January 21, 2025 • 20 mins
Send us a text! (Your number stays private)
Are you building your audience the smart way—or just throwing spaghetti at the wall, hoping something sticks? In this episode, I’m diving into one of the biggest challenges for online business owners: growing an audience without burning out. Whether you’re starting from scratch, pivoting to a new niche, or adding a new segment to your business, the key is strategy, not chaos!
I’ll walk you through the big mistakes to avoid when building your audience—like trying to be everywhere at once or switching tactics too quickly—and why consistency and patience are essential for success. Then, I’ll share my step-by-step approach, including how to craft a hyper-specific freebie designed to attract the right people, leveraging Facebook groups, running low-cost ads, and more.
Tune in to learn how to build a quality audience that’s ready to buy what you offer. And remember, it’s not about having the most followers—it’s about creating meaningful connections with the right ones. Let’s trade spaghetti for strategy and grow your audience the savvy way!
01:35 - What NOT to do when building your audience
04:43 - Audience research that pays off
07:35 - How to create a freebie designed specifically for your ideal audience
10:50 - Four places where you should be sharing your freebie
12:28 - Building your audience through low-cost Facebook ads (and a bonus power move if you’re an established business owner!)
16:35 - Actionable steps to take this week if you want to build a new audience
Links & Resources:
- Episode 22, Choosing the Best Opt In Freebie for Email List Building
- Follow me on Instagram @kristendoyle.co
- Check out my Everything Page: a one-stop shop for savvy selling!
- The Savvy Seller Collective
- Join my private Facebook community: Savvy Teacher Sellers
- More resources for growing your TPT business
- Rate & review The Savvy Teacher Seller on Apple Podcasts
Show Notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode131
Tired of constantly hustling to sell your digital products? Check out my free 19-minute training where I show you how to turn all those products you already have into a profitable, automated business.
Get more freedom and less stress ➡️ watch now at kristendoyle.co/training
Check out my Everything Page at https://kristendoyle.co/everything
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
One of the hardest things to doin online business is also one
of the most important, and thatis building an audience. And
here's the thing, building anaudience is not just for total
newbies. Maybe you've been inbusiness for a long time, but
you're pivoting to serve a newaudience, or maybe you want to
(00:22):
add a whole new segment to yourexisting business.
Either way, building the rightaudience plays a huge role in
how successful your business is,and that is what today's episode
is all about.
Are you a digital product orcourse creator, selling on
platforms like teachers payteachers, Etsy or your own
(00:43):
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
in the right place.
Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'mKristen Doyle, and I'm here to
give you no fluff, tools andstrategies that move the needle
for your business withoutburning you out in the process.
(01:03):
Things like SEO, no stressmarketing, email list building,
automations, and so much more.
Let's get started y'all.
Hey there! Building a newaudience from scratch, even
while maintaining an existingone is actually something I have
(01:24):
done multiple times in my ownbusiness, and it's something I
get asked about a lot. So todayI'm going to walk you through
exactly what I would do if Iwere starting to build a new
audience right now.
Before we get into the strategythat I would use, let's talk
about what not to do, because Isee the same mistakes over and
over, and it all comes down tothat old saying about throwing
(01:47):
spaghetti at the wall. You knowwhat I'm talking about, throwing
spaghetti at the wall to seewhat sticks?
Well, a lot of people, when theyare trying to build a new
audience, they start justthrowing everything out there,
trying to be everywhere, all atonce. They're posting on
Instagram, they're creatingtiktoks, they're starting a
YouTube channel, they're writingblog posts, and none of it
(02:08):
really sticks when you arespread super thin.
So there are two problems withthis throw it all out there and
just see what happens approach.
First of all, it is random. Itis not planned out, and there's
not a strategy behind it, andthat can feel pretty chaotic for
you, but also for your audiencewho's trying to follow along.
(02:29):
But the other problem is that itcan be overwhelming for you to
try to do so many things at onetime, and that can lead straight
to burnout, especially if youfeel like you aren't getting
results from the work you'reputting in. Something else that
nobody really talks about whenit comes to throwing spaghetti
at the wall, is that unlikeactual spaghetti, the problem is
(02:49):
that most people don't wait longenough with the strategies
they're trying to see ifanything actually sticks.
They try something for a week ortwo. If it's not giving amazing
results, they switch gearswithout really giving it enough
time to take off. It's reallyimportant that you set some
realistic expectations for howlong it's going to take to build
(03:10):
a new audience. Whether this isa brand new first audience for a
new business, or you're adding anew audience to an existing
business, either way, buildingan audience takes time, and
we're talking months, not weeksor days, especially if you're
trying to do this organically,meaning you're not using paid
ads to grow your audience.
(03:31):
So it's really important as youstart to build your audience,
that you are being consistentand that you're giving your
strategies enough time to startworking. Another thing to keep
in mind is that quality of youraudience members is a lot more
important than quantity. Infact, having 100 Perfect Fit
(03:53):
followers for your business isso much better than 1000 random
ones who aren't perfect.
