5 Secrets of Powerful Relational Marketing
A paid newsletter is a relational business. See what else is relational.
I kind of knew I fucked up…
But I didn’t know how bad exactly.
Over the last 6 months, many of my paid subscribers cancelled their subscription.
These days, in an attempt to clear my head, I’m going over the 193 Substack posts I’ve written to organise them into several collections of my best-ever advice for solopreneurs.
While going through the data, I discovered that, over time, 130 people had become paid subscribers of Smarter Solopreneurs.
But I’ve lost the trust of more than half of them.
More than half!
FYI, for a subscription company, the average annual churn rate is 1-5%.
Well, step aside, average companies.
Because here comes the winner with 62% churn rate in 6 months.
So why did that happen?
Luckily, I’m not a quitter.
So instead of throwing in the towel, I’ve been trying to figure out WHY??
Now, I’ve been a marketer for a long time and my instinct is to go back and see:
What offers I’ve made when
The pricing
The structures I used for the sales copy
The conversion rates
But this time, I just didn’t feel like the answer was hidden in the numbers.
There was something that felt off about my entire approach…
You know the feeling.
When you’re doing all the “right” things, but it all feels… lifeless.
I couldn’t quite name the problem until, while reading the latest Robert Galbraith novel, it just came to me.
Paid newsletters aren’t a transactional business model!
And I was treating them as such.
The Smarter Way: Secrets of Powerful Relational Marketing
In this newsletter:
Transactional vs Relational businesses: do you know what type of business you’re building?
Relational business examples.
Relational marketing and how it’s different from transactional marketing - for paid subscribers
The secrets to powerful relational marketing - for paid subscribers
Transactional vs Relational businesses.
Transactional businesses are all about value for money.
They’re focused on facilitating a transaction: you get this, I get that.
There might be upselling involved.
There might be a newsletter involved.
There might be social media marketing.
But it all revolves around **the transaction**
Transactional businesses sell a specific service or a product.
In relational business models, the long-term relationship is just as or more important than the value you offer.
And marketing a long term relationship is different than marketing a one-off sale.
Relational business examples.
Relational models are usually subscription based—that’s the premise for building a relationship. You need a longer period of time to facilitate it or it’ll just be a one-night stand.
However, not all subscriptions are relational business models. If it’s all about the value and there’s almost no relationship, it’s still about the transaction. Such is the case with:
Netflix
Canva
Dropbox & more.
Here, you pay to maintain access to value.
In relational business, you pay to maintain access to someone or something you believe in. Access to the specific way they do things which can’t really be replicated.
Because can you replicate your best friend?
Examples of relational business models include:
Paid newsletter — whether it’s yours or the New York Times, there’s a specific angle there'; a relationship to the type of writing & journalism; an identity confirmation.
Paid communities — all about relationships! And it’s not just tiny solopreneurs who have these; Tony Robins has a premium paid community that costs a small fortune.
Artist patronage systems (Patreon)
Coaching or mentorship retainers & more.
Relational marketing.
So here’s the reason I fucked up so bad and got so many unsubscribes:
I used transactional marketing for a relational business.
I focused on “here’s the value, here’s how much it costs.”
And it doesn’t work for relational businesses because: