining marketing and advertising insights, and ultimately achieving true Customer Twins, this technology enables unprecedented personalisation at scale. Powered by Large Customer Models and Agentic AI, these Twins ensure every interaction feels personally crafted for each customer.

Together, these three innovations create a self-reinforcing ecosystem: NeoMails provide the engagement channel, SmartBlocks gather the necessary data, and AI Twins power the personalisation. This combination solves the fundamental challenges that have forced brands into costly reacquisition:

• The “No Hotline” problem of poor repeat engagement
• The “Not for Me” problem of irrelevant non-personalised messaging

For the first time, brands have the technological capabilities to break free from the profit-killing spiral of continuous acquisition. By implementing these innovations, they can transform random customer transactions into predictable recurring revenue, ultimately achieving “profipoly” status—where superior customer understanding and engagement create lasting competitive advantages.

This series will explore how brands can put Only Once into action, detailing practical implementation strategies for each innovation while showcasing their combined power to redefine customer relationships. The future of marketing isn’t in endless acquisition—it’s in building lasting connections to minimise CAC, maximise LTV, and multi-monetise customers through these transformative technologies.

But before we explore these innovations in detail, let’s understand the problem they solve: AdWaste.

2

AdWaste

In my conversations with marketers over the past few years, I always ask one question: “Do you know how much you’re spending on wrong acquisition and reacquisition?” The response is invariably a blank stare, followed by nervous laughter. It’s the elephant in the room no one wants to acknowledge. After all, which CMO wants to admit to their CEO that half their marketing budget might be going down the drain?

This collective blindness is exactly why Big Adtech thrives. Like skilled casino operators, Google and Meta have made advertising on their platforms irresistibly easy and addictively compelling. The instant gratification of clicks and conversions creates a dopamine hit that keeps marketers coming back for more, regardless of the true cost. Modern marketers have become like gambling addicts at a slot machine, mindlessly feeding coins into the Big Adtech beast while muttering “Just one more campaign.” They’ve morphed from brand builders into collection agents for Big Adtech’s empires, willingly transferring billions in corporate profits to the tech giants’ coffers.

Think of AdWaste as financial diabetes – a chronic condition that slowly but surely destroys business health from within. Just as a sugar addiction leads to devastating health consequences, the addiction to endless acquisition quietly erodes profitability. Like a homeowner repeatedly paying to fix the same leak instead of addressing the root cause, brands keep paying to reacquire the same customers instead of building lasting relationships.

This wilful ignorance doesn’t change reality. AdWaste is as real as gravity – whether one measures it or not, its effects are undeniable. It acts like a hidden tax on growth, silently draining resources that could be invested in product innovation, customer experience, or pure profit. The good news is that unlike many business challenges, AdWaste is both measurable and manageable. We finally have a cure for this corporate affliction.

Measuring the Waste

The start, as with any recovery, is measurement. One cannot manage what you do not measure. As outlined earlier, marketers are paying for four distinct audience segments, but only one represents genuine new customer acquisition. The other three segments – especially known non-buyers and existing customers – represent pure AdWaste.

Here are the critical questions every marketer needs to answer to understand their AdWaste:

1. Reacquisition AdWaste

• What percentage of “new” users acquired through paid channels already exist in the CRM database?
• How many are known non-buyers and existing customers? (These should never have been reacquired; they should have been retained.)
• What is the total spend on reaching these already-known users? This is Reacquisition AdWaste.

2. New Acquisition AdWaste

• Of your genuine first-time users, what percentage provided a digital handle (email/mobile)?
• The rest are essentially “ghost users” you can never reach again.
• What is the cost of these unidentifiable acquisitions? This is New Acquisition AdWaste.

