A few years ago, I consulted with a company that needed a significant infusion of capital.

They were looking to raise about $1 million.

As I started digging into the business, I asked how often they were emailing their database.

They had more than 75,000 names on their list.

Their answer surprised me.

Basically once a week. And even then, they weren't really marketing to the list. They were primarily inviting subscribers to attend a free weekly Zoom meeting.

Then I found out they had another asset that made the situation even more interesting.

More than 400,000 followers on Instagram.

Yet there had been virtually no effort to move those followers from Instagram into a database the company actually owned.

Here was a business trying to figure out where its next million dollars was going to come from while sitting on an enormous amount of attention it had spent years accumulating.

My first thought wasn't, “We need more people.”

It was, “What are we doing with the people we already have?”

There's an important distinction between building an audience and building an owned audience.

If you have 400,000 followers on Instagram, you've obviously created something valuable. But Instagram still controls your access to those people. The algorithm determines who sees your posts, and the platform can change the rules at any time.

An email database is different.

Those people have given you permission to communicate with them directly. And every time you do, you have an opportunity to learn more about them.

What gets them to open?
What gets them to click?
What problems are they trying to solve?
What offers do they respond to?

Over time, a well-managed email list becomes more than a collection of names.

It becomes an asset.

That's why I have a hard time understanding businesses that will spend significant amounts of money building an audience and then become incredibly timid once they have one.

“We don't want to email too much.”

“We don't want people to unsubscribe.”

“Our audience doesn't really use email.”

Maybe.

But have you actually tested it?

I'm not suggesting you hammer your database with promotions every day. 

That works for many businesses, but it may not work for yours.

But there is a massive gap between abusing an email list and barely communicating with it at all.

That's what stood out to me about this company.

The 400,000 Instagram followers were valuable. The 75,000 email subscribers were valuable.

But imagine if, over the previous few years, they had systematically connected the two.

Now you're not just building followers.

You're building an owned distribution channel that can produce revenue whenever you have something valuable to put in front of it.

And that changes the economics of the entire business.

This particular company was looking outside the business for $1 million while sitting on an audience that had never been fully developed as an asset that could deliver quite a bit more in revenue without the lead acquisition costs.

That's the lesson I'd take from it.

Of course you should keep growing your audience. But don't become so obsessed with finding the next 10,000 people that you neglect the 10,000, 50,000 or 100,000 who have already raised their hands.

Before you go looking for more attention, ask yourself a much simpler question:

What are we doing with the attention we already earned?

The answer may point to one of the biggest untapped revenue opportunities in your business.

Jon Stoltzfus
Chief XRO