Two Smart Ways to Build Your Audience You Probably Haven’t Considered
In a survey I’m conducting for Rogue Mogul, the most consistent thing people want help with so far is audience building.
This isn’t remotely surprising. Audience building is difficult and time-consuming.
In the Unemployable Community, it’s also the number one thing people keep asking for help with.
But here’s the rub… What most people are looking for are “tricks” and “hacks” to make it easier.
I’m sorry to break the news, but there’s no shortcut to building an audience. However, there are things you can do to accelerate the process as long as you’re willing to put in the work.
I’m a big fan of learning by watching what others do. So, here are a couple of things I’ve seen work for people that you may not have thought about trying for yourself.
Peer Groups
Back in the first decade of the 2000’s, a bunch of people you likely know online kicked off the businesses that would make them Internet famous. I’m talking about guys like Brian Clark, Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, and others.
And, as they got to know each other, they learned from one another and would find ways (often subtle) of promoting each other. In a sense, their online careers grew up together.
I see less cooperation like that in this generation of digital entrepreneurs, but it can be a very effective way of building your audience.
If you’re in a community, have people you engage with on social media, or people you know in real life that are in a similar space as you and at a comparable stage, consider forming a peer group to do a little networking and help each other out.
Meet on a regular basis on Zoom or in-person and amplify and engage with what the others in your peer group are doing. You may each have small audiences now, but together you have some real power.
Tip: I don’t have any research on this, but a peer group of 3 – 5 feels about right to me. You don’t want it to be too big. Just big enough to help each of you to build momentum.
Strategic Partnering
Slightly more formal than a peer group would be finding strategic partners. This could be ongoing or for a specific campaign or period of time.
The idea is to find someone to work with where the combination of both your skill sets solves a problem better than you would alone.
The right strategic partner is also someone with whom you are both serving a similar audience with similar problems.
Finding the right strategic partners is key and may take some time but can be a very powerful lever in building your audience.
If you’re a part of the Unemployable Community, you may have taken my Website Essentials Course.
In the final lesson of that mini-course, I was joined by Rafal Tomal an extraordinarily talented web designer. While I do design, Rafal is an absolute master.
Together we were able to give people valuable feedback on their website UI/UX, design, copy, and functionality. Offering both of our perspectives brought a lot more to the conversation than either of us alone and I’m hoping to do more with Rafal on those topics in the future.
Similar audience and customers brought together through different skill sets.
One Final Note
Don’t compare the audience you have now to any of the people referenced above. They’ve been audience building for a long time. And to be fair, some aspects of audience-building are much harder now than they used to be.
But do learn from what they’ve done and make it your own. It still works. Remember, they didn’t have any audience once upon a time.
You can do this.
If you ever have a question about a service that you’re unsure of drop me an email, or hit me up on Twitter and I’ll try to weigh in.
This email is brought to you by ConvertKit…. Literally.
If you’re considering a newsletter to compliment your business, or already have a newsletter and are willing to try a different service, I recommend ConvertKit. I’ve been using them for a few years and most of my website customers are now using them as well. If you’re coming over from another system, they’ll even help migrate you for free.
Other Stuff That Caught My Attention
$10K Monthly Revenue from 2K Subscribers
There is a persistent belief that you need a large audience to make meaningful money online. Daren Smith does a great job of dispelling that myth while showing you how he hit $10k in revenue with an email list of 2k subscribers.
Find Your Ideal Audience in 1 Tweet
Josh Spector cuts to the chase in his following Tweet about your ideal audience:
We all have something to teach and there are people coming along behind you that can learn from what you know. You’re more likely be in tune to what they need than someone much more advanced. So get over the Imposter Syndrome and go help some people out!
Come Together, Right Now… or on November 10th
Ok, this isn’t a Beatles Song, but my favorite audience research tool SparkToro is hosing a virtual (i.e. online) 1 day conference on Thursday, November 10, 2022. This is a virtual event, so you can watch anywhere. Given how exceptional that team is, putting out helpful info on marketing, story-telling, and audience-building is a no-brainer. I’m already registered, and I hope to see you there.
Meet Nathan Barry
The founder of ConvertKit has been very transparent about how he runs his company, and it’s always insightful stuff.
But, he recently Tweeted a thread about how they set up equity for their employees and it’s unlike anything I’ve seen before. I won’t be surprised if we see more of this from other privately held companies.
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