3. True CAC Calculation

• What is the actual customer acquisition cost (CAC) when measured against truly new identifiable customers?
• True CAC = Total digital ad spend ÷ New email IDs or mobile numbers added
• This reveals the true cost of acquiring actionable customer relationships

To summarise: Total AdWaste = Reacquisition AdWaste + New Acquisition AdWaste, where

• Reacquisition AdWaste = Cost of reaching known users
• New Acquisition AdWaste = Cost of unidentifiable acquisitions

When calculated this way, the numbers are staggering, revealing a sobering truth about digital marketing efficiency. They shock marketers into realising that their supposedly sophisticated digital campaigns are largely reaching people they already know – at premium prices via competitive auctions. This awakening usually leads to two realisations:

1. Traditional ROAS optimisation is just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic
2. The Only Once theory, with its focus on retention re-engineering, offers a path to sustainable profitability

The measurement of AdWaste isn’t just an academic exercise – it’s the first step toward marketing transformation. Once marketers, CEOs, and CFOs understand the scale of waste in their current approach, the imperative to change becomes clear. The question then becomes not whether to adopt Only Once, but how quickly they can implement NeoMails, SmartBlocks, and AI Twins to make the transition.

3

NeoMails: Brand Hotlines

NeoMails represent a new class of emails with a singular focus: building sustainable hotlines between brands and their customers through daily value exchange and trust building. Unlike traditional promotional or transactional messages that dominate today’s inboxes, NeoMails create daily touchpoints that transform casual customers into engaged brand advocates.

Design Philosophy

At their core, NeoMails are micro-learning vehicles, designed for the attention-scarce digital age. Each mail requires just 15 seconds to consume yet delivers meaningful value through a carefully crafted combination of education and entertainment. Instead of pushing products, NeoMails take recipients on enriching journeys that create daily “Aha” moments – bringing smiles, insights, and a sense of accomplishment. This consistent “user enrichment” value delivery helps imprint the brand in customers’ subconscious minds and creates a “trust relationship”, making traditional marketing messages more effective when they do arrive.

Simply put: User enrichment à Trust relationship à Marketing effectiveness

Anatomy of a NeoMail

Every NeoMail combines five elements:

1. Smart Subject Lines

• Embedded Atomic Rewards (Mu) to incentivise opens
• Streak mechanics to build daily engagement habits and reward loyal attention
• Clear value proposition for the recipient

2. Enriching Body Content

• Non-promotional microcontent focused on user enrichment and knowledge building
• Personalised learning journeys powered by AI
• Industry-specific insights and education

3. Interactive SmartBlocks

• DataBlocks for zero-party data collection
• ContentBlocks for attention and engagement
• Brand-agnostic quizzes, games, and interactive elements

4. Precision ActionAds

• Contextually relevant advertising
• In-email conversion capabilities
• Targeted based on user preferences and behaviour

5. Mu Management

• Real-time rewards balance
• Redemption opportunities
• Engagement tracking

Thus, NeoMails systematically build trust through:

• Consistent delivery of enriching content
• Transparent value exchange (Mu rewards)
• Progressive relationship deepening
• Respectful data collection
• Relevant, non-intrusive monetisation

Industry Applications

I wrote in NeoMail: Solving the Trifecta of Marketing:

Think of [NeoMails] as digital billboards delivered straight to the inbox – consistent reminders of the brand’s value that, through daily delivery, become part of the customer’s routine. The content strategy for these “microns” (micro newsletters) varies by industry but always focuses on delivering genuine value:

• A securities firm might share daily investment wisdom from legendary investors
• A beauty brand could offer seasonal skincare tips and expert advice
• A travel company could provide destination micro-stories and travel hacks
• A health insurer might share daily wellness tips and preventive care insights
• An e-commerce platform could deliver trend updates and style guides, and a streaming service might offer brief entertainment news and viewing recommendations

… This innovation in email design – focusing on in-email actions rather than clickthroughs – allows for multiple engagement points within a single message.

