So you have this book that you wrote.
This newsletter you so carefully crafted.
This course you designed with attention and love.
….
You are ready for launch.
The world is waiting for you ….
…. well ….
NOPE.
No one is waiting for you.
Not even the people who registered for (tick the right answer):
- your newsletter
- your course
- your e-book.
— > But they signed up, right?
— > Right…
Let’s break down the psychology of this, do you mind?
Someone was online. Saw your ad, read your blog post, stumbled upon your site on his/her lunch break, and got excited. Signed up. It’s free. The opportunity is here to be seized.
He knows if he doesn’t do it now, nearly no chance he gets back here. (Today’s internet is a crowded place and you don’t come back very often to places). So he likes what he just saw or read, and in the momentum of the excitement, he signed up.
The moment he signed up, the pressure go down. The panic feeling that “I might miss out on something awesome for free” just left him. He knows he is safe now. He signed up. He knows that from now on, you are the one who will remind him, run after him and he can decide later on if he really needs it.
Signing up for free shit on the internet became a lot like binge shopping.
It looks good, so you take it now. You’ll see later if you need it.
However, on the other side, someone’s tripping.
YOU.
You think you have a new fan.
When all you have is someone who got excited about your free stuff and fear he might miss out on something so he signed up just in case.
You haven’t sold him yet.
You just started the conversation with that guy or gal.
You have not yet bought him.
All the work is still upfront.
It’s like when a girl (or a guy) give you her (his) phone number.
You got the other side’s attention, and you have an opportunity to build up the relationship.
So, don’t blow it up by saying non-sense over the freaking phone when you call that number!!!
How do you know you’re doing it right?
Once you understand this fundamental principal that a signup is just the beginning, it then becomes clearer _you need to monitor how the relationship is growing, _
If it’s a newsletter, you will need to see how often they opens it, do they click the content in there, do they pay attention over time. From newsletter to newsletter, you need to gain their attention again again.
If it’s a course, they needs to come back week after week, day after day and make progress. If they don’t come back, you need to see when do they stop, was it the content? was it the design? do they all stop at this same point? Try a different format of content, a different topic, a different approach, improve your bugs, fix your design, become mobile-friendly. In short, make sure your users feels at home and enjoy…
Remember, you are dating your customers, so put on you’re best dress, and make the experience unforgettable. Or, if you prefer to go casual, that’s ok too, as long as it fits the expectation. Not every date needs to be in a 4-stars hotel, you can also go to a burger… just make sure it’s cool with the other side. Test, and iterate. Test and iterate. Again and again, until you build the right approach, the right relationship, with your audience.
Content and context
CONTENT IS THE KEY – as you long as you keep the content relevant to the conversation.
The moment your content is getting boring is the moment they loose interest, meaning you’re out of the game because there is no conversation anymore.
Being irrelevant is how you build a huge database of dead-meat emails disconnected from any reality on the ground.
So before you get to this situation, segment your data properly, analyse how your users consume the content they signed up for, so you can adapt to keep the conversation relevant – to keep your content in context.
Because NOBODY CARES – unless you make them care.
So make them care, each and every freaking time as if it was the first time.
And for this, you need to care about them.