This week, we're diving deep into the 'T' of BATON - Tribe.

We're still following our BATON framework (Business, Audience, Tribe, Offer, Network)

• Business: what value are we going to provide and to who?

• Audience: how will we let them know about the value we have?

• Tribe: how do we get permission to offer our value to prospects?

• Offer: how do we package up our value and sell it to customers?

• Network: how do we scale what works into a business?

In the last two Playbooks, we covered Business and Audience. Now, we're building on that foundation to explore the crucial concept of Tribe.

Let’s get started

Introducing the Tribe

A Cautionary Tale

Let me share a story about why this Playbook is so important.

There's a guy in my space - let's call him Jack. You might know Jack.

Jack's killing it on social media. He's got a massive following on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. We're talking about an audience pushing a million followers. Big boy stuff.

Here's the kicker: Jack recently reached out to me, asking how to make money.

Like…dude, you’re the one with a cool 1M followers. You tell me?

Turns out he’s not making much. At all. Despite talking to hundreds of thousands of people on a daily basis.

This might sound surprising, but it's a common scenario. It highlights a crucial truth in the digital entrepreneurship world: Audience size doesn't always equate to business success.

Size doesn’t matter.

It’s a vanity metric.

Why Tribe Matters More Than Mere Numbers

You see, having a large audience is great, but what you really need is a Tribe.

I’m borrowing the concept from Seth Godin and his excellent book of the same name.

A Tribe isn't just a bunch of followers or subscribers. It's a group of people who are genuinely invested in what you have to offer, who trust you, and who are primed to engage with your value proposition.

More crudely: they give a f*ck.

This is where many entrepreneurs and content creators go wrong. They build a audience and then immediately try to monetise it by bombarding them with offers.

The Trust-Building Approach

Instead of cutting straight to sales (the Offer stage of BATON), we want to deepen our relationship and build trust with our prospects.

This is what we’re doing in this Playbook on Tribe.

We want to get them into our orbit and continue to deliver value before we even think about making a sale.

This approach is especially important in the online world, where trust is at a premium. We have to prove ourselves consistently before people will open their wallets.

The other reason (which we’ll talk about in the next stage, Offer) is that once we have a Tribe we can straight up ask them what they want to buy. Then build and sell it to them. No guesswork, revenue locked in before we build. More on that later.

The Death Spiral of Premature Monetisation

The alternative - slamming your audience with offers and hoping for the best - can lead to a death spiral. Here's how it often plays out:

1. You build a large audience.

2. You want to monetise this audience ASAP, so you start pushing lots of sales messages.

3. This degrades the trust of your audience.

4. Your large audience becomes less responsive and less valuable.

5. To compensate, you push even more sales messages.

6. Trust degrades further, making your large audience even less valuable.

Sadly, this is the path Jack is currently on.

It's rough to watch, but it's a valuable lesson for all of us.

Enter the Tribe

This is why we add an element between Audience and Offer in our BATON framework: Tribe.

Building a Tribe means cultivating a group of people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say, who trust your expertise, and who are primed to receive your offers when the time comes.

The way I do it is as follows

• create valuable lead magnets centred around my Audience’s problems.

• use DM giveaways, ads and social posts to drive traffic to my lead magnets

• capture lead email addresses into beehiiv, my newsletter tool, before the lead gets their lead magnet

• get paid for each sign up (using beehiiv Boosts) and drop in an upsale offer (a tripwire) for instant revenue

• send my new sign ups a welcome sequence that starts with value before introducing my first Offers

• send a newsletter to continuously deliver value until people are ready to buy

• invite people into a closed community to continue the conversation

Here’s a prompt to give you a basic outline

You are an AI assistant specialising in digital marketing and audience engagement strategies. Your task is to help entrepreneurs develop a personalised tribe-building process based on their specific business and audience. Use the following context and framework to guide your response:

Context:
Building a tribe is crucial for business success in the digital world. A tribe isn't just a large audience; it's a group of people who are genuinely invested in what you offer, trust you, and are primed to engage with your value proposition. The tribe-building process involves several key steps:
1. Creating valuable lead magnets
2. Capturing email addresses
3. Delivering a high-value welcome sequence
4. Maintaining engagement through newsletters
5. Building a community

Your task is to create a customised tribe-building process for the user based on their specific business and audience.

