How to Create Great Content That Your Subscribers …...Page 3 How to Create Great Content That Your...

How to Create Great Content That Your Subscribers Want and Will Pay For

- A Conversation with Jim Sinkinson

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This program features our special guest: Jim Sinkinson Jim Sinkinson founded Infocom Group in 1980 and sold it in 2015. The company produced online data services, newsletters, webinars, books, special reports, ad-based media, live professional development conferences and seminars for the PR/corporate communications market. Jim is an expert at growing subscriptions. He knows exactly what to create in order to get your members to be engaged in your product – and keep paying for it. He's been teaching this to editors and content creators for decades, both within his own business, and within his consulting work. Jim can be reached at firedupmarketing.biz.

How to Create Great Content That Your Subscribers Want

and Will Pay For The real money in a subscription business is not in getting new subscribers, it is in keeping them and increasing their value. They might visit if your sales process is good, but they'll only stay if your content is truly engaging and you are communicating with them in an entertaining and engaging way. Jim Sinkinson founded Infocom Group in 1980 and sold it in 2015. The company produced online data services, newsletters, webinars, books, special reports, ad-based media, live professional development conferences and seminars for the PR/corporate communications market. Jim knows exactly what to create in order to get your members to be engaged in your product – and keep paying for it. He's been teaching this to editors and content creators for decades, both within his own business, and within his consulting work. I recently interviewed Jim for my Membership and Subscription Growth podcast. In a world of free information and lead generators, Jim can show you how to create the content your subscribers are craving, and are willing to pay for.

Compelling Content is Key Jim says: “content is a key to many membership experiences.” People join for the content that you provide. That content could be in a newsletter. It could be a chat group, or at a conference or coaching program. It’s a challenge to create content worthy of a high membership price and a long-term relationship. Many organizations don't spend equivalent energy, time and money on improving the quality of the information or the content that they are providing to subscribers or members.

Today, we've got this content marketing industrial complex that's teaching folks how to churn out content for free in order to try to generate leads and attract customers, and position marketers as experts. Yet, there are all these publishers and associations out there trying to sell access to their content. As Jim Sinkinson said, "Expertise isn't what folks want and will pay for. Instead, it is change, benefits, impact on their lives.”

Connect the Promise to the Content While it’s never been easier to reach customers, and grow your business on a global scale, hiring great writers doesn’t guarantee great content or great results. Often, content creators are separated from the rest of the operation. The challenge is to get both the marketing team and the content creators together to agree on what promise is being offered to the consumer. Most writers, editors, or conference organizers just don’t realize that their job is to sell the subscriber on a transformative experience. “Over the years, I've come to the realization that even though I'm dealing with extremely intelligent people, very capable people, and highly motivated people, just to tell them how to do it, and even leave them with a set of rules for how to do it, is not enough to transform them into brilliant copywriters, or into content providers who can think this way. It is a matter of consciousness.” Marketing can sell all it wants, but if the content doesn’t match the promise, you have a problem. Bridge that gap by bringing those two teams together and getting them to agree on what the job is.

Create a Transformative Experience Jim says, “It’s not enough just to deliver information, the draw is what accessing this content can do for them.” Knowledge alone doesn’t change anything. “What we want to do is, not to focus on the knowledge that we're giving somebody, but what the knowledge can do for them, that is the benefit.” Just buying the product once is not enough - they have to use it or they will not see the value of an ongoing relationship. Keep in contact regular contact with customers. Highlight what they can do with the

knowledge you are providing. Give them case studies that allow them to see the impact your strategies can have in their lives. Help them understand how to use what you provide to make better decisions. Remind them of how, what you deliver, improves their lives. Once they see it working and experience transformation in their business, they are hooked, and your recurring revenue will increase each month. To learn more about how to deliver benefits members want and will pay for, listen to the full interview with Jim on the Membership and Subscription Growth podcast.