Zero-Effort Implementation

NeoMails operate on a ZeroCPM model, requiring minimal brand involvement:

• Sent and managed by NeoESPs
• No upfront costs for brands
• Revenue sharing from ActionAds
• Data sharing for improved N=1 personalisation

**

This innovative approach transforms traditional email marketing in several ways:

1. Shifts focus from clickthroughs to in-email actions
2. Creates multiple engagement points within each message
3. Builds habitual engagement through daily value delivery
4. Generates new revenue streams through ActionAds
5. Enables progressive profiling through SmartBlocks

By combining these elements, NeoMails solve the fundamental “No Hotline” problem by creating trusted pathways for ongoing dialogue and value exchange. The genius lies in their simplicity: 15 seconds of daily user enrichment builds engagement habits, enables zero-party data collection, and opens new monetisation opportunities. For brands committed to Only Once, NeoMails transform traditional email into an interactive brand relationship platform that makes costly reacquisition unnecessary. Through the ZeroCPM model, this transformation is immediately accessible to brands, requiring no upfront investment. The future of customer engagement isn’t in promotional blasts—it’s in these trusted, enriching daily touchpoints that make every interaction count.

4

SmartBlocks: Unlocking Zero-Party Data

With hotlines established through NeoMails, the next phase of Only Once focuses on intelligent zero-party data collection. SmartBlocks enable progressive profiling for true N=1 Personalisation of marketing messages, microcontent, and ads. This isn’t just another data collection tool—it’s a fundamental reimagining of how brands build customer understanding.

Traditional marketing relies heavily on first-party data—the digital breadcrumbs of user behaviour like searches, page views, and clicks. While valuable, this approach offers only inferred understanding, often missing the “why” behind customer actions. SmartBlocks transform this paradigm by creating direct dialogues with customers. Instead of guessing what customers want based on behaviour, why not build trust and simply ask them?

The Zero-Party Data Advantage

Zero-party data—information customers willingly share about their preferences, interests, and intentions—represents the holy grail of personalisation. Unlike inferred data that tells you what customers did, zero-party data tells you what they want to do. This distinction is crucial: it’s the difference between knowing someone visited a travel site (behaviour) and knowing they’re planning a family beach vacation next summer (intention).

SmartBlocks make this data collection natural and rewarding through:

• DataBlocks: Embedded modules that collect zero-party data through subtle interactions, such as preference polls or mini-quizzes. These build customer profiles without disrupting the flow of the email content.
• ContentBlocks: Interactive elements that boost attention and engagement by offering fun, informative activities that align with the user’s interests.
• Generative Journeys: These adaptive journeys evolve based on user interactions with SmartBlocks, feeding into AI Twins to create increasingly personalised experiences. [see Generative Journeys: Digital Marketing’s New Core.]

The Architecture of Trust

SmartBlocks succeed by creating a transparent value exchange:

1. For Customers
   • Personalised recommendations
   • Tailored content experiences
   • Loyalty rewards and recognition
   • Control over their data sharing
2. For Brands
   • Progressive customer profiling
   • Deeper preference insights
   • Enhanced personalisation capabilities
   • Stronger customer relationships

Industry Applications

SmartBlocks adapt across sectors while maintaining their core value proposition:

Retail

• Style preference selectors
• Upcoming purchase intentions
• Category interest indicators
• Size and fit preferences

Travel

• Destination type preferences
• Travel planning timelines
• Activity and experience interests
• Accommodation preferences

Finance

• Financial goal mapping
• Investment risk tolerance
• Life stage indicators
• Product interest signals

Healthcare

• Wellness goal tracking
• Lifestyle preference capture
• Prevention priority indicators
• Care scheduling preferences

While applications vary by industry, the foundation of successful SmartBlocks implementation remains consistent: building and maintaining customer trust.

