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I would agree! Honestly, with a list of about 300, getting even 5 people to respond would be a win. But if that’s not happening, it’s definitely a sign that the relationship between you and your followers/subscribers is not super strong yet. It takes time and consistently showing up with valuable content for your people to establish that.
(For example, with The Unconventional RD, I ran my FB group, posted blog posts, and sent emails for almost 3 years before selling anything. That’s an extreme example, but by that point, I had built a lot of trust and goodwill with my audience so my 1st launch did really well. In contrast, my first online product I ever tried to sell, I think I had an email list of about 300, I spent 3 months creating something with a friend, and NO ONE on my list bought. My problem was that I lacked a clear brand/purpose so I was all over the place and had no ideal person I was speaking to and solving problems for. My list of 300 people were interested in recipes (not even of a specific type) and I tried to sell them an at-home fitness/mindful eating program (total mismatch) and I never even asked them if that would be something they’d be interested in before I built it.)
How often and for how long have you been emailing out valuable content?
It seems like you were initially creating content on your site to grow a large audience for ads, but now that you’re pivoting to try and sell something to your audience, you’re realizing that the audience you’ve built is not as targeted or cohesive as you’d like. (Totally normal and expected.)
If I were you, I would pick a subset of your audience you’d like to serve first (parents, athletes, coaches, etc.) and start tweaking your content creation strategy to make content that’s very specific to THEIR unique needs (even if the search volume is on the lower side). Cause when you’re switching to the business model of SELLING something, you don’t need a high volume of people finding you through Google, as long as they’re the RIGHT people.
It will take some time to pick up traction (6 months+ probably), but consistency will be key. Create content for your people and consistently email it to them every week. Show that you understand their problems and have helpful solutions. Bonus points if you also show up on video or audio to make the connection even more personal.
If you have any examples of people you’ve worked with who have seen XYZ results or transformations, or strategies you have tried or implemented yourself that have gotten great results from, talk about that as well. Start seeding the idea that you have experience with XYZ problem you want to solve for people.
In the back of your mind, start thinking about concrete problems you can solve for your audience with paid offers (we will cover this later in 2024, but you can start thinking about it now). You can then test these ideas with low-ticket items and see which topics sell, then go all-in on the most popular topic and create a higher ticket course or recurring revenue membership model to serve people more in-depth after that.
Mindset wise… I think the most helpful thing is just accepting that this is a journey. You can plan and plot your “perfect” business model all you want, but it’s going to change once you take ACTION and get real-life feedback from people. Just TRY stuff and double-down on what works. You WILL try things that fail. But if you do it enough times, you will find your “thing” and slowly, over several years, accumulate experience, testimonials, happy customers, word of mouth referrals, etc. etc. until it all starts to snowball.
Your first product launch is NOT going to retire you. Like not even close. It’s like step 1 of 100 on this journey. 😅 If you keep that in mind and stay curious and adaptable, you’ll get there. You’re doing great!