FEBRUARY 21, 2023

View in Browser

Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

Keep Those Important Promises

Shortly after we sent last week’s newsletter with 5 Things To Do With Surveys, I got an email.

The sender said they never got anything after completing a survey except spam calls. I could tell their frustration because they capitalized some words and used emphatic punctuation.

It got me thinking. How well do content entrepreneurs follow through on promises made to your audiences? How do you demonstrate a promise fulfilled or explain why it isn’t fulfilled? Reneging on a promise – with or without explanation – jeopardizes your relationship with your audience. Let’s look at a few of the common promises (and fixes) made by content creators.

1. Your Promise: We will never sell your information. Eager to own your audience and move away from rented land, you ask for their email addresses in exchange for content – newsletter, e-book, podcast, video series, etc. To make the request more attractive, you promise never to sell their information.

But you may define “sell” in the strictest sense – exchanging their data for money. Your subscribers are more likely to interpret it generously – never giving their data to a third party.

How to fulfill the promise: Never give your subscriber data to a third party. Even if they promise to use it one time because once the data gets into their system, it may be used again and again (intentionally or erroneously). Instead, give them access to your audience by sending a dedicated email on their behalf. Make it clear to the recipient with explicit from and subject lines, such as:

• FROM: The Tilt on behalf of XYZ Partner
• SUBJ: Special Offer from XYZ [Sponsor of The Tilt]

Going forward, explain what you will and will not do with the subscriber data on the sign-up landing page and/or in your welcome email.

2. Your Promise: You can unsubscribe at any time. Technically, you fulfill this promise because if you don’t, you might get into legal trouble. Often, creators (and big brands) bury the unsubscribe link in hopes it will require too much effort to find. But don’t consider technically compliant, a promise fulfilled.

How to fulfill the promise: Publish “UNSUBSCRIBE” as a standalone word/link at the bottom of your email. Don’t make it an all-or-nothing choice. Include an UPDATE PREFERENCES link next to your UNSUBSCRIBE button. Or when someone clicks on unsubscribe, present a list of options based on your offerings, such as unsubscribe from all correspondence from this business, switch from daily emails to weekly emails, opt out of all marketing-related emails, etc.

3. Your Promise: Help us do (activity) for a chance to win. Back to the message from the person who emailed me. That type of frustration can play out in several ways for creator brands. You host a contest and only notify the winners. You offer rewards for referrals but never (or rarely) keep the participants updated on their progress (or worse, never deliver the rewards).

How to fulfill the promise: If you host a contest or giveaway, announce the winners through your channels (it’s OK to just use the first name and first initial of the last name.) Consider sending a thank-you email to all who entered and letting them know who won.

With referral rewards, send out a quarterly statement or use a tool like SparkLoop to embed personalized referral counts into your emails.

The best time to assess how to fulfill promises is before you make them. But that doesn’t always happen, so when you make a promise, regularly check to ensure you’re fulfilling it and fix things if you aren’t. Only then can your audience trust you and your content brand.​
​– Ann Gynn

To go deeper into promises and fulfillment, read the longer story. ​
​

Get sung! The Tilt announces the first-ever Content Entrepreneur Awards for the unsung heroes of the creator economy. Nominate your favorite creator (including yourself) today.​
​

​

Entrepreneur: Leigh Henderson

Biz: HRManifesto​

Tilt: Toxic workplace survival

Primary Channels: TikTok (605K), website​

Other Channels: Instagram (39.9K), LinkedIn (32.1K), YouTube (2.28K)

Time to First Dollar: Within three months

Rev Streams: Brand deals, speaking gigs, coaching, and social media ads. She also has a full-time job as an HR professional.

Our Favorite Actionable Advice:

• Test your tilt: Leigh wondered if audiences would want content about toxic workplace survival, so she downloaded the TikTok app and posted a few videos. (The answer was a resounding yes.)
• Get creative with brands: Major brands have done sponsorships with HRManifesto. In a campaign for Apple TV+, Leigh did a TikTok about why a character on Slow Horses is the worst boss ever​.​
• Don’t sign on to every deal: Leigh fields as many as 70 brand proposals a month, but only 20 or so relate to her message – helping people in toxic workplaces. She also advocates for creators to ask questions when they do a deal – finding out the budget and scope before quoting a price.

– Sarah Lindenfeld Hall​
​

​Read more of the story of Leigh Henderson and HRManifesto.​

Know a content creator who’s going full tilt? DM us. Or email tilt@thetilt.com.

• Create smart floating content to boost website clicks and conversions with Buttonizer. Check out Buttonizer with Appsumo and get started today.*
• Joe talks about patience and Hadestown in a lesson all content entrepreneurs need to hear. (Content Inc. podcast)
• Joe and Robert examine the Time and Taboola deal and the impact of AI on content and the fight for search. (This Old Marketing podcast)
• ​Laid-off tech worker? VCs give advice if you want to do a startup. (Tech Crunch)
• ​How many of these dumb mistake mistakes have you made? (Small Business Trends)

*The Tilt receives a small commission if readers (at no additional cost) make a purchase using this link.

​

Please Help Spread The Tilt Message!

Refer a fellow content creator to The Tilt and earn exclusive swag!

Your unique link: https://www.thetilt.com?rh_ref=1c5f8ff0

Track your referrals here.

Or share via Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or email.

*Please note the rewards program is only available to US readers at this time. The Tilt reserves the right to reject referrals at their discretion.

​

​

Your team for this issue: Joe Pulizzi, Pam Pulizzi, Ann Gynn, Sarah Lindenfeld Hall, Laura Kozak, Marc Maxhimer, and Dave Anthony.