What is an owned audience?
As some of you faithful will know, I’ve been telling businesses to jump on the newsletter bandwagon for a while now. The concept of ‘owned audience’ is just confirming that belief.
Quick recap first.
Why I used to think newsletters were great
Initially, I thought a newsletter was essential for businesses because:
It’s another way to build and nurture a relationship with your client base. There are many ways to connect, and customers will respond better to some methods over others, but email marketing is a worthwhile touch point.
They help with brand awareness. We all receive many emails and we may ignore some but still your brand is penetrating recipients’ subconscious. One day, they may well need your services and guess what? You’re already in their inbox.
They help boost sales! I tell a great anecdote of my own here - everyone wants an easy life and this email made my life easier!
Aside from these reasons, the customer has signed up for your emails, usually directly with you / your company. They are part of your ‘owned audience.’
Image c/o Unsplash
Owned audiences
Newsletters are a great example of an owned audience, which is an audience comprised of opt-in subscribers. You’re not going through a third party to reach your audience.
They have signed up to have this connection with your business and here’s the best bit:
Your email is not at the mercy of algorithms.
Let’s just celebrate that! Those pesky algorithms are nowhere to be seen.
My trusty (& physical version!) Concise English Oxford Dictionary defines algorithm as a noun which means, ‘a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer.’
‘Algorithm’ is a common term in digital marketing as all social media platforms use them to work out what to show different users. The platforms create the algorithms, and the rules are based on several factors including the content itself (video vs image, showing people vs not, carousel vs single post, accompanied by music vs no music - the list goes on) and the users’ likes and tastes. If your content doesn’t ‘fit’ the algorithm, your posts may not receive many impressions/views. This is why social media can be so frustrating and feel like a great deal of effort for very little return, right?
Newsletters sent via email to an audience of people who have subscribed is an owned audience. Podcasts are another example. Customers, current and potential, make the choice to read your email or listen to your podcast. They are not just being shown content that a third party thinks you want to see. Your customer has autonomy over what they consume and that’s important - we all like being in control over what we see, listen to and read.
Image courtesy Unsplash
How to make the most of your owned audience
Now that you know the value of an owned audience, it’s time to make the most of yours.
Steps to connecting with your owned audience
Mailing list
First of all, you need to have a way to capture email addresses. If you have an online shop, you will likely be collecting purchasers’ email addresses but you may also have other ways. Perhaps people can subscribe in exchange for a discount off a purchase or service (I offer this!); maybe people can sign up for news about your brand, but you’ve never done anything with those email addresses.
Check out your list and see how many email addresses you have. Regardless of the number, they’re valuable to you and you can grow the list from here.
Newsletter content
Then you need to think about your newsletter. We know the email newsletters that we receive, open and like to read. Think about why you open them and then invest the time in reading them. Is it out of need (i.e. you need some information from them)? You might be interested in the content or the offers. Perhaps they have a catchy subject line which hooks you in. This is all valuable research and something to take forward into your own newsletters.
You will need a newsletter tool. Your own website might have one (I know Squarespace does) but there are many out there including Mailchimp, Klaviyo and Beehiiv. Explore all the options until you find one that works for you - it’s not impossible to switch newsletter tools once you’ve started but it’s an extra job that’s good to avoid!
You don’t want your newsletter to be all sales, sales, sales. You want to build and nurture a relationship with your customers. A good way to do this is to provide ‘free’ information related to your product or brand: ways to do it yourself (think recipes, gardening hacks and even writing tips!) and why your product or service is valuable (in-depth article or info) but without a sales angle are good methods.
I advocate including a portion of information, an excerpt from a longer blog, but with links back to your website for the full article. Once people are on your website, they will hopefully start browsing around, learning more about the brand and you. This may well help with an eventual purchase or commission.
And provide variety in your newsletter. Longer articles or pieces alongside snippets of information, useful links or quick tips. Variety makes it interesting as do images.
Adding subscribers
People might find your subscription method on your website but it’s a good idea to publicise your newsletter too. You can do this via social media but also encourage subscribers to forward on to others who might find the content useful - organic growth is so valuable.
Hope you find this useful! I’m going to be incorporating some of these ideas into my own newsletter so if you’d like to subscribe (and you’ll receive 10% off your first commission), sign up at the bottom of my home page.
If you need help with your newsletter, please get in touch - I’d love to help you build your owned audience.