Want to build an audience?
Most beginners skip the first step of building an audience.
Everyone wants to build an audience.
Do you? Yes, I thought so.
Yet, many beginning creators will spend most of their time focusing on:
The what. The niche. What to write, what to sell, what to teach.
The how. The platform. How & where to distribute my content so it reaches more people.
Both those questions are valid — you’re just getting ahead of yourself.
Of course, if you already have a what in mind, it can help you define your audience.
Foodtalk Daily, one of the biggest newsletters in the world with over 2 million subscribers, aims to answer the question “What’s for dinner?”
Their what defines their audience: people who cook but aren’t great at it.
However, if you don’t have a clear what yet, put a pin in it for a moment and focus on the who.
If you want to build an audience, the first thing you should do is choose your audience.
How to choose your audience.
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Who do you want to talk to?
Tony Robins says the secret to success is to love your audience, not your product.
When you love your audience, you find it easy to help them. You find it effortless to talk to them.
I want you to imagine a room full of people who LOVE what you have to say.
Who would be in that room?
How to be specific?
During my branding course with the University of London, I listened to an interview with a Saatchi & Saatchi director who said they always strive to define an audience in one word.
Runners. Mothers. Home-lovers. Solopreneurs (that’s me, I stole that idea).
No need to be Saatchi & Saatchi, but take their idea of specificity and run with it.
Who do you want to talk to?
Single women?
Over 40s who don’t exercise (but know they should)?
Corporations who are updating their marketing approach and want more videos?
Female executives, who struggle to find their way to lead?
People who watch the news (and like to laugh)?
You’ll notice that these are specific, yet, not ultra-specific audiences.
Single women can be any age and have similar problems.
Over 40s who don’t exercise are… most over 40s in the world.
What I mean is, you want a specific audience, but you still want an audience that’s big enough to sustain your business.
If there are millions of people who fit your audience definition, rest assured that you can attract at least 100,000 of them (even if you’re in a super-competitive market).
Can you help these people?
Now, it’s time to run a quick check with yourself.
Can you really help these people solve their problems?
Can you help these people achieve their goals or dreams?
Note: you don’t need to have it all figured out. You don’t need to solve ALL of their problems or help them achieve ALL of their goals.
But you need to have some confidence (and preferably some credibility) in your unique value proposition.
Here are a few questions to answer:
What’s your experience in that area?
What have you achieved that you are/were proud of (even if it looks like a small achievement now)?
How have you failed and what did you learn?
Any numbers or big names you can use for credibility purposes? (i.e. years of experience, education from a top institution, number of clients or popular clients, popular place of work, publications where you’ve been featured, awards, etc.)
Can these people afford the products or services you plan to offer?
Before I started the One-Person Business Success newsletter, I talked with a friend who runs a bookkeeping business.
She said the idea was horrible because people who are struggling to build their one-person businesses can’t afford any help.
I strongly disagree.
Beginning solopreneurs are smart about money — as they should be — but developing their business is a top priority for them. As long as I offer great, affordable solutions, I know they’ll take me up on that offer.
That’s why most of my offers are priced in the 2–3 digits.
However, if you want to offer 4–5-figure services, it’s important to consider whether your ideal clients can afford you.
If they can, then closing sales is just a matter of communicating value — and that, you can learn.
Did you like this new format?
The One-Person Business Success went from 2 big newsletters per week to 4–5 short newsletters per week.
Every week, we’ll focus on one topic and I’ll give you a short section of it so it’s easier for you to learn.
This week, we’ll talk about how you can grow an audience of people who love you from scratch.
If you liked today’s post, please, restack it so more people can see it.
I like better the short newsletter format. It gives you the time you can read without losing energy and at the same time you can learn something useful!
Great article. Thought provoking.