Building Engagement Through Trust

Success with SmartBlocks requires a strategic approach to trust-building:

1. Transparency
   • Clear data usage policies
   • Visible value proposition
   • Control over sharing
2. Incentivisation
   • Atomic Rewards (Mu) integration for immediate engagement recognition
   • Immediate value delivery
   • Progressive benefits
3. Consistency
   • Regular interaction opportunities
   • Ongoing value exchange
   • Continuous profile enrichment

**

SmartBlocks represent more than just a data collection tool—they’re a strategic bridge between customer understanding and personalisation at scale. By enabling progressive profiling through natural, rewarding interactions, they solve the fundamental “Not for Me” problem that plagues traditional marketing by enabling true customer understanding rather than mere inference. When combined with NeoMails and AI Twins, SmartBlocks complete the virtuous cycle of the Only Once approach: better data leads to better personalisation, which drives deeper engagement and encourages more data sharing. This creates a self-reinforcing ecosystem where every interaction makes future ones more valuable, ultimately eliminating the need for costly reacquisition.

5

AI Twins: Powering N=1 Personalisation – 1

Every marketer dreams of the perfect customer interaction: delivering exactly the right message, at precisely the right moment, through the ideal channel, to each individual customer—creating a virtuous cycle of repeat purchases and maximised lifetime value. Whether called relevance or recommendations, the goal is to eliminate friction and waste in every customer relationship. Yet today’s marketing reality is built on “brand spam” that abuses the trust and permission customers grant. The inevitable result? Customers withdraw their attention and sever connections, forcing brands into a costly cycle of reacquisition through adtech platforms. The ultimate irony unfolds as brands repeatedly bid against each other at auctions to reach their own lost customers. This wasteful spiral of acquisition, reacquisition, and re-reacquisition can only be broken through true N=1 Personalisation—treating each customer as genuinely unique by building on the foundation of NeoMail hotlines and SmartBlock zero-party data collection.

Personalisation as an idea has been around forever, and yet it is easier said than done. As Mark Abraham and David Edelman write in their book “Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI”: “Personalization is a do-or-die aspect of corporate strategy. The nature of competition has changed. Data is now plentiful. The shift to digital channels took a quantum leap forward in the early 2020s, spawning millions of new direct customer relationships and a wealth of data about behavior and preferences. With the advent of generative AI, customers can increasingly call on virtual assistants for most of their needs, raising the bar for the level of personalization other channels must offer to stay relevant. Technology is more accessible; many more off-the-shelf tools are available for companies—even ones with more limited budgets—to use, if they can smartly integrate them.”

The authors add: “Personalization [is] what happens when you’re searching on a website and are shown items based not just on what others who searched for that term would like but on what you would like, based on your context, search history, and any items you recently bought. It’s when you phone a call center and the agent has all the information about you and your history with the company at their fingertips (based on the number you are calling from) and can get right to solving your problem. It’s when your favorite sales associate in a store greets you by name, remembers your last purchases and tastes, and creates a tailored shopping experience to delight you. And more to the point, it’s when every sales associate in that store does that with every one of their regular customers. Personalization is creating experiences at scale that get fine-tuned with each successive interaction, empowering customers to get what they want—better, faster, cheaper, or more easily. The difference lies in the way personalized communications build on everything the company learns about the customer over time.”

This table from the book discusses how to assess personalisation:

These ideas are echoed by Joe Park, chief digital and technology officer at Yum: “In the pilot, we delivered emails that were customized at an individual level. When we look at factors like the time of day, the day of the week, the subject line in the email, the content, and more, you can optimize that for marketing use cases like upselling, retention, referrals and even win-back strategies. For example, we know our Pizza Hut consumers have different frequency and timing of orders. Some consumers will order every few weeks and love exploring our menus, while others wait for special occasions like the Super Bowl and typically have large orders. With AI-driven marketing, instead of sending the same offer to everyone as a one-size-fits-all, we can engage each of them with the relevant offers at the right time. Our goal is to give our consumers better-timed offers, personalized content and tailored interactions so they feel understood and don’t receive generic clutter.”

To achieve this level of hyper-personalisation at scale—turning the dream of true N=1 marketing into reality—brands need a breakthrough technology: AI Twins.

