How I Monetized a Niche Community Through Personalized Recommendations
Scenario
I launched Do The Good Stuff in 2016 as a wellness website and weekly newsletter for women and other minoritized groups interested in accessible, self-determined wellness strategies and recommendations. We went into 2017 with both an engaged, niche community of ~1,000 subscribers who fit outside of the traditional wellness target demographic and the goal of introducing initial revenue channels to the experience.
Challenge
The audience hadn’t met initial growth targets for monetization, however had exceeded engagement targets. However, the engagement was based on an authentic, self-determined experience that, if monetized in the wrong way, risked losing the trust of the community.
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#1 Seeing clear opportunities in ambiguous, dynamic environments
I saw the opportunity to step outside of the traditional branded content advertising model of the time to create high value sponsor opportunities that capitalized on our high engagement and intent. By creating a personal recommendations quiz focused on asking and answering the question, “How are you feeling?,” we could introduce individual subscribers to sponsored products that fit within their self-determined experience.
#2 Building the relationships that lead to coalitions of support
To ensure we stayed true to our standard of quality and kept the trust and engagement of our users, I launched an advisory council of health and wellness professionals, core community members, and trusted advisors to participate in the process. On the other side, I worked to expand my network of contacts at hyper-relevant brands and dug into the value they were looking for that they weren’t getting through existing advertising options. Finally, I sourced the freelance resources to create the matchmaking quiz.
#3 Securing & scaling strategic partnerships
I focused on securing the first paid brand partnerships via a series of in-person events that mirrored the eventual recommendation quiz categories to ensure the tangible value of the audience while introducing the concept of matching specifically targeted brands with the events in their category. Once the relationships and concept was established, I pitched the initial brand partners as both paid sponsors and referral partners within the “How Are You Feeling?” personalized recommendations quiz.
#4 Mobilizing teams to make sh*t happen
At this time, the Do The Good Stuff team consisted of two full-time employees including myself. The entire events, content, product, and partnerships apparatus was made up of freelance resources kept in sync and on task through a dedication to our project management boards on Asana along with regularly scheduled team meetings and 1:1’s.
#5 Creating compelling content that connects with the right audience
The primary piece of content for this initiative was the “How are you feeling?” personalized recommendation quiz. However, that quiz was supported by countless pieces of blog, email, landing page, and video content such as the “XYZ” and “XYZ” toolkit. Branded content was created by Do The Good Stuff in partnership with the brand partners and included “DOSIST article” and “SOMETHING ELSE.”
Results
TBD
