what frozen chicken can teach you about building an audience 🐔

Today's challenge:

Understanding your audience

(through a frozen chicken lens)

Hi friend,

It's Day #5 and by now it's time to take a break from all the hard work and enjoy a story that surprisingly relevant for this course.

It's still a lesson. But in story form. Here it goes.

In case you don't know, I've been bootstrapping building my own SaaS product full-time for the last 6+ months. And as part of my weekly routine, I talk to current and prospective users. A lot.

A few weeks ago, Amy from Canada made the top of my list for "Most Hilarious User Interview Ever" by sharing this incredible anecdote with me.

We got to talking about different segments of blogging. My SaaS product is for bloggers who run their sites like a business and earn money through affiliate links.

Amy suggested that I look into the segment of homesteading bloggers 🤔

I thought to myself -- don't homesteaders live that farm life and grow all their own fruits and vegetables? And live sustainably? What could homesteading bloggers possibly sell to their audiences of...other homesteaders? Hay?????

Then Amy tells me about the most *lucrative* email campaign she's ever heard about.

One homesteading blogger (let's call her Janet) sent out a newsletter containing an excellent deal on frozen chicken.

Yes, a frozen chicken deal. To her newsletter.

And for every deal that one of her subscribers bought, Janet made a small commission from the frozen chicken company.

Guess how much money she made from sending that ONE EMAIL to her subscribers?

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Janet made over FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS in commissions.

From one email! About FROZEN CHICKEN. Frozen chicken?! Frozen. fucking. chicken.

Estimating she perhaps made a 10% commission, that would be mean her one email generated over HALF A MILLION DOLLARS in frozen chicken sales.

Now you might be thinking, "Wow, I should be a homesteading blogger. Sounds easy, you just send meat deals to an email list and make bank."

And you would be wrong.

Why was this one email so profitable for her?

It's because of how intimately she understands her audience. From spending years writing content, growing a big list of subscribers, creating a community, and providing value to them over and over again -- she LEARNED that her audience just so happens to have massive spare freezers and loves to stock those freezers when a good deal arises ☝️

Did she predict the frozen chicken would be such a hit? Maybe not.

But she probably had an intuition.

What can you learn about growing an online audience from a homesteading blogger?

Janet's frozen chicken deal was a win-win for her and her community: she made an outrageous amount of money, and her audience got an amazing deal for stocking up on chicken. This synergy happens when you deeply understand what your audience values.

I want to leave you with two final thoughts:

• Create content that demonstrates this same, intimate understanding of your audience. It will become the cornerstone content that people know you for, because when reading it, they feel like you're talking directly to them.

• Email lists are extremely powerful, and you should start one. I personally pay for and recommend ConvertKit for your email list. I've used literally every email tool and keep coming back to them. Here's my link if you want to support this newsletter: https://bit.ly/bfd-convertkit (They even have a free plan up to 500 subscribers)

Your homework.

What's the "frozen chicken deal" of your unique audience? What's that blog post you can write that makes your reader feel like you're speaking directly to them?

I'd love to hear your theories! Hit "Reply" and share 'em.

Stay cool (but not frozen),

@monicalent