Conversation with Jim Sinkinson Robert Skrob: Coming up on today's episode of Membership and Subscription

Growth:

Jim Sinkinson: Get both of those teams together, the marketing team and the content creators together, to agree on what the promise is. Over the years, I've come to the realization that even though I'm dealing with extremely intelligent people, very capable people, and highly motivated people, just to tell them how to do it, and even leave them with a set of rules for how to do it, is not enough to transform them into brilliant copywriters, or into content providers who can think this way. It is a matter of consciousness. What we want to do is, not to focus on the knowledge that we're giving somebody, but what the knowledge can do for them, that is the benefit.

Robert Skrob: Welcome to Membership and Subscription Growth Podcast. I'm your host Robert Skrob. We've got a fabulous New Year, and a terrific opportunity to help you grow your subscription business. My guest today is Jim Sinkinson. Jim is a terrific expert at growing subscriptions. He actually owned his own business. He started in 1980 and sold it in 2015. Throughout that time, he has also been a consultant for dozens of other subscription businesses, helping them grow, helping them build their businesses by creating great content

that their subscribers want, and want to pay for. He is a terrific expert on exactly what to create, in order to get your members to be engaged in your product.

Also, he's been teaching this to editors and content creators for decades, both within his own business, and within his consulting work. You'll definitely want to check out his website at firedupmarketing.biz and also, enjoy this episode of Membership and Subscription growth. Jim is a terrific expert and understands exactly what you want to do in order to grow your subscription business and provide content members want. So, without any further delay, let's jump in to today's episode.

Welcome to Membership and Subscription Growth Podcast, I'm Robert Skrob, and I'm here today with Jim Sinkinson. Welcome Jim.

Jim Sinkinson: Hey Robert. Nice to be here.

Robert Skrob: Well, you have, and continue to work with lots of membership programs in order to help them grow. But just for folks that maybe haven't had the opportunity to meet you and know your background, could you talk a little bit about the things that you did in order to grow membership? The experience that you have, the companies you built and sold? And, kind of what's led you up to this point?

Jim Sinkinson: Well, I've been in the publishing business for about 35 years, or I had my own publishing company for about 35 years. We started out with print newsletters. As times changed, and things became more digital, we evolved to a digital platform, so that all of the products we were selling, which were mostly information products were of a digital nature. That would include daily online trade journal, a daily information service sold for $2000 a year. We had webinars. We had webinar memberships that allowed you to attend as many as possible. Books, conferences, wide range of content.

How did we grow these business? I would call it shoe-leather marketing. Just very assertive marketers. People who are ... I believe in marketing, the power of marketing. The people who worked for me

believed in that, so we were very aggressive about it and tried to learn from what other people were doing well, the best practices out there. I think we were, probably, at least a little bit above average, in terms of our success at doing that.

Robert Skrob: Well, and you had the opportunity to, the good fortune, you'd built a business that someone else wanted and was willing to buy. That certainly gave you a payday and freed you up to help others grow their memberships. What are some of the things that you're working on with your current clients?

Jim Sinkinson: Well, I work with other publishers on a wide range of programs. I would say that, certainly, content is one of the most important things that I work on with others. As you know, Robert, content is a key to many membership experiences. People come to associations for the content that they provide. That could be in a newsletter. It could be a chat group, or chat groups. It could be conferences, and chapter meetings. But in all of those experiences, content is the key of it, that somebody is getting information about how to run their business more effectively, or how to have a better experience as a person.

So, what I try to focus on with others is how they can make that content worthy of a high membership price, or a high subscription price, and a long-term relationship. I think that's one of the areas that many organizations don't really think of while they are trying to get new subscribers or new members. They don't spend equivalent energy, and time, and money on improving the quality of the information or the content that they are providing to subscribers or members.

