Seeds of Renaissance sign-up funnel
Seeds of Renaissance sign-up funnel
How people sign up to Seeds of Renaissance (SoR), what we record, and what they get next. Bead lip-upn.1, under the Comms Infrastructure epic lip-upn. Background: comms use cases (needs across brands) and CRM motivation (why one contact store).
TL;DR. SoR has eleven ways in, spread over six tools (our site → CRM mailer, Substack, Luma, Stripe, Google Forms, Metalabel) plus the Forum and email. None lands in the CRM yet; two will (site newsletter, course interest) once the mailer is set up and the site's switches are on. Rufus has settled the newsletter route: our own form → CRM, copied into Substack by hand once a month, letter still sent from Substack. Seven questions remain, each with a recommendation. The biggest risks: copying people who unsubscribed back into Substack, and course interest that nobody acts on.
Settled (Rufus, 2026-10-23)
- Newsletter sign-up is a form on our site, not a hand-off to Substack's page, which "does not work well". Sign-ups go to the CRM mailer as newsletter
seeds-of-renaissance. The form tells people we'll add them. - The letter is still sent from Substack. Once a month, new sign-ups are copied into the Substack list by hand (
sorw-ol5.10.30.2), to be automated later, as Life Itself used to do. - Course interest goes to the CRM, one record per course (plus "any course").
The website side, and how this came up, is in sor-website docs/forms.md (sorw-ol5.10.30).
1. Purposes
| Sign-up | For the visitor | For us |
|---|---|---|
| Newsletter (site forms) | Hear about essays, courses and events once a month, with no commitment | The main warm audience; where every announcement starts |
| Paid Substack subscription | Support the work; read everything | ~1,000 a year of income (currency TBC); the most committed readers |
| Course interest ("tell me when") | Be told when a specific course opens | Demand per course; a warm list to fill the next run |
| Luma course registration | A place on a run, with joining details | Who is in a cohort; practical messages to them |
| Luma event registration | A place at an event, plus reminders | Attendance history; who to invite next time |
| Magazine (Stripe: buy, subscribe, patron) | Get the print magazine; back it | Income; the art audience |
| Magazine free download (Metalabel) | Read Issue #1 or the manifesto free | Reach |
| Eternity open call (Google Form) | Submit art for Issue #3 | Submissions to review; artists to stay in touch with |
Contact email (hello@, art@) | A reply from a person | Conversations, collaborators |
| Join page | Find a way in that fits | Routing only: links to the newsletter, events, courses, Forum, contact |
| Forum | Talk with others | Community; its own accounts and notifications |
2. The map
Solid lines are live or decided; dotted lines are partial or missing. Forum, Contact, Join and Metalabel sit outside the funnel and are in the table only.
| Way in | Asked for | Recorded where | Gets next | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Site newsletter forms (Home top and foot, About) | The monthly letter | CRM: Twenty person and subscription, plus the mailer's own list (unused while Substack sends). No confirm-your-email step | Thank-you on the page: "the next letter comes within a month". Joins Substack at the next monthly copy | No welcome email; up to a month's wait; Substack unsubscribes don't come back; the three forms can't be told apart |
Course interest (/courses#keep-posted) | Word when one course (or any) opens | CRM: Twenty interest record per course, with the page; email only, no name | Thank-you: "We'll write when it opens." Then nothing until someone writes | No owner; no way yet to send to the list |
| Course form "also send me the letter" tick | The letter as well | Also a newsletter sign-up | As above | As above |
| Substack, free (direct, archive links) | The letter | Substack only | Substack's welcome; monthly letter | Not in the CRM. Archive links stay on Substack (decided); Join and Podcast now point to /#newsletter |
| Substack, paid | Support; full access | Substack (payments via Substack's Stripe) | As above, plus paid posts | Not in the CRM; Substack takes 10% |
| Luma course run | A place on the run | Luma guests | Luma confirmation and reminders; organiser messages | Into Twenty only by manual backfill (last 2026-07-17) |
| Luma event | A place at the event | Luma guests | Luma confirmation and reminders | Same |
| Stripe magazine (buy, subscribe, patron) | Magazine; support | Stripe customers | Receipt; magazine posted | Not in the CRM; buyers aren't asked about the letter |
| Metalabel free download | Issue #1, manifesto | Metalabel | The file | Out of our hands; leave it |
| Eternity Google Form | Submit art | Google Sheet | Reply from the art team | Artists not in the CRM after the call |
| Contact email | A reply | Inbox (in Twenty only if that mailbox is synced) | A reply | Mostly not captured |
| Join page | (a choice) | Nothing itself | Whatever they click | None: routing only |
Forum (forum.secondrenaissance.net) | Conversation | Forum accounts | Forum notifications | Separate; no plan to sync |
3. Questions
- Newsletter: add everyone who signs up for anything, or only people who ask? → Recommend: only people who ask. Course interest, Luma and Stripe each promise something narrower; adding them to the letter breaks that promise, and consent has to be specific. The course form's tick is the model; Stripe and Luma can ask the same way later.
