Howdy wonderful people,
I just came back from an amazing month in Palermo, Sicily with WiFi Tribe. Turns out working remotely is simultaneously fun and productive, but the time zone difference can be pretty challenging.
While in Sicily, I was obsessed with growth on Substack: I spent a fair amount of time writing articles, leaving comments on people’s articles and subscribing to strangers, and pulling my hair out over Notes. (I had a Note get 12 whole likes! We’re on to something folks!)
As I started taking sales calls from different people across social media (what I like to call conversation media, because the term “social media” gives me a mini heart attack every time I hear it), I realized that all of these people were annoyingly different.
Some people wanted me to write their book. Some people wanted me to sell their book. People from all different genres, including children’s books, business books, and fiction have come to me seeking my help. Some people thought my price was too high. Some people thought my price was too low. Some people didn’t understand what I do, or what they even wanted from themselves.
F*ck.
I realized I had committed the cardinal sin of marketing: Not prioritizing clarity, and chasing growth for growth’s sake.
I had wanted to see those little numbers on my dashboard go up for no other reason than to feed my little ego. (Yes, middle school Renee is still in there, seeking validation.)
After feeling down in the dumps after several failed sales calls, I realized that I had collected enough data about my poor marketing clarity that it was time to take a few steps back.
It was time to dial in my audience even more.
If you are building a Substack newsletter for subs and paid subs and blah blah blah, good on you. But, if you’re building a dedicated audience that you want to serve with a business, throw away all conventional Substack growth advice and listen up:
The next time you see someone’s newsletter on Substack blow up, please remember that it’s not about the subscriptions.
It’s about the right people learning the right things from you. It’s about you nurturing the right people with honesty and value so that when the time is right in their own hero’s journey, they can take the next step with you.
1,000,000 generic subscribers can mean zero dollars in sales.
1,000 perfect subscribers can mean a million dollars in sales.
It’s up to you.
So, over the next few days, I will be sharing with you my process for how I will be dialing in my audience. I have some worksheets and questions from my history in book marketing that I will be using, but I’ll also dig up other resources to share with you in the next few days on attracting the right clients.
This is also extremely relevant to book marketing (and to business marketing in general). When you are looking to sell a book to grow your business, 80% of the work is knowing the
who
what.
Who you’re selling to.
What they want.
That they can’t get anywhere else.
P.S. If you’re a regular reader here, you probably know that I am a big fan of Jessica Zweig and her work. She wrote and marketed her nonfiction book so well that she doubled the size of her agency in one year. In Sicily, I decided to spend $10,000 on a 30-day coaching container with her in September to work through my brand, positioning, and offers. Funny thing is, I don’t really have a brand or a position (yet). By making my first deposit, I lit a fire under my ass to get a draft brand strategy together before our coaching session to make it worth our while.
I plan to bring any nuggets I learn from her book marketing and business success to all of you.
Much love,
Renee
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What’s your advice on creating customer avatars? What are some hilarious stories you have when your customer avatar wasn’t dialed in right? We’d love to know, and your story will help this community. Leave your comment below.
Also P.P.S. I find it funny how many people here think Substack is different from social media. My theory is that the people who discovered the parts of themselves they didn’t like reflected back at them on Instagram or Tiktok will find a similar result on Substack too. What do you think?
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