Robert Skrob: It's interesting. I either find a subscription company's focused almost solely on what they deliver. Certainly with subscription boxes, they are absolutely enthralled and excited about what they're putting in that box, and shipping it out. Or, they almost completely ignore what they're delivering. Where they've got other publishers and companies might have a copywriter who is doing front end promotions that

makes as much as $100,000 to even as much as $1 million for the promotions that they generate. Whereas, the editors who are actually creating the content, maybe while they may be very wonderful people are in their beginning portion of their career and making $40-50,00 and the content doesn't match up in tone and excitement and quality to the copywriting.

Today, we've got this content marketing industrial complex that's teaching folks how to churn out content for free in order to try to generate leads and attract customers, and position marketers as experts. Yet, there are all these publishers and associations out there trying to sell access to their content. What are the real keys? What are you working with with these publishers and associations to make their content something that somebody would be willing to pay for?

Jim Sinkinson: Well, I think that's kind of a key question. I think the problem is, or the challenge is connecting the promises that marketers made -- that those well-paid marketers dream up -- creating a connection, and in fact a collaboration with the people who are actually creating the content. What I find is that content creators, whether they be conference organizers, or webinar organizers, or newsletters, or other forms of portals, that the people creating that content are siloed. They're often very separated from the rest of the operation. They certainly are separated from marketing. In many cases, marketing is viewed as a nasty word. So, for people who are journalists, they may have a bad reaction to that word.

So, I think the challenge, and the way I try to help organizations resolved that is to get both of those teams together, the marketing team and the content creators together to agree on what the promise is. One of the things that you talk about when you teach, and I do as well, is transformation. Well, transformation is fun to talk about from a marketing standpoint, and it's easy. The words roll off the lip or of the keyboard easily. But most editors, most conference organizers are not necessarily tuned into the high bar of transforming the attendee, or transforming the member, or transforming the subscriber in very

real terms. Creating a new realty for that member or for that subscriber. They don't recognize that as one of their jobs.

I try to bridge that gap by bringing those two teams together and getting them to agree on what the job is. Of course, many, certainly people from journalism, are not necessarily used to that obligation to actually change somebody's life. They would rather report on things that are happening and leave it to the reader to figure out what to do with that information. Which, these days, is patently inadequate.

Robert Skrob: Yeah, I know. I appreciate that. It's really your competitive advantage as a publisher is helping them solve a problem, and go from, as you say, transform. Go from a state where they've got these challenges, frustrations, and angst, into a place where they could be a hero in their own life because they've solved this problem and it's something behind them.

I was talking with a client just today who, their products are great but they're focused on informing and telling somebody some information. Describing, "Hey, when's the last time you were at a library?"

Like, "Oh, gees, years ago, and that was only there to get some work done. To find a quiet place that I could work on my laptop." Very few people go to the library to actually learn anything. So, when you turn around and try to market products that deliver information, you're not going to get people to show up to your website, or log in. There's no reason to keep your subscription.

When you are working with these editors and helping them ... because those marketers as you say, marketers sort of get it. This is something you talk about all the time is how to solve a problem. But now when you're working with a editor that maybe has a journalist background, or maybe an expert in what he/she is writing about, but hasn't thought about these marketing concepts, how do you help them really internalize? You know, kind of like learning how to play tennis, you

can hear it, but until you do it a few times, you're not going to become good at this skill. How do you help folks develop this skill?

Jim Sinkinson: Well, of course, in my case with tennis, it was probably more like 500 or 1,000 times before I even [crosstalk 00:13:46]-

Robert Skrob: I'm still figuring it out.

Jim Sinkinson: ... to gain some kind of confidence with it. But I think the analogy is pretty good, that it's difficult to gain the consciousness in ... I do, one day training seminars with editors, and I do training seminars with marketers. I encourage both parties, both teams to attend both sessions. But, over the years, I've come to the realization that even though I'm dealing with extremely intelligent people, very capable people, and highly motivated people, just to tell them how to do it, and even leave them with a set of rules for how to do it, is not enough to transform them into brilliant copywriters, or into content providers who can think this way. It is a matter of consciousness.

