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Strategies to get to know your audience

Increase subscriber activity by asking your community to share their opinions and interests.

It’s no secret your texting community has opted in to hear from you, but you should get to know them too. Showing interest in your subscribers and providing them with a personalized experience almost always directly translates to increased growth and engagement. It’s been tried and tested, and it works.

1. Ask for photos

Who’s doing it: Kevin Allison RISK! & The Globe and Mail

  • Kevin Allison, the host of the RISK podcast wanted to know what his subscribers, since they know so much about him. What did he ask for? Photos of them! . Nearly 60% of his audience replied with selfies and photos of their families and home environments.
  • The Globe and Mail campaign that brought subscribers holiday recipes for the 24 days leading up to Christmas found this approach worked for them too. They asked their audience to send finished product shots of what they baked and watched engagement grow as subs sent in pics of what they baked alongside positive feedback. This campaign wrapped up with over 5.5K subscribers.
2. Ask your audience about themselves

Who’s doing it: Inc.com

  • Inc.com’s Minda Zelin swears by this tactic. A couple of times a week, Minda asks her audience to share something meaningful in their lives, whether it’s checking in with their emotions or challenging them to tackle a task that week that they’ve been putting off. She then invites them to tell her how it went. She almost always closes her texts with a question to subscribers and it’s earned her an engagement rate of over 16%. 
3. Survey your subscribers to get a feel of what they want to see more of

Who’s doing it: CNET, Reviewed

  • CNET’s Subtext campaign The Cheapskate Deal texts provides subs with helpful e-commerce links, product reviews, promo codes, and discounts on tech merch. The host Rick Broida often checks in with subscribers to understand what type of products they want to see next: What products are they interested in hearing about? What items are on their wish lists so he can keep their eyes peeled? Do they want to follow up alerts when items sell out or a deal is over? 
  • The Reviewed team of shopping and  product experts delivers o top deals, product reviews and promo codes via text to their subscribers. They sent a link to a short survey asking them if they liked the frequency of their texts, what they could improve on, and what they would like to see more of and used this information to inform their content and provide hyper-specific recommendations that have contributed to their highly engaged audience.