I thought it’d be cool to expose some of the less obvious tactics I used to get people to sign up for my Skillshare class. A tweet here and there just doesn’t cut it for the young and hungry. Sometimes you need to put the warpaint on.
I use my email signature like a strategic weapon. I change it frequently and at times even cater it depending upon who I’m emailing. I’ve found it extremely effective for nudging people to look at something without looking like a tool. Within that vein, I went beast mode in large email groups that I’m involved in to try to drive eyeballs to my class’s page. Participation in these groups is like creating an ad impression for whatever you’re trying to draw attention to. I’ve seen a couple conversions here. I also dropped some timely “checking in” emails to people I vaguely know who I thought would be interested in the subject matter of my class. One conversion aqui.
Shock Value: Leverage Blog Real Estate
My blog is more than a place to share my thoughts. It’s also a mechanism I use to accomplish a variety of things: a potential sale, a knode of connectivity, a timely demonstration of expertise, etc. I created a page entitled “Brief Nudity“ that my audience sees on every touch point of my blog. When they click through I link them to my class. It would have been interesting to A/B test this with a page entitled “Skillshare Class” to see which had a higher click-through. Maybe next time.
I included an arrow or two below so you didn’t miss it.
The actual page.
Gentle Nudges to Provoke Curiosity
Every time you follow someone on most platforms you penetrate their inbox via a push notification. I try to make follows and requests on platforms strategic because on an individual user basis they’re finite and can be a valuable psychological or motivational asset. In this case, I hoped a gentle nudge would provoke a click-through to my profile and then an oh-so-serendipitous encounter with my class page.
The Giving Economy
I invited everyone in my co-working space WeWork Labs to come to my class for free with one ask: if they planned on attending, it’d be really awesome if they tweeted it out.
This is an awesome thing to do because your friends can get some awesome knowledge for free while still helping you line your pockets with lunch money. I apologize to the people who I’m friends with who I did not reach out to. I kept it within WeWork because I’m teaching in everyone else’s workspace and the space just can’t hold that many people. Next time I’ll be dropping some more freebies in exchange for various forms of digital currency.
Be A Wordsmith
I try my best to think strategically about the content I create because content drives purchasing decisions. On a recent blogpost, I found a way to cleverly weave in the class.
Within the description of the newly added library on my blog, I highlighted a hack that redirects to my class page. Within every piece of content you create there is an opportunity to accrue some form of capital. In this instance, I’m creating a portal to my sales funnel.
I tried to write curious tweets to optimize the click-throughs. Each link re-directed them to my class. Curiosity always begs an answer.
The 10, the 5…TOUCHDOWN!
I really wanted to sell this out in a week or less. Call it a personal challenge. When there was one ticket left, I wanted to provide a unique offering to drive a “watcher” to a conversion (sale).
I’m sure some people watch because of a date confliction or simply to bookmark something. However, my guess was that there was at least one person out there who was on the fence. I figured a unique, personal gift offering might push them through the sales funnel. It worked.
Backup Ammunition
There were a few tactics I thought of that I left on the shelf:
Identifying people who have taken similar classes on Skillshare and reaching out to them over a social network.
Contacting watchers who have not converted and coming up with unique accommodations that entice them to buy: back massages, a long slow meal, pretty much just standard stuff.
Actively comment and engage on other walls of similar classes (gentle nudging).
A boatload of arbitrage mainly revolving around the exchange of various forms of digital currency that I’ll spare getting into…until the class.
Locked and Loaded
I cannot wait to teach this class. There have been intellectual knife fights brewing upstairs all week just thinking about putting the curriculum together. Looking forward to see all that attend and thanks again for all the support.
Long live learning.
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