If you build it, they will come…. but only if you market it via popular, existing channels.
Before you launch, we recommend having 2-3 marketing strategies ready to roll out over the first 6 weeks of your campaign.
We recommend choosing your strategies based on these criteria:
- What are your goals for the campaign? (i.e. subscriber responses, click thrus, audience growth, etc)
- Is this a subscription, member-only or engagement campaign?
- Where does the audience you’re trying to reach currently get in touch with you?
Once you’ve answered those questions, you can start to formulate your plan with some of the following channels. Don’t let us limit you though. Get creative! 🎨
Strategies 💡
Email newsletter
If you’re currently reaching your audience via email newsletter, then that’s the way to get the word out about your Subtext campaign. Texting isn’t just a shorter newsletter, but a fresh channel to engage readers who want to hear from you, but are fed up with inbox clutter.
USA Today’s Short List Elections campaign covered the 2020 presidential election from the beginning of the debate through the inauguration. This spinoff campaign grew USA Today’s Subtext audience by 5x as The Short List team included daily reminders near the top of their newsletter in the weeks leading up to election day.
Who should try this: Hosts with a robust email newsletter audience.
Launch article
Writing an article that introduces your text campaign and includes the sign up form is a strong way to get started, especially for publishers. Link to that article on your homepage or social and watch the audience roll in. Local publisher Cleveland.com in Clevelands, Ohio launched their new MLB campaign with a launch article.
Who should try this: Everyone.
Banner on homepage
We know the largest number of our visitors typically land on our homepages, especially in news and publishing.
Florida Politics launched their campaign to cover the state legislative session in November 2020. The digital newsroom signed up 63 subs with an email blast, but it was the homepage banner that took their campaign from a group of loyalists to a large dedicated following. Within 72 hours of launching a homepage banner, their subscriber list grew by 775%.
Who should try this: Hosts with lots of homepage web traffic.
Embed code
One of the simplest and most effective growth channels we’ve found across to grow all types of campaigns is with the embed the sign up form.; If you’re a publisher, we recommend embedding in all relevant articles. If you’re a content creator or thought leader, it may be the homepage of your website. Shaw Local, out of the Chicago suburbs, embedded their sign-up forms across 12 of their different local media sites to promote sign-up and drive subscribers to their channels.
Who should try this: Hosts with lots of article traffic.
Social channels
If your audience lives on social, then meet them there! Add your 10-digit number to your bio, have a regular posting cadence, where you not only tell people about the service, but you also share screenshots of your texts or responses from your audience.
Mission Local journalist Joe Eskenaz has 6k followers on Twitter. He’s San Francisco’s go-to reporter on City Hall and has built an audience that’s a good mix of “politico insiders” and local citizens who just want to stay informed. With one tweet (see below) Joe added 70 paying subscribers. There was a GREAT conversation that followed, including testimonials from people who said it would be a steal at 10x the price. The new subs from that one tweet added an extra $3,360 in additional revenue each year.
Who should try this: Hosts with a large and/or dedicated social following.
TL;DR
Audience growth is a marathon, not a sprint! 🏃🏻
There is truly no wrong answer when it comes to promoting to your audience.
But knowing where your audience engages with you can be a great starting point. Set some realistic goals for yourself, and let us know how we can support you in reaching them!