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This article is part of the series, and is based off the book 'Top 21 Marketing channels for membership sites', written by The Subscription Coach Amanda Northcutt.
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The big six social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn. Pick 1 or 2 channels where your target viewers are and with whom you have a lot of fun interaction. Participate on those channels 5 seven days per week. 80% of what you say should be helpful, useful, and/or fun for your viewers, with less than 20% that is promotional. Thus, 1 five social media posts should be "salesy," that's it. No more, no less.
The social strategy you choose to implement should be tied into your strategy for content marketing. In other words, if you have a monthly topic or theme for your membership, then your content marketing (remember you need the free vs. paid strategy for content to make this work) must also be in line with that monthly theme. It's not surprising that the social media strategy you choose to implement will promote and tie in with the free content you're releasing during the month. Do not reinvent the wheel. Make your content marketing more efficient and social strategy using the same strategies you're working on behind the paywall with your paying members.
Facebook is a slam dunk in terms of paid advertisements for the majority of websites that are members, as it has 2.3 billion people using the site and unlimited modifications are possible, however it's not the ideal location for free social activities unless you've established an existing Facebook Group.
I won't take a deep look at the advantages and disadvantages of each medium, as it's not within the boundaries of this article. We do recommend Instagram, Pinterest, and/or YouTube if your membership centers on highly visual instructions, and both Twitter and LinkedIn when your membership is B2B (business to business). Using a social media scheduler, like Buffer or Edgar which can assist you to organize your social media shares as well as ease the burden of being present on the same social network every single day. That being said that you must be on the platform regularly and connect with the people that are paying attention, however, it's likely unreasonable to add every day social interaction to everything else on your plate as a site's owner.
Each week's once-weekly promotion, which is more salesy, interaction on social media should have a call-to-action (CTA) that is the same as the step your audience across all platforms might be willing to complete in order to join your membership. That can include entering a fun contest, taking part in a test, signing up for a webinar, accessing your website, or a specific landing page and the downloading of your lead magnet.
If you need an email address for an article the content serves as what's called a lead magnet. A lead magnet is something with a high value and relevance you give to your prospective customer in exchange for the email addresses of those who sign up. If someone enters their email address should instantly receive the promised information by email, and also be added to your list of email addresses. But don't just let them be on your email address to get the occasional newsletter email or similar. You must have a plan put in place to turn that new lead into an active member on your web site! You achieve this by preloading an lead nurturing email sequence which automatically starts into action when somebody downloads your lead magnet. Yes, it's labor-intensive, but it is by far the most efficient set-and forget marketing tool available to you. Start by doing it one time, then review your nurture email sequence at least every six months.
Your primary goal for all of your CTAs on social media CTAs is to collect a prospect's email address so they begin to receive your automated nurture emails. Like all marketing efforts, social engagement must be planned relevant, appropriate to the context, and measurable. If you aren't armed with accurate information regarding click-throughs conversions, shares, likes, retweets, lead captures, etc. It's possible that you're losing your time. Do you have it?
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Marketing with organic influencers
Working with people who hold the attention of a critical majority of your customers is the most effective route to increase the number of members on a website. You can try to orchestrate this organically instead of trying to pay for it.
For the purposes of membership sites, the term "influencer" is someone who has amassed a large, loyal, and engaged following online because they are the expert in their field, or just super funny/interesting/etc. And people love to hang out with their company. Engagement is the key metric to look for when seeking out influencers in your area. Some people have several thousand or more followers, but this is not enough for those who overwhelmingly ignore and are disengaged from their influencer.
It's been reported that there are instances of influencer marketing paid for in which celebrities are employed to serve as the spokesperson of an established brand. Entrepreneurs and bootstrappers have taken that concept and used it in specific niche market.
Chances are that there are influencers in your industry. Who has written an article on your topic for membership? Who is the host of conferences to meet your intended audience? What are the top three blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels that your target audience is paying attention to? Those are your influencers. They are the ones you must identify the ones you can find and then begin to be helpful to these individuals. Learn how to be the best you can so that, over time, you can forge real relationships with influential people and work towards mutually beneficial, collaborative projects.
Giving value to your industry's influencers by being kind and useful is the most effective approach to make it onto their agendas. The primary goal of this channel of marketing is first to establish authentic relationships (to create a friendship or befriend) with the influencers you're targeting. Then, in time create mutually beneficial strategies to get in touch with the audiences of each other. Take care to treat these relationships like kid gloves. Be cautious, thoughtful, and mindful that influencers are often able to wield the power to influence the purchase decisions of their audience. It is important to have this working to your advantage rather than against you.
You start being a helpful person by consistently doing things like: Engaging with them via social media (retweets or likes, remarks or likes. ), reviewing their book(s) on Amazon or leaving a review for the podcast on iTunes, consistently leaving useful comments on blog postings, sharing their posts with your audience and tagging the author on different social media channels by sending a simple thank-you as well as other such actions. Put these types of events in your schedule as a regularly scheduled event, so that your influencer marketing strategy is organic and up to date.
If you send an email or make an initial contact via social media to introduce yourself, it's smart to provide a quotation from the person who is the influencer in a blog post or podcast interview. You can also send them a message from a the most recent appearance on stage with an interesting comments about what they've taught you or ask an additional inquiry. This shows you've done your homework and aren't just coming in out of the blue with an agenda to execute.
Then say you've been a long-time enthusiast and admirer of their works (because they're a part of your life their work and providing support to the team for a while you know? ) In addition, you've shared their content with your readers multiple times and you're working in the same field and think it would be useful to connect. Then, you can offer the opportunity to introduce them to any within your circle who could benefit the other (great to have specific people in mind that you are certain they're acquaintances with). Be sure to not solicit anything from them in your initial contact. If they're positive, move forward slowly and steadily and keep providing value to this person. You can work at your own pace However, do not be afraid to inquire to collaborate if it's logical.
If you are working together you will naturally to be able to share information when it is relevant. You should also be on each other's podcasts and cross-promote services. bundle offers for services as well as explore other innovative collaborations for audience sharing.
If your influencer marketing efforts organically fail, or you are low in time, don't worry You can opt for paid influencer marketing instead!
Paid influencer marketing
Just as with the organic marketing of influencers, first you'll need to identify the influencers within your field, however you can speed up this process by contacting the influencers about advertising opportunities.
The most well-known influencers may possess a media kit sorts on their website if they've done paid influencer marketing with other companies previously. If you're not sure if they've been paid for collaborations or exposure to their followers previously, you might need to first see the possibility of this. Regardless, you're better off if you've followed the relationship-building steps outlined in the previous section on organic influencer marketing so you're on their radar before you make that inquiry.
Opportunities for paid influencers can include: a sponsored email sent to their mailing subscribers and a sponsored blog or a guest appearance on their podcast, paying them to be the guest speaker on webinars and/or paying them to do an interview or to give a talk at your conference or event or any other thing you can think of that is beneficial to your area.
The ability to borrow the audience of someone else is often the fastest and least expensive path to growth. Do not overlook the impact that influencer marketing could have on your marketing and acquisition strategies.