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AI Twins: Powering N=1 Personalisation – 2

I wrote in Digital Twins in Marketing: Magical Minions: “Customer Twins take two primary forms: Segment Twins and Singular Twins. Segment Twins represent groups of customers with similar behaviours, preferences, and characteristics. These virtual cohorts allow marketers to simulate responses to campaigns across different customer segments, test messaging and offers on virtual groups before real-world deployment, and identify trends and patterns within specific customer cohorts. On the other hand, Singular Twins are AI-powered replicas of individual customers, enabling hyper-personalised marketing at scale – true N=1 marketing. These individual twins facilitate predictive modelling of customer journeys and real-time optimisation of interactions across all touchpoints, ensuring each customer receives a tailored experience.”

In AI Twins: The Future of Marketing Intelligence, I wrote: “AI Twins serve as a bridge between the vast sea of data available to marketers and the actionable insights needed to drive effective strategies. They augment human creativity and intuition with data-driven precision, enabling marketing teams to craft more targeted, personalised, and effective campaigns.”

In AI Twins: Digital Customer Representations That Will Transform Marketing, I wrote:

What makes AI twins so powerful is their potential to synthesize data from various sources—customer data platforms, marketing automation tools, social media and ad platforms, and more. In essence, they can marry martech data with adtech insights, providing a deeper view of customer segments that we’ve never had before.

But the real game-changer is when you can directly interact with an AI through a conversational interface. As marketers, we can ask questions, test hypotheses and gain deeper insights into customer mindsets. Want to understand why a segment of customers churned? Have a conversation with an AI twin representing that group. Curious about what your most loyal customers value most about your brand? Ask their segment twin. Wondering what color the call-to-action buttons should be for Gen Z customers? Ask their twin.

This level of interaction allows for a degree of customization and personalization that was previously unattainable. By understanding the distinct preferences and pain points of each segment through these AI-powered conversations, we can develop highly targeted content and strategies.

Gautam Mehra wrote: “Unlike traditional AI tools, AI twins are built from deterministic, observable data—demographics, psychographics, search behaviors and social media interactions. These digital counterparts are more than just replicas of customer segments; they embody how your customers think, feel and react…Now, imagine being able to interact with an AI twin before launching a marketing campaign or product. You could gauge emotional responses, fine-tune your approach based on real-time feedback and ensure you’re heading in the right direction—all before investing time and resources. It’s like having an always-on focus group that gives you real, actionable insights whenever you need them… AI twins…are designed to replicate human thoughts and emotions. They provide insights that go far beyond surface-level data, allowing businesses to anticipate how real customers might react to decisions. By simulating your customers’ mindset, AI twins can help bridge the gap between quantitative data and true customer empathy.”

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AI Twins: Powering N=1 Personalisation – 3

AI Twins are the third breakthrough that makes Only Once possible, completing the trinity of innovations alongside NeoMails and SmartBlocks. They transform the dream of true N=1 personalisation into reality through a systematic evolution of customer understanding:

The Journey to N=1

1. Adtech (Starter) Twins: Understanding the Public Self

• Built from publicly available search and social data
• Reveal customer attitudes, interests, and conversations
• Create initial understanding from third-party signals
• Enable rapid insights without requiring customer data

2. Madtech (Segment) Twins: Merging Signals

• Combine first-party behavioural data with public insights
• Reflect specific customer segment mindsets and patterns
• Enable more precise targeting and messaging
• Create foundation for personalised experiences
• Bridge the gap between martech and adtech data

3. N=1 (Singular) Twins: The Ultimate Prize

• Individual digital replicas powered by zero-party data
• Embody and anticipate each customer’s unique needs
• Enable true hyper-personalisation at scale
• Predict future behaviors and preferences
• Transform marketing from reactive to predictive

The progression from Starter to Segment to Singular Twins mirrors the journey from broad targeting to true N=1 personalisation. Each stage builds upon the previous one, creating increasingly accurate and actionable customer understanding:

• Adtech Twins provide the baseline understanding
• Madtech Twins add behavioural context
• Singular Twins incorporate stated preferences and intentions

This evolution finally makes the marketer’s dream possible: delivering the right message through the right channel at the right time to the right customer. But unlike previous attempts at personalisation, AI Twins don’t just react to past behaviour—they anticipate future needs and preferences. This predictive capability is crucial for the Only Once approach, ensuring that each customer interaction builds upon previous ones while setting the stage for future engagement.