The solution to that, at least to some extent is, after I do these training sessions, I stick with them and we do Skype meetings on a once a month basis. We look at the actually output that they're creating, whether it be content or whether it be marketing materials. We say, "How well have you been doing what we talked about doing?" Often that question is met with a clap to the head by the editors or by the marketing people, because they understand the way to do it, just the way you understand early racket preparation when you're playing tennis. It's an easy concept, but when that ball is coming at you, you have to have a reflexive response to that ball. That is to move the racket back without thinking about it. Likewise, when you're under deadline to write an article for your organization's newsletter, or you have to put together a webinar, we're under pressure.

Time is of the essence, always, in our business. There's a tendency to do it the way you've always done it, which is the easy way. Frankly, not that quality in my mind is necessarily more difficult, but it really is just a matter of consciousness. So it is practice, and it's

reinforcement by people like me and people like you who can come in and remind people of the key principals.

Robert Skrob: Yeah, it really is no harder than creating content in any other way. It's just learning how to frame it. How to transmit the content so it's focused on them, rather than focused on what you are trying to write about. That change of perspective changes everything in terms of retention, and connection with the reader.

A lot of folks bring you in because of retention issues, or they want to grow their subscription membership program. What are the first one or two things you're looking for, you're looking at, in order to have the fastest, biggest impact on improving and growing their membership?

Jim Sinkinson: That's actually pretty easy to answer. One of the things that I think ... I had a meeting with some colleagues from a large publishing company just yesterday. We were talking and I made the comment that in order to sell people any product, whether it be an information product or a membership in an organization, an association, people do that because they get benefit from it. What I said to them is, "Information is not a benefit. Knowledge is not a benefit. Understanding is not a benefit. Those are not benefits."

The director of content who was there in the meeting said, "That's interesting. I've never thought about it that way. I always thought knowledge was a benefit." Well, knowledge could possibly transform somebody, but knowledge, per se, is not a benefit. What I look for, knowledge is a feature or it's a pseudo-benefit. But knowledge of the wrong things doesn't change anything. What we want to do is not to focus on the knowledge that we're giving somebody, but what the knowledge can do for them. That is the benefit, and to keep them focused on that, because if you're focused on the knowledge, knowledge can be neutral. Knowledge doesn't necessarily have to change anything.

So, the first thing I look at, to answer your question a little more directly, is I look for benefits. So, I'll go to a website for an organization. I'll look at the landing pages. I'll look at their direct

mail. Any kind of marketing vehicles is the first thing I look for, to see, "What are they promising? Are they really promising benefits?"

I would say that in a fairly high percentage of cases, perhaps 70% of cases, if I go to a website, certainly in the markets that I serve, which are publishers who have membership organizations, or membership components to their businesses. I would say in 70% of cases, the element of a strong focus on benefit, a brand promise for the overall organization, and then for specific value propositions for certain divisions or additional products that they market, that's what I look for. Are there benefits, or are they selling features? Which is, oh, you know a database of 40,000 entries?

Robert Skrob: Or networking. We've got lots of great networking at our event.

Jim Sinkinson: Yeah, networking, but what does that do for you, right?

Robert Skrob: Exactly. It's one of those things that nobody will buy but they love it when it's delivered. Everybody will look at networking, you can put that bullet down on any sort of marketing you want, but that's not what's going to motivate them. The social proof that this is a great place to go and a lot of people like them are already attending, and you'll be with lots of people like you, or you might miss out. Those are motivating features. But networking in and of itself is by no means a benefit.

Jim Sinkinson: This is true in your business, and my business, and lots of business, when we go to a conference, one benefit, a very easy benefit of the networking factor, is that we meet people that we can do deals with. Or we meet people that tell us something that we didn't know. You know, you were just having a conversation over drink or over lunch, and you talk about a challenge that you're facing. The person says, "Oh, we had that challenge, and here's how we solved it."

You go, "Wow. I learned that networking helped me learn new ways to solve my problems. I met somebody I can call whenever I have a problem, because I had lunch with them that day." Those times of making those benefits more concrete, and taking it down to what

changed for the person. How does networking change you? Or any of the other features that we offer with our memberships or subscriptions.

