You know that building an audience is important. Whether it’s on LinkedIn, YouTube, your newsletter – you want to grow the base of people who know, like, and trust you, and will eventually buy from you.
But, knowing that an audience is important is entirely different from having the skills to build an audience that lasts. So how do you do it? How do you build an audience of engaged, vocal followers who will not only buy your product but spread the word on your behalf as well?
For this week’s podcast episode I sat down with Pat Flynn to discuss just that. Pat is the co-founder of SPI Media, a podcast, and owns several successful online businesses – when it comes to audience building, he’s the real deal.
You can read the key takeaways from our discussion below and listen to the full episode here.
Being an expert isn’t enough to find success
Just scroll Instagram or Linkedin for a few minutes, and you will find people with way less skill and knowledge than you who have an audience hanging on their every word.
Here’s a tough truth: You can be the most skilled expert in the world, but if you don’t know how to communicate that skill in a way that resonates with your audience, you’re going to be outdone every time.
How do you build a presence that creates lifelong fans? Good question, we’ll cover that next.
Be the audience before seeking an audience
Pat advocates for becoming part of your target audience before you start to build a presence there. This gives two big advantages:
1. You speak the language – by the time you’re ready to sell, you’re using the same vocabulary, know the inside jokes, and know who key players are. If you come in with no background knowledge, you aren’t offering expertise or a unique perspective. You’ll just be white noise to that audience.
2. You can empathize with your audience. When you’ve been a part of a group, you know the problems they deal with, what motivates them, what slows them down. And that enables you to solve problems for an audience more effectively.
Master one platform before expanding to others
While you’re joining the audience, notice what platform they gather on. Then start with mastering just that platform.
Pat said that if your effort is distributed across five platforms with five different sets of best practices, you’re going to fail. Instead, pick one platform and take courses on how to best utilize it.
Invest in your community there. Learn about the individuals that follow you, care about their lives, decide how you’re going to show up on that one specific platform.
Calculating Return on investment
This part is tricky, because most business owners would like to know for certain that if they put in a certain number of hours, they’ll get a certain number of dollars out.
Pat says ROI is the wrong way to look at it – when you discover who the people are, and what they need, you have an infinite number of ways you can solve their problems.
He also points out that knowing your audience increases the impact of other areas in your business – copywriting, lead magnets, sales. All of those are infinitely more effective when you know your audience.
Another note on ROI: If you measure it after your first project launch, it’ll feel lousy. The value of investing in your audience compounds over years.
Next Steps
Want to learn more from Pat? First, listen to the full interview Pat Flynn Teaches You How to Build a Revenue Generating Audience.
Then, check out SPI Media’s All-Access Pass. In addition to gaining access to interactive DIY courses, you’ll also join a community of entrepreneurial peers of all levels who are committed to learning and improving their skill set.
And, here are a few ways I can support you.
Either way, I wish you the best of luck and feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or Instagram.
To hear the full conversation and get access to additional resources tune in to this week’s episode of the Launch Your Business podcast.
