Hey, it's Geb from Email Rev Lab!
At 8:15 AM today, I signed up for Gainful's 15% discount.
The first pop-up asked for my email. Fine.
The second pop-up asked for my phone number. Okay.
The third pop-up asked me to enter a 6-digit code texted to that number.
That's three steps before I even get the discount code.
The Brand Bridge:
Eric Wu built Gainful's first formula in his college apartment because supplement stores were overwhelming. Too many options. Too much confusion. He wanted something simple and personal.
That founding instinct is exactly right.
But their welcome flow contradicts it. Three pop-up screens, a phone verification code, and a Promotions tab landing. The experience they built to protect feels like the walls they were trying to knock down.
The Pop-up Test:
The first screen is clean. "Save 15% today. Enter your email." Product imagery is sharp. The offer is clear. Good start.
Then it asks for a phone number. Still okay. SMS list capture is smart.
Then it asks for a one-time code texted to that phone number.
That third step is the killer. Most buyers don't complete a 3-step sign-up. This is a checkout-level friction applied to a discount pop-up. You're asking first-time visitors to verify their identity before they've bought anything.
This isn't a pop-up. It's a bouncer.
The Tech Test:
The email arrived at 8:16 AM. That's within 1 minute of completing the flow.
Timing is not the issue here. Speed is solid.
But email delivery landed in Promotions, not Primary. That's a deliverability flag. Gainful's sender domain needs warming toward the inbox, not a folder most buyers ignore.
The Inbox Test:
Subject line: "Fuel Your Wellness Journey with 15% Off."
Functional but flat. "Fuel Your Wellness Journey" sounds like every wellness brand ever. There's no curiosity gap, no urgency, no specificity. It reads like a template.
The sender's name is "Gainful" with a generic hello@ address. No name. No face. On a brand built around personalization, that's a missed opportunity.
The Email Creative Test:
The email itself is well-designed. Clean layout. Hero image with the discount code front and center. Three clear value pillars. A "Find Your Blend" CTA. Footer navigation covers all product categories.
The copy is decent. But "Unlock Your Potential" as a CTA button directly violates the tone of a brand that exists because Eric hated generic supplement marketing.
The code is visible (GET15). That's what matters most in Email 1. That part works.
The Solution:
The 3-step pop-up is the primary bottleneck. Here's the fix in Klaviyo:
Keep Step 1 (email) and Step 2 (phone) as your two-step pop-up. This is standard and converts well. Remove Step 3 entirely.
Trigger your SMS verification differently. If phone number accuracy matters, use a post-purchase SMS confirmation instead of gating your initial discount behind a verification code.
Test your pop-up conversion rate before and after. Omnisend benchmarks average pop-up conversion at 2.1%. A 3-step flow is almost certainly landing below that.
The Impact Statement:
Every extra step in a pop-up flow adds friction, and friction kills completions. Research from Omnisend's 2025 dataset confirms that popups with 4+ fields see a sharp drop in conversion rate compared to those with 1-3 fields. A 3-step OTP verification goes well beyond that threshold.
The Curiosity Hook:
Here's what I'm curious about: if Gainful removed Step 3 today, how many more subscribers would complete the pop-up by next week?
The Pitch:
Gainful has the product. They have the story. Eric and Jahaan built something people genuinely want.
They just need their email infrastructure to match the level of care they put into the formula.
I send these audits daily because bottlenecks like this can be fixed in one day with the right information.
Want me to audit your Klaviyo account the same way?
Reply to this email, and I'll send you a free breakdown of where your welcome series is leaking revenue.
Geb Vence
P.S. I run Email Rev Lab. We've generated $334k+ for brands by building systems that feel like conversations, not ads. I only work with 3 brands per month. Schedule your call here.