turbo-charging list growth: how to rapidly grow your base of online supporters

Turbo-Charging List Growth

How to Rapidly Grow Your Base of Online Supporters

Spring 2013

Agenda

Introduction Viral marketing Pay per acquisition Facebook fan Using Facebook ads

About John Hlinko

Focus on using viral marketing to build movements MoveOn.org DraftObama.org

Left Action Over 1,500,000

activists Built primarily through

viral marketing

Why It Matters More than Ever

Viral Marketing

The Key: “The Viral Trifecta”

Message: Crafting spread-worthy content Messengers: Find those who’ll spread it Medium: Deliver it in “spread-friendly”

places

All three are critical

Message: Spread-Worthy

Think of your message recipients as reporters Goal is not to inform them, it’s to get them

to spread the message to readers, listeners, viewers

Give them something that will make them look good if they spread it

Message: the 118th Email Test Imagine the recipient Just back from work, 12 hours, hard work 117 emails in their inbox, yours is

number 118 Does it get read? Does it break through?

Not read = can’t get spread

Message: Make it New

New information Novel form Make them feel like they’ll be seen as

“ahead of the curve” if they spread information

Make it New

Message: Get Funny

Think of the last 5 messages you spread. What % were humorous? A majority? All?

Humor spreads, because it makes the spreader look good.

But make sure it’s on message

Message: Ride a Wave

Easier to ride a wave than to make one by splashing your hands

Find something that your recipients are already talking about, and try to inject yourself into that conversation

News event, holiday, etc Internet meme

Message: Get Outrageous

Get outrageous to get noticed

Message: Test, Test, Test

Send to subgroups of your email list Take note of which posts generate the

most shares and retweets Use results to shift your strategy

Messengers: Finding Multipliers Nearly everyone online can spread a

message, but few actually do Even fewer do it effectively How can you hone in on the 5% that will

do 95% of the spreading?

Look for Social Media Users

Facebook, Twitter, etc Naturally viral platforms Those active on social media more likely

to be influencers offline

Messengers: Large Readership Large email lists Facebook followings Twitter followings Attentive.ly

You may have a rock star on your list and not even know it. But even “mini stars” can make a huge difference.

Look at the Data

Who is sharing on Facebook? Who is retweeting? Can you identify spreaders of email?

Medium: Use the Internet

Use the Internet No surprise here “Tell a friend” process is much easier Very valid reasons to use TV, print, radio,

etc., for other purposes, but the Internet is king for anything viral

Use social media in particular Tell a friend process automated = hyper-

viral

Growing Your Base through Paid Marketing

Pay Per Acquisition

PPA: Overview

Not list buying Pay per performance Matching activists with organizations &

causes Large activist communities promote

sponsored actions from partners Partners pay only for actual signups Key players: Left Action, Care2,

Change.org

PPA: How it Works

PPA: How it Works

PPA: Why it Works

Interests in alignment Great for client Great for activists Great for community promoting petition

PPA: Optimizing Your ROI

Test different partners, and see who provides best activists for you

Make sure your action has a high bar Get as much data as you’re going to use

Getting Maximum Bang for Buck

Facebook Advertising

Why Facebook?

Enormous community Phenomenal ability to hyper target Great ROI, if you do it right

Left Action: How it Grew

Multi-Page Strategy

Over 1,500,000 fans in total on other LA pages

Targeting

By demographics Location Affinity

Targeting

Optimizing Your Creative

Wisdom App for Targeting

Wisdom App for Targeting

Ads Tied to Sign-ups on Site

Requires tracking pixel on follow-up page

Ads Tied to Sign-ups on Site

Requires tracking pixel on follow-up page

“Share, Retweet, Repeat”

Book version of this class Guidebook to using viral

marketing, especially for a cause or movement

# 1 “Hot new release” in web marketing – Amazon.com

Prentice Hall Press/Penguin ShareRetweetRepeat.com (All author proceeds go to Left

Action)

Contact

John Hlinko 202-744-6545 John@LeftAction.com LeftAction.com | ShareRetweetRepeat.com