Recently, I watched a video online that was fascinating. It is the best video that I have found that demonstrates how audiences are built online.
The video is from the 2009 Sasquatch festival. It starts with one person dancing during a concert. The crowd even watches the boy as if he is out of place.
Next, a second person joins, and it is just the two of them dancing, being silly, and having fun. Soon, a third boy joins the two. Now the energy from the three boys starts attracting more people. Two more people show up to dance, quickly, followed by three more people. Now what began as one boy is a small group.
Before you know it, more and more people are joining. The dance party continues to grow and add more people. Eventually, you see people running to participate in a stampede-like fashion. The group swells to what seems to be a hundred people or so, and it continues to grow.
In psychology, this is known as the Mirror Neuron Effect or social mirroring.
Wikipedia says a mirror neuron is a neuron that fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another. Thus, the neuron “mirrors” the behavior of the other, as though the observer were itself acting. Such neurons have been directly observed in human and primate species, and birds.
Building Communities within Facebook Groups
It is fun to watch a community develop within a Facebook group. A group may start small with just a couple of people. As the people interact, a few more people will join and then a few more and so on. As more people engage, eventually, Facebook will start recommending the group to people. Once this happens, the group swells at a rapid rate.
The group grows two-fold.
- New members are added more easily
- Content creation becomes easier as members start interacting, contributing, and engaging
As the group grows, new skills are needed to monitor the group for the appropriate content and to make sure the members treat each other with respect. No bad apples, essentially.
The most difficult part is building and sustaining the initial momentum. It is almost like inertia. It can be challenging to get something moving at first. But as it builds momentum, it becomes easier and easier and more and more difficult to stop.
Mirror Neurons and Email Audiences
With a Facebook group, you can see the number of people who are in the group. As more and more people join, it creates social proof and attracts more people.
But how does the Mirror Neuron Effect work with email when it is not obvious how many people are on the list?
Email is one of the most measurable channels online. So, by tracking specific metrics, we can watch the social mirroring principles in action, also.
For instance, tracking the number of people being added to the list each day shows us how fast the list is growing. Also, monitoring the number of people opening, clicking, and replying to the emails reveals how engaged the list is.
Also, as the list grows, we can determine the list’s value to the business. For instance, we can measure the revenue generated by each email. Plus, we can calculate how much revenue an email is worth to the business. Likewise, we can determine the value of a subscriber and the value of a customer to the business.
Most importantly, we need to make sure that we are delivering value to the subscribers. Delivering value is accomplished by sharing interesting content and ensuring the promoted products or services are beneficial to the list.
So remember is to track your email metrics and you will discover specific patterns that are unique to your list.
What Email Provider Pricing Reveals About Email Audiences
Most email providers charge according to specific subscriber levels. The price increases as the list grows. The price increases, based on the number of subscribers, are almost universal across all email platforms.
Price increases normally happen around 1,000, 2,500, 5,000, 10,000, 25,000, 50,000, and 100,000+ subscribers.
In my experience, getting to 1,000 subscribers can be the most challenging. Once you hit 1,000 subscribers, reaching 2,500 subscribers typically does not take as long. One email list I worked with took about 18 months to get to 8,300 subscribers and then only 6 months to reach 25,000 subscribers.
As your email list grows, so should the revenue.
Based on research and observing a wide variety of lists, email providers charge according to the number of subscribers and the potential value the list provides to the business.
Obviously, there are a lot of variables involved in the profitability of an email list, such as how often emails are sent, the niche of the list, the offers in the emails, and most importantly, the list owner’s relationship with the list.
Reaching Critical Mass for an Audience
When building an audience, whether it is an email list, a Facebook group, or any other audience, the key is reaching critical mass. Often, I think of reaching critical mass as pushing a giant ball up a mountain until you reach the peak. Once you reach the peak, at that moment, gravity begins to aid you, and the ball’s momentum increases and builds speed. Eventually, it is difficult to stop the ball from rolling.
This example is what it is like to reach critical mass when building an audience. You work hard to get to the peak, but with the next step, everything changes.
Reaching Critical Mass with an Email List
Reaching critical mass is a numbers game.
Think about this.
If you have 1,000 subscribers with a 20% open rate, then on average 200 people are reading your emails. If you have 20,000 subscribers with a 20% open rate, then 4,000 people on average are opening your emails. That is a huge difference in the number of people reading your emails. Now imagine, 50,000, 75,000, or 100,000 people on your list.
What is fascinating about email lists is that even though subscribers can’t visually see the number of people on the list, the same principles of building a community apply as the boys in the Sasquatch Festival video.
So, as you are building your audience, remember to have fun and keep dancing. Eventually, with the right strategies, you will attract more and more people to your list.
Do you know that email is the most profitable marketing channel?
Today, when it comes to building your audience, one of the most profitable marketing channels is email.
According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing yields a 4,300% return on investment for businesses in the United States.
ExactTarget reports for every $1 spent on email marketing, the average return on investment is $44.25.
One of the most profitable ways to build your audience is to increase the size of your email list.
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