A Playbook for Building Core Audience In New Communities

The first year of a new Patch's existence should be almost solely focused on building core audience. Those people should be LOCAL, ENGAGED and ideally INFLUENTIAL. 

 

What should we measure? 

• Social fan growth

• Newsletter subscriber growth

• UV and PV growth

• DAILY average PVs. (i.e. you want to see steady, reliable traffic growth on a day-to-day basis, not wild swings based on big news days)

 

How fast should we grow? 

• Spend the first six months without goals. Grow and grow as quickly as possible while keeping a steady pace and a focus on the core. Then start setting specific goals:

• Set UV goals based on penetration of population.

• Set subscriber goals based on penetration of households.

• Use these numbers as marketing tools and as internal measurements of success.