How to build a loyal audience without being salesy or cheesy.

How to build a loyal audience without being salesy or cheesy.

Building and maintaining a loyal audience is difficult. Everyone is gotta-go busy, distracted, and has thousands of entertainment options on demand. These three factors constantly work against people trying to build an audience, even those with a particular expertise. But it still can be done.

First, start with a single target market. Who are you trying to attract? Dentists? Chiropractors? Country Music fans? Pick your target market wisely because they are not created equally, nor do they respond to offers equally. Some targets are supremely skeptical and will be hard to sell anything to. Think about selling early because you should always be thinking about what else you can sell your target market while you build your following. Always think about what else they might be interested in. What’s missing? What else have people bought that bought this? Do some market research first. Simple Google searches will tell you plenty about your market, what they’re searching for, which keywords they’re using when they search, how they go about it, etc. Google has the data, and it is an excellent source from which to learn about your market.

Once you have your target market selected and have performed some research into it, start developing content ideas for your target. What does a big win for them look like? What do they want? What do they stand for? What do they stand against? What is a supreme dislike for them? What repels them? What motivates them to take action? What transformation do they seek? What content does the competition place in front of them? What do their ads look like? See what the big publishers are saying to the market. A good start for content for them is doing a 10 x 10 question set. Drum up 10 FAQs your market has. Then, create another 10 SAQs, should-ask questions. These are questions they should be asking but are not. This will help your positioning in the market as the expert in the field. Then, find a few industry experts to interview. This is wildly popular today with podcasts. Anyone can be an expert either being interviewed or doing the interviewing on their own podcast. Podcasts make for great content if they’re done consistently. They are excellent audience-building vehicles. But they’re no good if you create two podcast episodes and then don’t do another one for six months. You must have an editorial calendar and stick to it. Consistency is key.

Beyond this, think about training. If you’re the expert in this marketplace, do trainings for your audience. Show them how you do it. Give your best stuff away for free. Solve their problems. Show how you can help to move them to where they desire to be. The giving-your-best- stuff-away strategy is an ironic one because most people are scared to give away their best stuff. They want to keep it secret. They want to sell it. It is hard for them to do. Only when we give away our best stuff, people are blown away by it. It makes them wonder what else you’ve got for them. What else can you train them on? What else can you sell them? They will look forward to your messages. (How many people do you look forward to hearing from in your inbox or on Social? Would you notice if they went away? Would you miss them? How many industry experts are missed?)

Part II tomorrow.

Next — what is an fascinating quality metric that you may be missing in your data collection efforts.