Do you want free donuts?
Make it easy for your fans to say yes
Do I want free donuts? Yes.
Do I want rewards? Well wait, what are the rewards? How do I get them?
I went out for a donut and iced coffee today, and wow, it’s a complete dystopian hellscape out there right now.
Anyways, we got talking about websites, social media, and email marketing of course - yes, I’m loads of fun at parties!
The owner told me the challenge of getting people into their reward program (buy enough donuts and coffee, get free donuts).
Her pitch is basically, “do you want to join our rewards program?”
And those go (usually) three ways:
Yeah, sure.
No, thanks.
Wait, what’s the rewards program?
For me, if you ask someone who’s buying donuts if they want free donuts, I think that changes the response a bit, to something like:
Uhh, yes.
Wait, what?
➡️ Think of this when writing subject lines.
Your “West Coast Tour Dates Announced” subject line is great for fans on the West Coast, but a horrible subject line for everyone else.
For someone like me in Pennsylvania, I have no incentive to open that email. Go have fun, West Coast!
But a subject line that says, “Do you remember when those cowboys got us back on the road when our van broke down?” - that’s for everyone! I want my van-repairing cowboys!
Then, of course (ahem), include your West Coast tour info later in the email, for your West Coast fans.
➡️ Think of this when asking your social media followers to subscribe to your newsletter.
When you say “sign up for updates,” people who’ve been on the internet for more than five seconds can already assume what they’re signing up for; deals, discounts, sales, bargains, big BUY NOW buttons.
Boring.
Make it easy for your fans to say “yes, I want that.”
Do you want free donuts? Yes.
Do you want more of my art? Yes.
Do you want more photos of my travels? Yes.
Do you want more music? Yes.
Don’t tell me to sign up for updates, tell me what I’m getting.
Make your ask so good I have to say yes.
P.S. That means more than offering a 10% discount - just saying
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
RE-USE SOCIAL PHOTOS IN YOUR NEXT NEWSLETTER - send an email once a week using the things you posted on social media throughout the week.
PUT OUT YOUR BEST WORK EARLY AND OFTEN - You never know who might be reading your newsletter, so don’t hold back. If five people sign up, then you’re writing an email for five people this week. Sit down and get to work.
ARE YOU MULLET MARKETING? - Please, break my inbox and my heart with your sad tales. Show up in my inbox like you do my social media feeds.
DON'T MAKE SOCIAL MEDIA YOUR TROPHY CASE - social media gets all our most interesting photos, the imagery that shows off our unique, creative spirit, the videos that capture our spontaneous, magical energy. Then we don’t put any of that on our website, then complain that nobody goes to our website.
I shovel buckets of email marketing ideas and wisdom into your eyeballs.
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This prompted me to completely rewrite my About page. Thank you! While ostensibly it's a place to wax poetic about ourselves, what it's really doing is answering whether or not we and the reader are the right fit. What a perfect place for doughnut questions!