SUBSCRIBERS

Every time you do an interview with a media outlet, whether it is on a radio station or a blog, that outlet has essentially invited you onto its platform and allowed you to reach its audience. Those who have the audience have the leverage, and you have to work hard to get permission to join them on their platform either via earned media (interviews) or paid media (advertising), which falls into the rented category.

Those individuals, businesses, and other entities that aren’t building their own direct audiences as micromedia outlets force themselves to either advertise or hope to get permission from those who have built an audience via savvy PR efforts. This is expensive, time-consuming, and increasingly hard to do as the media environment changes. Those who continue to rely on these tactics put themselves in a very precarious position moving forward.

You must build your own subscriber base. This doesn’t necessarily mean charging people to subscribe (in fact, it probably doesn’t), but it does mean setting up a call to action on your owned real estate that gives people a clear reason to join your subscriber base.

Each time you give a speech, do an interview, or reach an audience, your focus should be not only to entertain and inform, but to give the audience a clear reason to convert to your subscriber base. If you are a speaker, you should have a free workbook or other download on your website that extends the audience’s interaction with your message and gives them a reason to join your list. If you have started a podcast, you need to have a call to action as part of any interview or speaking engagement that gives people a clear reason to subscribe.

The bottom line: When you are on someone else’s platform, give their audience a clear reason to head across the street and join your subscriber base. Without that call to action, you will see a temporary spike in interest or audience from that exposure, but very little long-term value. Attention is fleeting but subscriptions give you leverage.

We don’t want you relying too much on any one form of media, but it is important to be very good at each. Chapter 4 will expand on this point, explaining how to integrate earned, rented, and owned media channels for success.