Robert Skrob: Well, we've talked about the marketing and making sure that the benefits are there, and compelling. You also mentioned about the actual content, that that's focused on creating a transformation. What about, kind of that in-between place, where after somebody buy and wants to experience the benefits, and then becomes a members, how do you onboard them? What does the communication, what should that be like in order to keep them as excited about what they purchased after they bought, as they were before they bought and they had that anticipation of what could be here. Now, all the sudden, they're in. How do you make them even more excited, now that they're in and have the opportunity to engage?

Jim Sinkinson: Yeah, that's a great question. It's a big challenge for a lot of ... And, as I discussed earlier, most of the people that I work with are dealing with one form or another with information. They may call it a subscription, or they may actually have a membership relationship with their customers. But mostly, they're dealing with information. I would say that I have two easy answers to that. There are probably a couple dozen more variations on this.

The first thing is, I think, telling people how to use what they have just bought. That can be even a club membership, you know, a country club membership. Does the person who joined, they may have joined because of the tennis courts, but do they know about the Friday afternoon lunches, or do they know about any chess club that's part of the country club membership? They don't necessarily know how to use it. You find that getting the full benefit out of many publications, and the example I often use is a news-driven publication. What do you do with the news? News is not a benefit. We know that. Maybe we can improve our lives by using the news, but how would we do that, exactly? I think it helps to show people and demonstrate for them. Let them know how other people, other members or other subscribers are using that information, using those

features to create benefits. So, there's a tutorial element to it in the early onboarding phases of the relationship.

Then, I think, moving more down the road into the relationship over a period of time, one of the things that we find is being in touch regularly with your subscriber or your member to remind them of all the things going on, and to encourage them. In essence, to sell them in increments, continue to sell them the pieces of what they have bought as they go through the relationship. They have bought it, but unless they use it, they will not renew. So, it behooves us to do everything we possibly can, not just to deliver a product to them, but to get them to use that product. If they belong to a club but they don't go to any of the gatherings of the club, they probably are not going to renew. So, what can we do to get them to come to the club on an ongoing basis? Well, by promoting the individual events or activities that make up the membership.

If it's a newsletter, which many of my clients publish ... With one publisher, we promote four of their best articles every month, and we send additional emails to the subscribers to remind them, and to sell them on individual articles, to make them want to read that article. We've sent them the article. They've received the article in print. They have access to that article online, through their online access. But they haven't read the article yet. Maybe the hard copy issue is sitting in a pile on their desk, covered by more mail that came in an hour later, and a day later, and two days later. Pretty soon, it's gone. It's buried in a pile. Or, they just never use their online access.

What we do is to send them an email four times a week that reminds them about, and highlights, and sells each of four articles over the course of that month to bring them in to the online. All they have to do is, when they receive the email, they click on, "Read this article," "Read this article," and drive them to the website so they actually make use of the membership or the subscription.

Robert Skrob: I couldn't agree more. I see so many folks, people or publishers, where people bought it. People bought the product, so they send it to them. Really, what I was taught decades ago is that when you deliver

a piece of content, you've got to resell that content as if you were selling them to buy that piece. Each thing you send, you've got to make it worth the entire membership investment, and you've got to build the value in each thing, and each article, and in each event, as if it was the one thing that they were purchasing. Even though they paid for this thing, getting them to show up, it requires you to actually sell it as if they were having to buy it. It's again, the content has to be in that problem, agitate, sales letter format, where you're talking about the problem, and talking about the impact of that problem in their life. Now the solution is this piece of content.