The power of Singular Twins grows with every interaction:

• NeoMails provide daily engagement opportunities
• SmartBlocks gather crucial zero-party data
• AI Twins process this information to create increasingly accurate predictions
• Each customer interaction makes future ones more relevant

Industry Applications

AI Twins adapt across sectors while enabling true N=1 personalisation for each:

Retail/eCommerce

• Signal Twins: Track trending preferences and category interests
• Segment Twins: Model cohort buying patterns and price sensitivity
• Singular Twins: Predict next purchase timing and product recommendations

Banking/Finance

• Signal Twins: Monitor financial goals and investment sentiments
• Segment Twins: Understand life-stage needs and risk appetites
• Singular Twins: Anticipate product needs and spending patterns

Travel/Hospitality

• Signal Twins: Track destination trends and travel intent
• Segment Twins: Model vacation preferences and booking windows
• Singular Twins: Predict next trip timing and personalised itineraries

Healthcare/Insurance

• Signal Twins: Monitor wellness trends and health interests
• Segment Twins: Understand condition-specific needs and behaviors
• Singular Twins: Anticipate care requirements and prevention opportunities

Media/Entertainment

• Signal Twins: Track content consumption trends and preferences
• Segment Twins: Model viewing patterns and genre affinities
• Singular Twins: Predict content interests and optimal viewing times

Each industry leverages the progressive evolution from Signal to Segment to Singular Twins, building increasingly accurate understanding:

• Signal Twins provide market context
• Segment Twins add behavioural insights
• Singular Twins enable true N=1 experiences

**

AI Twins complete the Only Once trinity, transforming marketing from mass messaging to true N=1 personalisation at scale. The evolution from Signal to Segment to Singular Twins mirrors marketing’s journey from public understanding to individual customer intimacy, converting every interaction into a building block for deeper personalisation. While Signal and Segment Twins provide valuable insights, Singular Twins unlock the ultimate prize: predicting and serving individual customer needs before they’re expressed. Powered by NeoMail hotlines and SmartBlock data collection, these AI Twins ensure each communication is not only relevant but deeply resonant, turning every customer relationship into a continuously evolving journey. For brands committed to Only Once, AI Twins become the key to transforming random transactions into predictable recurring revenue, maximising LTV through superior customer understanding. This creates the foundation for lasting competitive advantages, solidifying the path from costly reacquisition to enduring, profitable engagement and creating a Profipoly.

8

Customer Life Cycle

The Only Once theory comes to life through a systematic approach to customer relationships, eliminating the need for costly reacquisition by building lasting connections from day one. The process follows a natural progression that mirrors human relationships. Here’s how brands can implement the three core innovations—NeoMails, SmartBlocks, and AI Twins—across each phase of the customer journey:

Phase 1: Romance (First 72 Hours)

First Connect

• Capture email ID/mobile number as the foundation for future engagement
• Use inputs from Signal Twins to understand broad customer preferences
• Initialise NeoMail welcome sequence

The First Hour

• Send personalised welcome NeoMail with embedded SmartBlocks
• Begin zero-party data collection through engaging interactions
• Establish user enrichment value proposition and set daily engagement expectations

The Next Two Days

• Launch daily NeoMails with micro-content and Atomic Rewards
• Use SmartBlocks to progress profile building
• Begin building engagement habits through consistent value delivery
• Deploy Segment Twins for initial personalisation

Phase 2: Marriage (Building Commitment)

First Purchase

• Send the Marketing mails with product recommendations and offers
• Deploy SmartBlocks for purchase-related preferences
• Begin building Singular Twin profile
• Use NeoMails to maintain daily engagement

Second Purchase

• Leverage AI Twin insights for personalised recommendations
• Continue zero-party data collection through SmartBlocks
• Strengthen daily engagement through personalised NeoMails