- Record where each sign-up came from, and segment by it? → Recommend: segment by interest (course, magazine, art), not by form. Course interest already records the page; the newsletter records one source for all three forms, and telling them apart needs a small CRM change that isn't worth it until we'd act on it.
- One list, or one per product? → Recommend: one newsletter for SoR; course and magazine interest are tags, not lists. One list means one unsubscribe and no clashes; a second letter only makes sense with a second editorial voice.
- Substack's role, given paid subscribers? → Recommend: keep Substack as sender and paid home for now; revisit when the hand copy becomes a chore or the CRM can send. ~1,000 a year is real money and moving paid subscribers is its own project (paid membership research).
- Who writes to people who asked about a course? → Recommend: whoever opens a run (Sylvie today) emails that course's interest list when sign-up opens; Rufus to confirm. An unanswered "tell me when" costs more trust than no form; put it in each run's launch checklist.
- Welcome email? → Recommend: keep the page's thank-you as it is ("the next letter comes within a month"); check whether Substack's import can send its own welcome at the monthly copy. The mailer sends no welcome today; if Substack's works, it's a free welcome with no new build.
- Bring Luma, Stripe and Substack into the CRM? → Recommend: Luma first, once someone owns the runner (
crm-dxb.6waits on an owner and an always-on runner, not code); each month bring Substack's unsubscribes into the CRM; Stripe and the Eternity form later, by hand per magazine issue. Luma holds the most history (1,748 participations); Luma attendees are not added to the letter.
Risk in the monthly copy (sorw-ol5.10.30.2): copy only sign-ups since the last copy, and check Substack's unsubscribed list first, so nobody who left is added back. Record the date of each copy. People unsubscribe in Substack, so the CRM shows them as subscribed after they've left until their unsubscribes are brought back (Need 4).
4. What this asks of the CRM mailer
What exists today (crm README, guides/):
/newsletter/v1: email + newsletter key; no confirm step; no welcome email; records consent in Twenty and the mailer's own list (a Resend Topic); one source per newsletter, set by the operator./interest/v1: email + target + project + consent text, optional source page; records interest in Twenty only; sends nothing; no names, tags or free text./subscribe: email courses; confirm step; lessons on a schedule.- Luma → Twenty script, backfilled 2026-07-17; recurring sync on hold for an owner (
crm-dxb.6). Luma attendance gives no newsletter consent. - Import from a Substack export, with consent checks (done for Way Into AI).
Needs, in order (candidates for epic crm-dxb; not filed there):
- Register
seeds-of-renaissancewith the consent text the forms show. That text and the privacy page should say the letter is sent via Substack. Blocks the site switch. - Export of new subscribers since a date, for the monthly Substack copy, leaving out anyone unsubscribed. The smallest step that makes the copy safe.
- Export of an interest list per course, so whoever opens a run can write to it.
- Bring Substack unsubscribes into the CRM, so the CRM doesn't show people as subscribed after they've left.
- Recurring Luma sync (
crm-dxb.6), once it has an owner. - Later: a separate source per form; a welcome email per newsletter; sending to an interest list; Stripe and Google Form capture.
Related
- Website side: sor-website
docs/forms.md(form inventory, switches), beadssorw-ol5.10.30,.30.1(site switches),.30.2(monthly copy). - CRM: life-itself/crm, epic
crm-dxb;ref/luma-sync-decision.md,ref/newsletter-signup-contract.md.