Instructions:
1. Ask the user to provide the following information:
   a. A brief description of their business (what value they provide and to whom)
   b. Their current audience size and platforms
   c. 3-5 core questions or problems their audience typically has
   d. Any existing lead magnets or email marketing efforts

2. Based on the information provided, create a customised tribe-building process outline that includes:
   a. Lead Magnet Strategy:
      - Suggest 2-3 lead magnet ideas tailored to the audience's core questions/problems
      - Recommend platforms or methods to promote these lead magnets (e.g., social media, ads, DM giveaways)

   b. Email Capture Approach:
      - Propose a strategy to capture email addresses, including any tools or software recommendations (e.g., beehiiv)
      - Suggest an ethical bribe or immediate value proposition for signing up

   c. Welcome Sequence:
      - Outline a 5-7 email welcome sequence, focusing on delivering high value
      - Include suggestions for introducing offers or paid products/services towards the end of the sequence

   d. Newsletter Strategy:
      - Recommend a frequency and format for the ongoing newsletter
      - Suggest 3-5 content pillars based on the audience's interests and problems
      - Propose a balance between value-driven content and promotional material

   e. Community Building:
      - Suggest a platform or method for building a community around the brand
      - Provide ideas for engaging the community and encouraging member interaction

3. Monetisation Strategy:
   - Suggest ways to monetise the tribe at different stages (e.g., paid sign-ups, tripwire offers, main product/service)
   - Emphasise the importance of building trust before heavy promotion

4. Conclude with 2-3 key performance indicators (KPIs) the user should track to measure the success of their tribe-building efforts.

Present your response in a clear, easy-to-follow format with bullet points and subheadings. Encourage the user to adapt and refine the process based on their results and audience feedback. Emphasise that the goal is to cultivate a committed tribe that trusts them and values what they have to offer, not just to build a large audience.

This prompt will run through some basic ideas with you. Feed in information from the previous Business and Audience processes for best result.

Here are some example lead magnets ideas it gave me

That prompt will give you a basic overview and strategy plan. Over the rest of the Playbook I’m going to be showing you, step by step, this process in the following Parts:

Part 1- Tribe Introduction: We're laying the groundwork, explaining why Tribe is so crucial in the journey from Audience to Offer.

Part 2- Lead Magnets for Email Capture: We'll explore the first step in building your Tribe - getting your audience off social platforms and onto your email list. We'll discuss effective lead magnets and strategies.

Part 3- Welcome Sequence: Once someone joins our email list, how do we make a great first impression? We'll cover how to absolutely inundate new subscribers with value right from the start and then follow up with a quick sale to move to Offer.

Part 4- Newsletter Strategy: We'll discuss how to maintain regular contact with your Tribe through a value-packed newsletter. This is your weekly touchpoint, your chance to educate and build trust consistently. Until they are ready for the next step.

Part 5- Community Building: Finally, we'll look at how to create a thriving community around you. This is where you truly host the party, creating a space that you control and where your Tribe can interact not just with you, but with each other.

Each of these steps builds on the last, increasing the level of commitment and trust between you and your Tribe members.

By the end of this process, you'll have a group of people who are genuinely excited to hear from you and eager to engage with your offers.

Remember, the goal isn't just to build a large audience. Don’t be like Jack.

It's to cultivate a committed Tribe that trusts you and values what you have to offer. That's the key to sustainable success in the digital entrepreneurship world.

Premium subscribers, I'll see you in the next Part where we'll get into the nitty-gritty of lead magnets and email capture techniques.

If you're not a premium subscriber yet, what are you waiting for? Don't miss out on the full Tribe-building blueprint!

Keep prompting,

Kyle