Multi-Monetisation

• Introduce relevant ActionAds from complementary brands
• Use AI Twins to identify additional revenue opportunities
• Deploy SmartBlocks to gauge interest in new offerings

Phase 3: Family (Deepening Value)

Give

• Create exclusive content to deliver through NeoMails
• Use SmartBlocks to understand evolving preferences
• Personalise Atomic Rewards based on AI Twin insights

Take

• Leverage deep customer understanding for referral requests
• Deploy sophisticated ActionAds based on rich customer profiles

Phase 4: Apart? (Retention and Reactivation)

• Monitor engagement through AI Twins to predict potential churn
• In case of dormancy/churn, deploy Reactivation NeoMails sequence based on
• Deploy Reactivation NeoMails sequence through owned channels, avoiding costly adtech reacquisition. Use history to create targeted value propositions.
• Use ActionAds to target on other brand emails

The power of this approach lies in its integration. Each innovation plays a specific role:

• NeoMails create consistent engagement hotlines
• SmartBlocks enable progressive understanding
• AI Twins power increasing personalisation

Together, they transform random customer transactions into predictable recurring revenue, eliminating AdWaste while building lasting competitive advantages through superior customer understanding and creating the foundation for Profipoly status.

**

The Only Once strategy represents a paradigm shift in marketing—from the relentless pursuit of acquisition to building enduring customer relationships that maximise engagement and value. By integrating NeoMails, SmartBlocks, and AI Twins across the customer lifecycle, brands can create a cohesive, data-driven approach that transforms customer interactions into a cycle of sustained loyalty and growth. This comprehensive system not only minimises Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) but also builds a foundation for unparalleled Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). The path forward is clear: marketing’s future lies in replacing reactive strategies with proactive, predictive, and personalised experiences that foster deeper connections and drive lasting profitability.

9

Summary

I asked Claude and ChatGPT to summarise the key ideas of Only Once.

Claude

1. Core Theory: Only Once

• Acquire customers exactly once, then focus entirely on retention
• Inspired by “Let Them Theory” – simple yet profound concept
• Like E=mc², captures complex idea in simple form
• Direct challenge to current acquisition-obsessed marketing

2. The Problem: AdWaste

• Scale: $350-560B annual waste (50-80% of digital ad spend)
• Two Types:
  • Reacquisition AdWaste: Paying to reach known customers
  • New Acquisition AdWaste: Acquiring unidentifiable “ghost users”
• Impact on Brands:
  • 6-10% of total revenues wasted
  • $6-10M annually for $100M business
  • $60-100M for billion-dollar companies

3. Four Audience Segments in Current Marketing

1. True New Users (Only valid acquisition target)
2. Anonymous Returners (Partial failure)
3. Known Non-Buyers (Pure waste)
4. Existing Customers (Most wasteful)
5. Three Core Elements for Implementation
6. Hotline
   • Continuous connection
   • Two-way engagement
   • Direct access without adtech
7. Zero-Party Data
   • Voluntarily shared information
   • Trust-based collection
   • Progressive profiling
8. N=1 Personalization
   • Individual-level customization
   • Predictive capabilities
   • True relevance at scale

5. Three Key Innovations

1. NeoMails
   • 15-second daily engagement
   • AMP/CSS technology
   • Five Elements:
     • Smart Subject Lines (with Mu)
     • Enriching Body Content
     • Interactive SmartBlocks
     • Precision ActionAds
     • Mu Management

2. SmartBlocks
   • DataBlocks for zero-party data
   • ContentBlocks for engagement
   • Progressive profiling
   • Natural, rewarding interactions
3. AI Twins
   • Three Types:
     • Signal (Adtech) Twins: Public data
     • Segment (Madtech) Twins: Behavioral insights
     • Singular (N=1) Twins: Individual replicas
   • Predictive capabilities
   • True personalization at scale

6. Customer Life Cycle Integration

• Phase 1: Romance (First 72 Hours)
• Phase 2: Marriage (Building Commitment)
• Phase 3: Family (Deepening Value)
• Phase 4: Apart? (Retention/Reactivation)

