The first part of this post was sent to a small number of people in an email. We asked each person to think of that message as an email which was written with them in mind. Because it was. It was the first message that will go out from time to time looking at what it means to be Inside A Circle of secular dharma buddies, part of the Tuwhiri community.
So what is this all about? This is a little long, so please read it slowly.
It occurred to us that it might be useful to share a few important matters from time to time with those who’ve let us know over the years that they have an affinity with Tuwhiri, and our work. We thought about who we felt these people might be, and there aren’t that many.
Situating our newsletter readers in concentric circles is an idea that has been talked about for a number of years. This is what this concept looks like:
This image shows that there are three kinds of people who sign up to receive a newsletter, whether from a community, a secular buddhist group, a publisher, an influencer, or whatever. No matter the content, newsletter subscribers can be thought of as being in one of three groups.
Group A
What we call Group A is OUR COMMUNITY, and it’s the smallest. These readers will support our newsletter because of what it’s focussed on, no matter what. Many of them, if they are able to do so, will support the project financially.
We imagine that they connect strongly with the concepts behind Tuwhiri and our newsletter, and/or what we’re trying to do, that they share our values, care about what we do, and often have personal relationships with one or more of the people who put in so much effort to nurture new books on secular dharma.
This is the core of the community we create around News from Tuwhiri: the books we publish, events we run, work we showcase, and the way we support and nurture authors.
Our message to Group A people, is that we’re here for you, that we connect with you by communicating with you, asking questions of you, seeking your support, and of course thanking you.
Group B
Group B, the second group, is OUR AUDIENCE. Whether these people respond to what they read very much depends on what we write. These people are engaged readers who may have bought a Tuwhiri book, but who’ve not yet considered paying for their newsletter subscription so as to support Tuwhiri.
They may have any number of reasons: some may not have fully understood the nature of generosity that is core to a dharma community; while others may be supporting similar organisations financially.
They might, however, be open to supporting us with a paid sub or buying more Tuwhiri books if we give them a good reason, and perhaps throw in a freebie. If we want subscriber numbers to grow, and the community around us to grow, we need to connect with some of the individuals in this group. It’s a lot larger than the first.
Group C
Finally, here’s a very different group: Group C is what we think of as THE CURIOUS. No matter what they read in our newsletter, no matter what we offer, they will most likely never respond. They probably wouldn’t even bother downloading a free PDF of a dharma talk.
Upwards of 40 percent of subscribers may be in this group. Are they in the wrong demographic, or the wrong psychographic, perhaps? Many may not think or feel or connect with the world in the ways our paying subscribers do.
They may not care that much about News from Tuwhiri, and many only share a few of our values. Yet others haven’t begun to grasp concepts like paying forward, or charitable giving, and would never dream of dropping a coin into a homeless person’s hand.
Our task is to move some of the people from this third group into one of the others. It may be possible to get a one-off donation from a Group C person or support for a Kickstarter campaign now and then. Special events may temporarily move some of them into Group B, but this is something we can neither predict nor control.
For the most part, we’re not going to transform many of the people in Group C to paying subscribers, no matter how hard we try. Almost all of our paying subscribers will be in the first two groups. We may realise this subconsciously. And if we’re doing well, it’s generally because we’ve been speaking to exactly the right people, who then respond to our suggestions and requests.
Communicating with care
When we’re communicating with all our subscribers, the free subscribers included, more often than not we’ll be speaking with people who won’t pay for their subscription, or perhaps who don’t know how important it can be to their meditation practice to be generous.
Occasionally we may email or speak with a member of our audience and we get a result; another paying subscriber – fantastic!
Here’s what this means: the number of subscribers who pay for their newsletter will grow when we focus on our audience, Group B. Who are they? Where are they? What are the values and practices that drive their behaviour? What calls to action activate them?
If we think and act with this in mind, we will grow the number of paying subscribers, and at the same time grow our community.
We need to be continually learning about our subscribers, what works to get them to commit. When we do this, we’ll also motivate, activate and grow the people who are our community, Group A, who in my view will support us come rain, come shine.
Social media can be very seductive
Another result of using this three audience framework is that it helps us recognise when we get sidetracked by the false promise of having a really large number of subscribers. Social media like FaceBook and TikTok can be so, so seductive, can’t it‽
Very often, connecting with lots of those who are just curious feels promising and exciting to begin with, but when we see that they’re not responding well, we’ll realise that a lot of that time and effort may be wasted. The only social medium Tuwhiri actively uses is Substack, for this reason.
Your feedback would be appreciated
What are your thoughts on the way we segment our readership? If you were to get the Inside a Circle emails what would you like to see in them?
Thank you for reading this. We appreciate it. If you’d like to receive the occasional Inside A Circle email send us an email. And if you like what you read, please share it with a friend or three.