I just finished the launch of my new email course, Build a Relationship with Your Audience Through Email.
During this launch, I used a standard framework for promoting the course via my email list. I sent a lot more emails than my usual cadence. (To my credit, I did warn my list there would be more emails.)
Those emails were also much more focused on selling my course and getting people to go to the landing page to sign up. Normally, my emails are informational and have a single link at the bottom with an offer to sign up for a free 30-minute consultation about an upcoming marketing project.
A friend of mine responded to one of my launch emails, concerned that “this wasn’t like me” and “had I been hacked?”
If You Don’t Know Your Audience, You’re Screwed
The way I was writing or “talking to my audience” during my launch was not what my friend was used to. They were accustomed to my normal, easy-going, informative emails. Not this push to get people to sign up.
That’s fair.
And it’s also why you must know your audience and how to talk to them when you’re promoting your products and services.
Because if you don’t, you’ll drive people away.
Granted, this happens to pretty much every company that does product launches. They inevitably get emails saying, “You’re sending way too many emails!” Or, “Why are you selling me stuff all the sudden?” Even when you’ve been “selling them stuff” the entire time they’ve been on your list.
Launch email sequences are typically the exception, not the rule. Most companies don’t push their products or services hard at other times (which is a good thing in my opinion.)
But in my friend’s case, I would never recommend they use the same email sequence.
They present outreach programs on a specific subject to certain organizations. Their emails go out to the organization’s coordinator to engage that person and offer their upcoming presentations. A launch email sequence would be highly inappropriate.
Instead, my friend would want a low-key engagement sequence and on-going reminders that these programs exist, with a link to more information. Similar to my normal, weekly emails.
This is why you need to know who you’re talking to, what they want and the best way to talk to them.
So, you’re not presenting them with the wrong information or sending them the wrong kinds of emails.
Seriously. Get to know your audience!
Do Your Audience Research
I talk regularly about the fact that you need to know your audience and show you how to learn more about them here on this blog and in my weekly emails.
I firmly believe in doing this research and incorporating it into every aspect of your marketing, especially your messaging.
Why?
Think of a musical note for a moment. When it’s played in tune, on a beautiful instrument, such as a harp or a flute, it resonates with you.
Literally.
The sound draws you in and makes you want to hear more.
Sound vibrations pass through our bodies and produce positive and negative sensations.
When you hear that same musical note played off-key, or out of tune, on an instrument with bad sound quality, like an old, plunky piano or a poorly tuned bagpipe, it grates on your every nerve. It drives you away instead of drawing you in.
The same is true for your marketing message.
When you have your message finely tuned, it will resonate with your target audience. They’ll be drawn to it and want to hear more.
If your message isn’t tuned “properly,” if it doesn’t represent what you’re doing or if it’s not genuine, it will drive people away.
To get the tuning right, you need to know your audience.
You need to understand who they are, what problems they’re having, why these problems are so painful to them, and how your product or service will help them solve these problems.
Yes, that seems like a lot to fit into a short message, or a long message, but not only is it doable, it’s necessary.
You May Not Get It Right on the First Try
And that’s okay.
This is why you test your message over and over.
Marketing is never truly a “set it and forget it” system, as much as we’d all like it to be.
It is iterative. You develop your message over time. You try one thing and see if it works. If yes, see how long you can keep that going. If no, you try again.
You test messages against each other with A/B testing, also referred to as split testing.
You talk to your audience, via surveys, in person, or by asking them to respond to your emails, to learn more about what they want, how they think and what they need to hear.
You get to know your audience over time, just as they’re getting to know you through your regular emails and by using your product or service.
What You’re Saying Won’t Resonate with Everyone
This is also okay.
When someone says, “I’m not interested,” it doesn’t mean you’ve got a bad product or service. It just means they’re not your audience. You don’t have what they think they need to solve their problem.
Case in point, my launch emails didn’t resonate with my friend.
Don’t be offended.
I wasn’t offended by my friend’s message.
I wrote back, asking what bothered my friend so much about the emails I’d sent for the launch.
My friend responded that they didn’t like the countdown timer I used to show urgency or the fact that I was pushing hard to get people to sign up.
I get that.
However, when you’re offering a course that has a set start-date, you have to set a deadline for people to sign up, so everyone can be ready for the first class. Colleges and Universities do this all the time, as do pretty much any organization that offers a structured class. When you need your students to be ready to start and to attend each session, you have to cut off registration at some point.
The change in my message and tone confused and dismayed my friend.
I wanted to make it clear that there was a deadline and to show how urgent it was that anyone who wanted into the course meet this deadline. This message didn’t resonate with my friend.
I understand and accept this.
However, that’s not going to change how I run a launch in the future.
I’ll still “sell” while giving information. I’ll still have a deadline, I’ll still put urgency into my messages, and I’ll still cut off registration by a certain point.
Why?
Because all of those things work to get people to sign up.
I may adjust my message a bit to appeal more to my friend and people who feel the same way. I’ll make that decision when I launch this course again.
I need to remain true to my business, my message and what I’m selling, part of which is teaching business owners how to learn about their audience and how to find messages that resonate with that audience.
Do You Know Your Audience?
As I mentioned, I just launched a course called Build a Relationship with Your Customers Through Email.
The first module is focused on this very topic, which is why I decided it would be a good idea to write about it this week. It covers pretty much everything I talked about in today’s blog post, in more detail and with clear instructions on how to do it all.
Right now, course registration is closed for this round. But I will be teaching it again within the next few months.
If you’re interested in learning more about my new course and want to be notified when registration opens again, please click on the button below to sign up for the waiting list.
