In my culture, which is Nigerian, rice is a staple meal. When I cook plain rice (as opposed to our famous jollof), I like to use a sieve at the end of the process so that it's completely separated from the water that it was boiling in and it doesn't become soggy (I can't stand wet rice!). This then leaves me with a perfect batch of fluffy rice, ready to eat with a some stew and fried plantain (dodo). This filtering process is very similar to what should happen in PR (when it's done correctly). For example:
#1 Sieves can't function in isolation. They can only do their job (of filtering) when mixtures are poured into them. The same is true of freebies.
People don’t flock to things if they don’t know that it exists. So, every day that you spend waiting for leads to visit your website, see your freebie and join your email list is a day that you miss out on creating more impact, helping more people and ultimately making more money. If you want to rise above the sea of other experts in your oversaturated niche, you’ll need to attract more attention to you and your brand by becoming more visible. That's where PR comes in.
As previously discussed, by being featured on another platform and/or collaborating with another influencer, you increase your exposure to your target audience. If they like what they see, their curiosity will naturally lead them to check you out via your website. This is why it's important to make sure that it's optimised to make sure that they go from curious bystander to raving fan. One of the ways to ensure that your website is optimised is by having a freebie present on it so that they can sign up for it.
#2 Your nurture sequence's purpose is to filter your leads just like a sieve does rice
As mentioned above, once people sign up for your freebie, they join your email list. Once they join your email list, they should automatically receive follow-up emails as part of your nurture sequence (which is essentially 3-5 emails that are drip fed to your new lead on a daily basis, for example).The nurture sequence's job is to deepen the relationship with new leads by creating multiple touch points and building that all-important know, like and trust factor. It's job is also to persuade them (in a non-sleazy way) that you/your product or service are the solution to their problems, leading them to ultimately buy from you.
In practice what tends to happen, however, is that some people don't want a relationship passed the freebie; so they unsubscribe from your mailing list once they receive it. Most people tend to take this personally and get upset but, like the water separating from the rice, this process makes sure that you are left with more of what you want which is qualified leads who:
Want to continue hearing from you
Want to develop a relationship with you
Will ultimately buy from you (even if it's not immediately but in future)
In other words, unsubscriptions are good things because they are apart of the filtering process. They are also a part of the process of building a profitable email list, as discussed in my previous blog post.
Want more PR tips?
Click here to access my free Media Attraction Audit- the checklist that helps you to make sure that your website proves your expertise, credibility and authority so that you can be a #mediamagnet, attracting PR (and therefore clients and collaborations) on autopilot!