How I study a new client before I touch a single email

Before I write a subject line.
Before I open Figma.
Before I build anything in Klaviyo.

I study the business.

Not in a “scroll the website for 10 minutes” way.

In a structured way.

Because the biggest mistake I see in email marketing is this:

People start building before they understand what system they’re entering.

Why I stopped jumping straight into Klaviyo

When I first started working with brands, my process looked like most email marketers’ process:

Open the account.
Check campaigns.
Look at flows.
Peek at segments.
Scan metrics.
Start fixing things.

And every time, I’d miss things.

Brand voice issues.
Positioning problems.
Operational constraints.
Product logic.
Support patterns.
Fulfillment realities.

Things that later completely changed what emails should be sent.

So I built something for myself.

The system I now use for every new client

Today, every new FirstX client goes through the same thing.

An internal onboarding system I built in n8n.

It pulls data from:

• the website
• Klaviyo
• reviews
• support FAQs
• public content
• brand documents (if available)

And turns it into one structured internal document.

Not a data dump.

A brand intelligence brief.

What this document actually gives me

Instead of starting with:

“What emails should we send?”

I start with:

• What does this brand actually sell?
• Who is it really for?
• What problems show up in reviews?
• How does the brand talk vs how customers talk?
• Where does revenue really come from?
• What expectations are being set?
• What breaks after purchase?
• What patterns already exist?

The document includes things like:

• product and offer breakdown
• tone and brand voice analysis
• customer language extracted from reviews
• competitor positioning
• current lifecycle gaps
• obvious retention and CX risks
• existing email structure summary
• and early opportunity areas

So by the time I open Klaviyo…

I’m not guessing.

I’m continuing a study.

How this changes everything downstream

Because of this, my work inside accounts feels completely different.

Flows are built around reality, not assumptions.
Campaigns connect to actual buying logic.
Copy uses the words customers already use.
Design matches how the brand actually presents itself.
Segments are built around behavior, not vibes.

And most importantly:

I don’t lose the first two weeks of a project “figuring it out.”

The system does that before I even start.

Why I think this matters

Email marketing isn’t hard because writing emails is hard.

It’s hard because you’re stepping into:

someone else’s business
someone else’s customers
someone else’s operations
someone else’s history
someone else’s mistakes

Without a real understanding layer, you’re always reacting.

With one, you’re designing.

That’s the difference.

Final thought

Every strong email system I’ve built started long before the first email.

It started with studying the business like a system, not a storefront.

This internal onboarding process is now non-negotiable for me at FirstX.

Not because it’s fancy.

But because it makes everything that follows smarter.