Owned Audience: Why it matters and how to grow it

WHY GROW?

The difficult reality is this: Attention is rarely free. Social platforms, media outlets and search engines continue to find new and creative ways to charge brands for reaching new and old audiences on their platforms. Because of this, brands have realized the importance and long-term value of owned audiences. 

An owned audience is one that a company no longer pays to reach through a third party and is typically composed of direct opt-in subscribers. A healthy owned audience is essential to cutting costs while reaching brand advocates.

View list growth as an investment – an investment that when done right becomes a net positive ROI. For nonprofits, an email list is their greatest tool for digital fundraising. For advocacy organizations, an email list is their greatest tool for inspiring action ingovernments. Whatever your goals, an email list is likely to be an essential tool for success.   

WAYS TO GROW

There are several ways to build an owned audience. Here is a list of ways to grow your owned audience with pros and cons for each:

• Petitions. Petitions are best done through Facebook lead ad forms or optimized landing pages. 

Pros: Petition campaigns often earn the best cost per lead and tend to do extremely well among older subscribers. Petition campaigns also earn a high rate of organic reach.

Cons: Petitions subscribers have some of the highest rates of unsubscribes and can become lifeless lists quickly when unattended. While one petition can find the right people to retarget on other issues, this requires time and thoughtful email series. 

• Surveys. Everyone feels the need to be heard, especially on polarizing issues. Surveys can be incredibly useful in driving email subscription numbers if potential leads feel voicing their opinions will make an impact.

Pros: Surveys often have the highest retention rates and high rates of donor conversions. 

Cons: Survey leads can cost more than others on the front end of a campaign. 

• Quizzes. Prove your intelligence without the risk of failure? Yes, please! There are two reasons why quizzes work: social currency and egos. Social currency is the measure of credibility and clout of one’s digital presence. Think of it this way: People share when it benefits them when they get some personal value or significance out of sharing. Quizzes tap into this idea by exploiting people’s innate desire to be significant or right. A quiz can validate their personal significance and add to their bank of social currency.  

Pros: High social share rates that cut down on costs per lead. 

Cons: Low brand loyalty and moderate unsubscribe rates. 

• Exclusive offers. From free e-books to exclusive brand swag, everyone wants free stuff, but the trick is finding the right free stuff for your intended audience. What do they care about and what can you deliver? 

Pros: Better brand loyalty, attention-grabbing creatives, low unsubscribes, high welcome series opens.

Cons: A potentially high cost per lead when factoring in the cost of the offer.

Here’s a shortlist of potential offers: 

1. Swag 
2. Toolkits & Playbooks
3. E-books 
4. Downloads 
5. Podcasts 
6. Webinars 
7. Magazines 
8. Newsletters
9. Event invitations

For each of these value proposition types, it is important to illustrate what will happen if they convert and then follow up with the actual result. For example, what happened with the petitions and what was the impact? Did you deliver those petitions to lawmakers? Tell the community what happened and congratulate members on making an impact.

WAS IT SUCCESSFUL?

When evaluating the success of a lead-generation campaign, one should focus on three things: 

• Cost per lead. Keeping lead costs low at scale can be difficult, so it is important to stay flexible during an acquisition campaign and allow the analytics to lead the way. If a petition is falling flat, it may be time to adjust the creative, medium or message. Iron Light is here to help!
• Quality of acquisition. Email attrition (i.e., unsubscribes and bounces) is normal and to be expected, but at what rate? As discussed previously, you can expect different attrition rates depending on the acquisition method. However, the average attrition rate in 2018 for B2C emails was 3.22 percent, while the average attrition rate for B2B emails was 21.07 percent.
• Lifetime value. It is important to have one major goal for what you wish to achieve through your audience. Is this list full of activists? Are you looking to convert your list into digital donors? Maybe you want to cultivate a list of business leaders who will change an industry for the better. Whatever your goal, make it clear and measurable. 

WHAT NOW? 

Think of each member of your audience as an acquaintance you just met at a networking happy hour. If you don’t follow up afterward and soon, you will inevitably lose value. You might run into them again, and they might even remember your name depending on their impression of you. However, if you don’t nurture the relationship, you will be forgotten and they will feel neglected. On the flip side, if you reach out for coffee or friend them on LinkedIn within the next few weeks, you may have a real shot at a new friend or colleague. 

Likewise, digital follow-up and community management are key to a successful owned audience strategy. This part of the process is oftentimes neglected. When that happens, owned audiences become stale, inactive and less useful. This is a shame because owned audiences have the most potential to help you reach your goals – no matter the goal. You’ve also just spent a significant amount of money to grow the audience so you can either invest wisely or let your investment dwindle away. 

After people join your owned audience, a lot needs to happen. They need to be invited, educated, activated and listened to. This can happen in many ways. Here is a short list of ways you can create a meaningful relationship with your new audience members: 

• Invite them to events. There is no better way to solidify a new digital relationship than bringing it into “real” life. Go the extra mile by introducing them to other event attendees if possible! 
• Invite them to an exclusive community. Facebook groups, social slack channels, discord servers and more offer the chance for your community to engage with one another and your brand. Community members need to feel heard. They should be contributors to the group rather than passive audience members being marketed to. Help them feel welcome by regularly introducing group members. Teach them the purpose of the group and model how they can and should engage inside the group.
• Invite them to tell their story. Everyone has a story to tell, especially when it comes to a law or policy that has affected their lives. Feature the story on social media or in email marketing. 
• Offer free stuff. Is there anything people get from you without ever making a purchase or donation? Maybe it is a PDF resource, an e-book or branded stickers. Start marketing that as a complimentary “product” by helping your new friend recognize the value. Swag is a great relationship builder, but we recommend only giving high-cost swag when audience members perform consequential actions. Reward good behavior instead of spoiling your audience.
• Invite them to join your mission. They agreed with you once, they probably will do it again. But first, they need to know why you exist, what problem you are trying to fix, and how they can help. This should be a series of emails and ads introducing them to your brand and mission. 
• Find common ground and make space. You probably agree on more than you disagree, but when you stumble into conflict, always be an example of patience and grace. Others are watching on social and your example will help the rest of your audience play nice in the future. That doesn’t mean that the person you disagree with is a lost cause – exactly the opposite in fact. Disagreements create conversations, and conversations are where we learn together. Lean into the discomfort and be a good steward of your community by embracing human differences with civility. 
• Invite them to act. If you are an organization focused on creating societal change, teach your followers how to advocate, ask them to do it regularly, and tell them why it is important every time you ask for action. 
• Stay in contact. If you stop talking, they will undoubtedly stop listening. Regular emails or texts from you will help the relationship last, and good communication will help build the relationship.