The other thing you were mentioning about training them on how to use it, I couldn't agree more. I had a client that gave fabulous economic metrics about an industry. He was doing all this research and it was kind of this two-page dashboard of all these metrics on what was going on in the industry, but there was no knowledge about how to use it. A customer would get it, and it was very insightful information, but the average customer had no earthly idea what sort of decisions they should be making based on that information. So, teaching them how to interpret the data, and what decisions to make based on the data, it really changed everything and made him into a celebrity, somebody that now they can appreciate the information because they're able to make smarter decisions than they were able to before. That really is the, is helping them change and understand how to use the information you're providing, not just deliver it.

So, Jim, I know you've worked with a lot of customers doing copywriting both for the marketing, onboarding, as well as the content and delivering seminars. For folks who are interesting in following up with you and getting more information about you and the services that you provide publishers and subscription programs, what the best way to connect with you?

Jim Sinkinson: Well, the best way is to go to my website, firedupmarketing.biz. There's a list of the kinds of services that I provide. There's a couple of videos up there. There's some free information that you can

download, my tip on compelling headlines from editorial and marketing, that's probably the best way to do it. Also, there's contact information there, if people would like to get in touch with me.

Robert Skrob: That's fabulous Jim. Thank you so much for sharing these tips with us. The insight on how to create content that solves a problem and delivers a transformation, understanding the benefits and going there first in order to have the biggest impact on improving their subscription and membership growth. Then, how to onboard by getting folks to use what they've purchased and helping resell the content that they've just bought, are fabulous tips. Thank you so much.

Jim Sinkinson: Well, you know, Robert, we're in such an exciting world. With the explosion of digital marketing, and digital delivery, the expanded broadband internet that allows us to use videos, and animations, and there's so many exciting opportunities and ways to capture the imaginations of buyers these days. It's just wonderful to be part of the industry that we're involved in now, and to be able to help people harness that tremendous capability. I'm happy to be part of it myself, and happy to share any insights that I can with your listeners. Thank you so much for making me part of this podcast, and look forward to working with you further and exchanging ideas as we have done over the past couple of years.

Robert Skrob: Absolutely. I appreciate you. It is amazing to think about the transformation that we've witnessed. In our business of publishing and distributing content, probably the only thing close to the big transformation and explosion was the printing press and what it was able to create when it was invented. Versus today, publishing has absolutely exploded. Not just in print, but also in audio and video. It's never been easier to reach customers from around the world, and talk to them in multi-media formats, and grow your membership and subscription business. It's now global.

It's amazing. Even though the knowledge of how to produce content has exploded in its use and application, the understanding of how to do it well, and create content that people want to read and are willing

to pay for, is something that is absolutely rare. You are among the few who truly understand it. It's an honor and a privilege, and I absolutely encourage everybody to checkout firedupmarketing.biz. Thank you so much Jim Sinkinson, it was a true honor.

Jim Sinkinson: Total pleasure. Thanks so much.

Robert Skrob: I hope you enjoyed today's episode of Membership and Subscription Growth Podcast. I certainly did, and really think that this is something that is absolutely important that you do in order to grow your businesses. Create content that people want, and you do that by focusing on the outcome of the information you are providing, rather than focusing so much on transmitting your expertise. As Jim said, "Expertise isn't what folks want and will pay for. Instead, it is change, benefits, impact on their lives." Certainly, nobody understands that better than Jim Sinkinson.

Coming up next week on Membership and Subscription Growth, my guest is Dan Fink of Money Media. Money Media is a publishing business owned by the Financial Times. They do a lot of B to B marketing in order to grow their subscriptions, and sell a lot of corporate subscriptions. We're going to really dive into what it takes to grow those corporate memberships, and understanding how to approach these companies. There's a really important distinction and change that Dan has noticed, and recognized, and implements in his subscription marketing that a lot of others have never discovered. So, it could be a very big breakthrough for you, and help you grow your subscription business.

That's it. Check out, certainly, the other blog posts that we have at robertskrob.com. And also, check out the new free report, 5 Questions to Grow Your Membership and Subscription Program, and the answers will reveal your path to terrific growth in this year and beyond. Absolutely go to robertskrob.com, and check that out today. Look forward to talking with you next time on Membership and Subscription Growth

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