Remember the 2021 social media “blackout?”
I bet you do (but in case you don’t, the gist is that everything owned by Facebook—I’m sorry—the Metaverse was down for almost 24 hours). It left a lot of people worried, stressed out and panicked. Maybe you were one of them.
It really highlighted the potential pitfalls of relying on social media giants *cough* Facebook *cough* for our audiences.
Okay, but while this happened to Zuckerberg’s teams (and that’s a rabbit hole I won’t go down), the reality is that it could happen to any social media platform and you would be just as powerless to stop it.
With speculation that a social media apocalypse could be more realistic than we want to believe, there’s been a lot of chatter about the best ways to build an audience.
Some marketers claim that building on social media is akin to “renting” your audience. I disagree. Your audience is your audience. That said, relying on social media as a means to communicate with your audience can be risky because you’re “renting” the platform at the very least.
One possible, and wise (in my opinion) solution is to diversify your platforms. Don’t just use Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter. Use a strategic combination of all of them. And please, PLEASE don’t count on your business Facebook page to act in lieu of a website. But that’s a topic for another day.
Another solution? As many people around you have no doubt suggested…
The almighty email list
But like anything else, the answer to “should I build up my email list?” is “it depends.”
And it depends on a host of different factors.
You have to be prepared to put in the time, effort and work it takes to build and nurture your list. It’s not quite as simple as declaring your intention to start a list and then doing exactly that.
The lead magnet
First, you need to decide what kind of lead magnet you’ll offer in order to build your list.
Now, you want to make sure that your lead offer is relevant and interesting to your audience, and just as important, relevant to whatever high ticket service you provide.
Some great options for coaches and course creators which can be used to prime your audience to your main offer include:
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- Webinar (pre-recorded or live)
- Video Series (to spread out your content and create more audience touchpoints than a webinar)
- Mini-course or challenge (usually 3-7 days in duration which allows you to interact with your audience)
- Checklist, PDF or Short eBook with instructional video
Basically, you want to consider what you can offer that will make life easier for your audience in a way that adds value, educates, or entertains them. It’s very important that your lead magnet adds to your main offer and doesn’t devalue what you want to actually sell to your audience.
Whatever you choose, it’s likely going to take time to develop. Or at least it will take time to get it ready to offer your audience because you can’t phone it in on the offer just to build your list.
It has to be something that your audience really wants or needs. Otherwise, people are neither going to be willing to offer their information in exchange for it nor will they be interested in remaining on your list and getting future news/updates/offers from your brand.
*PRO TIP* The copy on your landing page should reflect the outcome that your lead magnet offers your audience, not the offer itself. See this LinkedIn post I did on my own landing page teardown for an example.
The material
Your email list is essential to building your know, like and trust factor and priming your audience to buy from you in the future.
So, the next thing you need to consider is what type of material you will use to continue nurturing your list past the lead magnet.
Even if you plan to send your list to a sales funnel following your lead magnet, you’ll want a way to keep them engaged whether or not they buy this time.
You can’t just send random updates of what you’re doing and expect your list to stay engaged.
Like with any marketing materials, you need to consider what’s in it for your audience and make your future emails about them and their interests/needs.
If you have a podcast, blog, or post regularly on social media, you’ve already got great sources of material for your emails. Just be careful that you aren’t only reusing from those sources with no new insights or value to add. Otherwise, your audience will either unsubscribe from your list or stop following your other marketing channels at the annoyance of doubling up on the same information.
The frequency
Once you know what you want to send, you need a schedule for how often to send.
You want to find a rhythm you can sustain. Email infrequently, or worse yet, sporadically, and your audience will forget who you are. Seriously, think of your own inbox. What do you do when you don’t recognize someone’s name in there?
Don’t panic that this has to be set in stone, though. If you decide to email weekly but have to miss the odd week here and there, that’s okay. The most important part of anything you choose to do with your list regarding material and frequency is to communicate expectations to your audience.
That’s right. Simply tell your audience what to expect and when. And deliver on the expectations you set. If something changes, let them know that too.
You don’t have to live and die by the schedule you set out, but you do need to be reliable and let your audience know what’s going on. Respect for their inbox and their time means a lot.
The commitment
Finally, you need to ask yourself if this is really something you can and are willing to commit to.
Let me tell you from experience, that weekly, or even biweekly commitments sneak up on you far quicker than you expect. Especially if you’re also juggling other marketing channels like you should be (see above for a refresher on the importance of diversification).
You may find yourself getting quickly burned out if you’re juggling a blog, podcast, social media posts and an active email list. Heck, just 2 of those channels can be enough to burn out even the most prolific content creators.
How can you handle it all? Outsource what you don’t have the time/energy/creative capacity for.
You could hire a VA to collect topics for your blog or edit your podcast, or a social media manager to handle your posting frequency and audience engagement.
You could hire a copywriter to write subject lines to test for the best open rate, and emails that keep your audience engaged. At the very least, you might hire a copywriter to write compelling copy for your lead magnet (some even write the lead magnet itself), and a solid welcome series that will prime your audience to continue receiving news from you in the future.
The bottom line
Putting all your eggs in any one basket, like a single social media platform, is a risky venture. Spread out your marketing efforts to reduce that risk.
If you’re serious about preparing for impending social doom and selling to a warm audience, nothing beats email marketing for the ROI.
Consider your capacity to handle a new marketing channel and talk to a professional if you need help getting your copy in order to start, and sell, to your list.