It's really important that whenyou are building your audience,
you are actively trying toattract people who will actually
want to buy your paid products.
Sometimes, in our efforts tojust grow our audience as much
as possible, as fast aspossible, what we end up doing
(04:15):
is building a giant audiencefull of maybe people who only
want our freebies and aren'twilling to purchase anything.
Or even just people who aren'tthe right fit for our freebies
or our paid products, but maybethey liked a Tiktok that we
made, or they thought ourInstagram reel was funny. So you
really want to focus on tryingto attract people who are
(04:38):
actually going to want topurchase the things that you're
trying to sell them.
Okay, now that we know what notto do, let's talk about what
actually works. If I werestarting to build a new audience
tomorrow, here is exactly what Iwould do. The very first thing I
would do before I created asingle piece of content for this
new audience is some seriousaudience research. And I don't
(05:02):
mean just creating some idealcustomer avatars based on what
you think you already know.
I mean really digging in andgetting to know this new group
of people that you want toserve. One great place to do
that is to look in Facebookgroups or other Online
Communities that these peoplemight be hanging out in and
(05:22):
paying attention to what's goingon in there, joining those
groups with the goal of learningabout people, of being helpful,
so that you're building apositive reputation in those
groups as someone who knows yourstuff and is willing to help
other people, but not as a placeto start selling anything just
yet.
First of all, it's prettysketchy to start trying to sell
(05:44):
your products or services insomeone else's Facebook group.
But also, you just don't want tobe that person who comes in and
immediately starts trying tosell without ever serving. So
show up in those Facebookgroups, but use them primarily
for audience research and justto build a reputation at someone
who's helpful.
Use those groups to find outwhere people are hanging out
(06:06):
online when they share contentto the group. Is it coming from
Tiktok? Is it Instagram reels?
Do they share Facebook posts?
Are they sharing blog posts?
Find out where they are hangingout online, and that can also
help you understand what kind ofcontent they prefer. Are they
reading or are they watchingvideos, or are they listening to
podcasts?
(06:26):
You can also use those groups topay attention to the kinds of
questions people are asking sothat you can figure out what
kind of problems they're tryingto solve, and make sure that
your offers are addressing thoseproblems as well. And don't just
limit yourself to free Facebookgroups. I have found some of my
best audience insights andconnections that I've been able
(06:48):
to make have actually come frompaid communities.
Now that might be a mastermindgroup that you have to pay to
join, or coaching program orsome other type of membership
community. In those groups, youmight find customers, since paid
groups tend to be filled withpeople who are serious about
whatever topic, and they'veshown that they're willing to
spend the money to join thisgroup. So you know that they're
(07:10):
not just freebie seekers. Butthe other thing that you might
find in those groups is somereally great people to
potentially collaborate with inthe future.
So if you are looking for gueststo come on your podcast or your
YouTube channel, or you arelooking for someone who might
refer clients or customers overto you, those are some great
(07:33):
places to find those as well.
Once you really understand youraudience, then it is time to
create something free that theyactually want. But here's the
key, and this might be differentfrom how you've thought about
your freebies before.
Your freebie needs to be superspecific. You want to make sure
that it attracts your idealaudience, but only your ideal
(07:58):
audience. See, what you don'twant to do is create a freebie
that is so great but also sobroad and applicable to so many
people that it attracts peoplewho really aren't ideal for
purchasing your products or yourservices.
So let's talk about someexamples of the types of
freebies you might want tocreate. If you are a teacher and
(08:20):
you're thinking about creatingsomething like a lesson plan
template as a freebie. Well, ifyou create a generic lesson plan
template, literally any teacherin any grade level or any
subject could use it. But if youonly want to attract high school
science teachers, then fillingyour audience or your email list
up with any teacher who wantedthat lesson plan template really
(08:44):
isn't going to help you.
In fact, it's going to be adisservice to your list, and it
might end up costing you moneyin the long term, because those
email lists typically charge perperson who's on your list. So
you really don't want to fill upyour list with people who aren't
interested in your offers, evenif you're on one of the handful
of platforms that charges a flatrate and not per audience
(09:05):
member.
You really don't want people whoaren't interested in your offers
on your list, because that willdrive down your open rates and
your click through rates, it caneventually hurt your
deliverability for your emails.
So you want to make sure you'refilling your list with the right
people.
So if you are that high schoolscience teacher, and that is the
group of people you want toattract to your email list and
(09:27):
to your audience, then create afreebie that is a lesson plan
template specific to high schoolscience lessons. There would be
things you include in those thatsay an elementary teacher
wouldn't want to include, orthings you might include as a
science teacher that a mathteacher or a reading teacher
wouldn't include.
