The other day an author client reported to me that she thought her blog posts that related to her books/writing and her site should be phased out. She had received some emails from her fan base saying they preferred her posts that were focused on motherhood, weight issues, relationships and such.
Okay, so this may be true for those dozen (or three) people who wrote in. And I absolutely respect how loudly such comments can color your opinion of your own content. But do not forget, that your loudest contingent is rarely your largest, most representative, or your only.
When designing your content you must consider all your audience sectors — the hard-core invested, the curiously interested, and the merely intrigued. You need both sales content and you need reinforcement content. You need several lures. You can’t put it all on your home page (that will look like a circus, but good navigation should consider that your audience consists of levels), and you can’t fill your blog with only one audience appeal. These are your portals. This is where your audience — all of it — first sees you. Be welcoming and encouraging.
Here is a short tale of what it feels like to be the audience who is forgotten. For me, it’s yoga. Once upon a time I went somewhat regularly. Then life, motherhood, and work messed with my schedule and suddenly I was ten-plus years out and my stamina was gone. Every time I tried to get back to yoga I felt like the cross-eyed stepchild in the back of the room who couldn’t hold a down facing dog for any respectable stretch.
I passed my neighborhood yoga studio and looked at the window wistfully, longingly, like a cute boy way out of my league. I felt that they did not have classes for me. I couldn’t carve out 90 minutes, and when I did I was disheartened by the end. I needed to be eased back in. I needed shorter, more basic classes and my neighborhood studio felt closed to me. And I know I wasn’t alone because I’d heard the moms at the park talking, and just yesterday the people in front of me in line at Trader Joe’s described going to the studio as intimidating (at which point I thought, Well, that’s just bad for branding).
I finally said something, and they were stunned. Of course we have classes for you!
Maybe I had just missed it. So I looked again at their newsletter — info about advanced workshops. New level 2 classes, etc. Well, that’s what our regulars were asking for.
Okay. Sure. You need to appeal to your regulars. I get that. But how can you grow your audience if you ONLY appeal to those you already have?
I suggested a small invitation in their window, website, and on their newsletter: NEW TO YOGA? or EASE YOGA BACK INTO YOUR LIFE or WE HAVE BEGINNER CLASSES — something inviting that spoke to this forgotten audience — yes, we have content for you. Follow this little icon to these classes…
Moral of the story: Diehards will ignore what they don’t love. They will remain devoted unless you tick them off. The quiet, forgotten audience will rarely speak up.
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Amen!
Great post Emily! I must admit that I was a bit startled when an editor from a major NYC publishing house contacted through the fabulous website you designed for me to request a full manuscript! I am currently revising and then plan to send it on, but will keep you posted. I had no idea that editors were actually reading my blog or visiting my site. Talk about the forgotten audience.
Now I’m off to prenatal yoga, a great class for anyone has not practiced in a while. I have never met a more welcoming group:)
Sarah, that is fabulous about the request! And yes, it is easy to lose track of quiet audiences, but for any pre-published author, editors and agents should be your top audience. But it’s hard to remember that when they aren’t doing any commenting…
Stick with the prenatal yoga… Your abs will thank you!
Thanks Emily! Fingers crossed I will have a great success story for you to share with other pre-pub authors looking to develop mini-sites:)
I agree about the small noisy audience as not being the best bell weather. But isn’t this a case of seeing where your site stats are–peeking inside your own site to see where the traffic, the quieter tide, is actually going?
Elizabeth, this is actually quite different from stats, though stats do play a part.
What I am trying to point out here is that when deciding to listen to visitor feedback, you have to keep in mind that what people are asking for is not necessarily what the majority wants. Stats can certainly help put things into perspective, but stats shouldn’t be listened to verbatim either. Because stats can’t answer the question of: what aren’t you providing?
And then stats can be misleading: for instance, a lot of good content has gotten lost behind successful blogs. In these cases, a rethinking of positioning and navigation is in order. It surprises people sometimes to hear that visitors miss a discontinued feature when the stats suggest tat besides your mother, only a handful of people sought out those pages. But the content is still really good, and sometimes the site owner will chuck it based on stats when really what is needed is a rethinking on how to use that content more wisely in the face of a changing web.
Thanks for the insightful comment!