7. Benefits and Outcomes

• Elimination of AdWaste
• Reduced Customer Acquisition Costs
• Increased Customer Lifetime Value
• Predictable recurring revenue
• Path to “Profipoly” status

8. Implementation Challenges

• Entrenched interests of Big Adtech
• Organizational resistance
• Technical complexity
• Metric changes needed
• Cultural transformation required

ChatGPT

1.      Introduction to the Only Once Theory

• Core Concept: Brands should pay for customer acquisition only once and then pivot entirely to retention.
• Problem: The current marketing landscape is dominated by the cycle of reacquisition, leading to significant AdWaste, estimated to consume 50-80% of digital advertising budgets.
• Vision: Shift focus from reacquisition to building long-term, profitable customer relationships.

2. The Problem of AdWaste

• Definition: Repeatedly targeting the wrong segments (e.g., existing customers, known non-buyers).
• Statistics: Estimated $350-560 billion wasted annually in digital advertising due to inefficient reacquisition practices.
• Impact: Brands waste 6-10% of their total revenue on redundant spending, undermining profitability.

3. Why the Problem Exists

• Dependence on Big Adtech: Companies prioritise easy-to-use ad platforms like Google and Meta for reacquisition.
• Technological Limitations: Traditional channels lack interactive features for continuous engagement.
• Data Challenges: Heavy reliance on first-party and third-party data with limited personalisation.
• Organisational Silos: Separation between acquisition and retention teams leads to disjointed strategies.

4. The Only Once Solution: Three Core Innovations

• Hotline (NeoMails):

• • Purpose: Daily interactive emails that create consistent brand engagement.
  • Features: AMP/CSS technologies for in-email actions, Atomic Rewards (Mu) for incentivisation, and ActionAds for monetisation.
  • Outcome: Transforms emails into engagement hotlines that reduce the need for reacquisition.

• Zero-Party Data Collection (SmartBlocks):

• • Purpose: Collect data customers willingly share through interactive, engaging email elements.
  • Mechanism: DataBlocks and ContentBlocks seamlessly embedded in NeoMails for progressive profiling.
  • Benefits: Deepens understanding of customer preferences, enabling personalised experiences.

• N=1 Personalisation (AI Twins):

• • Definition: True one-to-one personalisation using AI-driven digital replicas of individual customers.
  • Types of AI Twins:
    • Starter Twins (Adtech): Built from publicly available data.
    • Segment Twins (Madtech): Combine first-party data for cohort insights.
    • Singular Twins: Fully personalised twins powered by zero-party data.
  • Function: Predict future behaviour, tailor content, and optimise customer interactions.

5. The Customer Life Cycle Aligned with Only Once

• Phase 1: Romance (First 72 Hours)
  • Capture contact details, launch personalised NeoMails, and start zero-party data collection.
• Phase 2: Marriage (Building Commitment)
  • Personalised product recommendations, continued data collection, and engagement maintenance.
• Phase 3: Family (Deepening Value)
  • Deliver exclusive content and leverage AI for rewards and referrals.
• Phase 4: Apart? (Retention and Reactivation)
  • Monitor engagement, predict churn with AI, and deploy reactivation strategies through owned channels.

6. The Benefits of Only Once

• Reduced CAC: Minimises the need for costly reacquisition efforts.
• Increased LTV: Maximises customer value through sustained engagement and personalisation.
• Elimination of AdWaste: Redirects resources towards retention and customer experience.

7. Strategic Importance

• Competitive Advantage: Creates lasting relationships that set brands apart.
• Profitability Shift: Moves from growth-at-all-costs to sustainable, profitable growth.
• Future Outlook: Brands that implement Only Once are positioned to become market leaders or “Profipolies.”

8. Conclusion

• Essence: The Only Once strategy reshapes marketing by focusing on acquiring customers once and investing in building enduring connections.
• Call to Action: Emphasises the urgency for brands to adopt these innovations to stay competitive.