I’m hosting a free workshop with Rosieland about community business models and how to approach them in 2024. RSVP here → (it's free!)

In the world of marketing for courses, memberships, coaching, and consulting, there tends to be 2 camps:

1. Open Door: Give away as much as possible to as many people as possible.
2. Breadcrumbs: Share just enough to spark interest and keep your best stuff paid.

When you’re building your marketing strategy, they’re both philosophies worth considering. But neither is perfect.

The problem with the Breadcrumbs strategy is that it can put you into a scarcity mindset where you’re over-strategizing and constantly worrying about giving too much away.

The problem with an Open Door strategy of freely sharing your methodology, your offers, your advice, is not that you won’t have anything left to sell. In my experience, the more you create, the more you have to offer.

The reason to reconsider what you give away, is that personal transformation via learning and connection requires investment. Free content helps your audience less.

Your members, even the ideal ones, won’t get as much out of your freely available offers or content, as they would from an offer that requires them to pause and make a real decision.

Investment is not just about money. It can happen via payment, and it can also be an investment of time, commitment and/or energy.

An example of this right now is the difference between short-form and long-form video content.

Short-form videos (TikTok, Reels, etc) have been found to be less likely to directly lead to sales. This is because the best ones give away lots of value with almost zero investment. They’re quick, easy, and free to consume.

Long-form videos (YouTube, courses, etc) on the other hand, get less views on average, but they tend to convert to sales at higher rates. This is because the viewer made the appropriate investment of time to get the information, even if the video was free.

I think it's worth it to question both how much we're simplifying content that shouldn't be simple and if our marketing strategy is causing potential members to take our content for granted.

With this in mind, I invite you to audit your own marketing strategy in 3 steps.

1. List out all of the marketing actions you perform. Include things like posting mini lessons Instagram, writing a newsletter, partner events, free one time coaching sessions, free community etc.
2. For each action you’ve listed, think about the investment required from those participating to get the most out of it. Investment can be about time, energy, money, or something else. It can look like entering an email, reading a long post, paying a small fee, filling out an application, etc. Anything that adds friction potentially helps the content stick and signifies higher investment.
3. Then, once you’ve considered your marketing actions and current investment requirements, it’s time to recalibrate. For example:
   • Are you sharing your best frameworks on social media and getting crickets? Maybe it’s best to share just one simple piece of it with an easy to digest example and save the rest for a context that requires a little more investment.
   • Are lots of people booking free 1:1 calls and then ghosting? Consider adding an application with required questions before someone is able to book.
   • Are people attending your free workshops, and not converting to a paid offer? Consider picking topics that are easier to cover in an hour and require no homework. They’ll be more receptive of your invitation if they’ve already gotten value.

Thinking about investment as you work on your marketing strategy can be the key to growing your business through a simple repeatable process that compounds. The goal is for you to feel good about being generous and sharing your work widely, instead of resenting how much work you're putting in. And to grow your business in a calm, aligned way.

👉 What do you think? What questions does this bring up for you? Hit reply and tell me about it! I'll address a few questions in a future email.

An invitation for you!

Things are changing in the world of community businesses!

On March 27th, I’m hosting a workshop with Rosieland exploring the 4 core community business models and how to approach them in 2024 to build a long-term, profitable business.

🌈 The workshop is free and you’re invited. Sign up here → 🌈

If you’re looking to launch, pivot, migrate, grow, or monetize a community this year, the goal is that you’ll leave this event with a clear path.

Nerdy things to click on this week

📰 The Power of Community Knowledge Management by Doug Belshaw is a comprehensive round up of frameworks on how to think about learning resources in communities. If you’ve ever wondered how to increase member contributions this is a great place to start.

🎙 Are you caught in a social media trap from Freakonomics Radio explores how social media is an example of something people use and maybe wish didn’t exist. Listen to learn the 2 key changes the experts recommend to platforms (and in turn communities) to not be so hated.

📺 Teachable Employee to Circle CEO/Co-Founder from The Futur Podcast with Chris Do was a great deep dive on Sid’s story and his priorities building and growing Circle. I find it super helpful to understand the leadership behind a product you use and this gave me a lot of insight on the Circle platform.

🎙 Unlocking Us by Brené Brown. The last 3 episodes of this podcast have been about the Gaza War. I’ve found them beautiful examples of the extraordinary vulnerability it takes to learn, the power of nonviolence ‘as a path to freedom’, and the hope that can emerge when we prioritize love and humanity.

How to Work with Us →

🚀 Community Launch Roadmap, our self-paced course for new community builders working towards their first launch.

✨ Build a Community Business, our ongoing learning community for community founders who are moving towards expansion.

⚡️ Community Strategy Implementation, our consulting services for those who are looking for custom community strategy for new or existing communities. .

Something to ponder on a walk around the block…

“What we must do is commit ourselves to some future that can include each other and to work toward that future with the particular strengths of our individual identities. And in order for us to do this, we must allow each other our differences at the same time as we recognize our sameness.” — Audre Lorde

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The Business of Community helps people get paid for the work of bringing more connection to the world. We do that by helping community founders build profitable small businesses that are engines of connection and belonging. If that message resonates with you, consider forwarding this to a friend and spreading the word. ⭐️