Mike Hunder: Starting an Online Business & Have No Clue How to Build Your Audience? Read This!

Over the past couple of years, one of the high-level shifts I’ve seen in scaling a business in the online market is that audience list-building is becoming more sophisticated. In the 2000s and early 2010s, stories were abounding about content just going ‘viral’. Now, to build your ideal audience list, you have to be strategic about how to get your content to meet the right people.

Here are some strategies to help you get started.

Know your niche

You cannot be all things to all people, so you need to first become a specialist. In my business, we made some specific decisions early in our target marketing. We knew there were coaches out there, but many of them did not know how to provide the kind of learning experiences that would create real leverage for experienced and senior professionals. Being one myself, we decided to specialize in helping experienced professionals break into the online coaching market. This decision eliminated a percentage of the market, but it also gave us a ‘niche’ to capitalize on.

Find your target audience pain points

Next, find your audiences’ pain points. Every niche has a community. So visit the communities and watch their social media space. Find out what they are searching, interacting, mentioning and complaining about. You may join groups, discussions, and forums to observe people’s hopes and concerns. This will give you a good sense of your audiences’ pain points and the solutions that they want.

Provide valuable content

Now that you have an understanding of your audiences’ needs, the next thing is to provide them with valuable content in a way that addresses what they want. Write articles, blog posts, posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Linkedin to teach people, solve their problems or entertain them. Remember, it’s all about knowing what your audience wants and giving it to them. This way, you attract new readers while keeping the existing audience engaged.

Write consistently

Writing consistently boosts your awareness as a brand expert and also shares your unique selling points as an online coach to your readers. Readers who like what you’re saying or what you do will keep coming back to your page and staying to get more of your content. If you don’t blog often and with no particular pattern, you may lose some of your existing audience!

Sharing content

Serving as your unpaid online marketer 24/7, your website is a powerful way to share your content and the work you’re doing with people around the world. You can also share via social media and ask others to help you share, so you can get your content to more people. And if you think someone else’s content will be valuable to your audience, you can share it with your readers too. However, you should always give credit to the author. Doing all this will prompt people to always stick around to hear what you have to say and what you have to share and your audience will grow larger.

Nurture your existing audience, no matter the size

With so many transactions happening online today, it’s easy to ignore your current audiences’ comments. Yet, they are the most likely to offer you real, useful feedback. Suppose they take their concerns about your service to social media, won’t this be bad for your business? So take time to nurture your existing audience. It will help keep them loyal, recommend you to their friends while attracting more people to your community.

Promote to the right audiences

In a rush to grow their audience, new coaches often offer freebies. However, many end up with thousands of entrants with only a few having interests in the online course they are creating! One way to solve this is to promote your content in publications where your ideal clients peg. Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, among others, are incredibly powerful in placing your content where your ideal audience will actually see it and engage with it. Remember: building your audience is not about having a huge list, but having the right list!

For additional reading, you can request, “Choose Your Profitable Course Idea: A Workbook”, from my website.