So make your freebie morespecific. Another example, let's
(09:49):
say you are a service provideror a course creator who wants to
help online business owners withtheir finances. Well, instead of
creating an freebie for youremail opt-in that is a generic
maybe a to do list or a planningtemplate, a day planner for
business owners, create achecklist specific to business
(10:10):
finances, or create a businessbudget worksheet. Something that
is specific to the services,courses, products that you offer
to your target audience.
That will help you to build anaudience full of people who want
only what you're going to offer.
I have another episode that Idid a couple of years ago
(10:30):
specifically about freebiecreation and how to create the
right freebie to attract yourideal audience. So if this is
something you would like alittle more help with, check out
Episode 22 of the podcast. Youcan find it at the link in the
show notes, or you can go toKristendoyle.co/episode22.
Now, once you've created yourfreebie, you are going to need
(10:52):
to get your freebie out there. Iam a web designer, so of course,
the first thing I'm going totell you is put it on your
website, use your email platformto create a really nice pop up.
My recommendation for that isthat you do an exit intent pop
up. These are going to pop uponly once someone is finished
reading your page and they go tohit the back button or close
(11:14):
their browser window.
Make sure your opt in. Is therevisible and prominent on your
website. I would put it on yourhomepage as well as putting a
pop up across every page of yoursite. But beyond that, you want
to be sharing it in places offof your website as well, because
if you haven't built an audienceyet, chances are you're not
getting a ton of websitetraffic, at least not from this
(11:35):
particular audience.
So there are three places Iwould encourage you to share
your freebie. The first one isto put those opt ins on
Pinterest. Create lots ofdifferent images, different
descriptions, and put yourlanding page for your freebie on
Pinterest, on relevant Pinterestboards, share them out on a
(11:57):
somewhat regular basis, and tryto get them to build some
traction there.
If you have social media of anykind on any platform, definitely
share your freebie there on aregular basis. Don't just share
it once and walk away. Make it agoal to share that freebie at
least once a month on yoursocial media, if not more. You
can make videos about thefreebie. You can create static
(12:19):
image posts about the freebie,lots of different things that
you can do, depending on whetheryou are posting on Facebook,
Instagram, Tiktok, or anywhereelse.
And then the last strategy isone that costs you a little
money, but it doesn't have to bevery expensive. I really do
recommend running some low costads on Facebook and Instagram to
(12:40):
build up some interest and startgetting people onto your email
list.
These can get started as low as$5 or $10 a day, and can bring
in the right people, especiallyif you are targeting your
audience for those ads, to theexact group of people that you
want to get into your personalaudience and onto your email
(13:02):
list.
All right, so you've done yourresearch. You've created your
freebie. Now let's talk aboutwhat comes next. As you are
working on building thisaudience, you are going to
continue creating the same typesof content that you've been
creating all along for yourbusiness, whether those are blog
posts, podcast episodes, YouTubevideos, Facebook Lives, whatever
(13:22):
it might be.
But when it comes to thatcontent, it is important as you
are working on this newaudience, that you make the
content you're creating relevantto and maybe even focused on
that new audience during thisaudience building phase. There's
a couple of reasons that youwant to do this. First of all,
you'll be sharing that newcontent on your social media and
(13:45):
to your email list. So as thosenew people are coming in, you
want to make sure that whatthey're seeing on your pages is
relevant and related to thereason they got on your list in
the first place.
So for example, if you've alwayshad a teacher audience, and now
you're trying to reach parentsof students the same age. If the
(14:05):
only thing people see when theycome to your website is teacher
focused content, or when theylook at your social media is
teacher focused content, thenthey might get a little
confused, or think that maybeyou're not really creating
content for them.
So you want to make sure thatyour social media followers that
you might get from this audiencebuilding phase, your email list
subscribers and your websitevisitors are seeing relevant
(14:28):
content to them. Keep up thesame rhythm of creating content
that you've had all along,whether that's weekly, bi
weekly, or something else,continue keeping up that same
rhythm of putting out consistentcontent, but shift your focus on
that content to that newaudience that you're trying to
reach.
Even if it's just temporary, andat some point down the road,
(14:50):
maybe you start alternating thatcontent so that your old
audience is still seeingrelevant content from you as
well. And definitely take alittle while to focus on putting
out content for the newaudience.
Now, if you are a moreestablished business, I do want
to share what I'm going to calla power move for you. If you are
in a place where you can createand run more ads, you might want
(15:13):
to consider creating someeducational video ads to reach
that new audience.
Some of the things that youmight be talking about in those
blog posts or podcast episodes,you could create a little bit
longer ad, maybe it's fiveminutes, and really teach
something super helpful in thatvideo. If you can get a person
to watch more than 25% or so ofa five minute video about your
(15:37):
topic, they are telling yousomething really important.
What they are telling you isthey like you enough to stick
around and listen to you keeptalking, and they are interested
enough in this topic to spendtheir time on it. If somebody
will spend more than a minutelistening to you ramble on about
your topic, then they're a greatfit for your audience.
(16:00):
Once you've had those video adsrunning for a while, you can
then take the video view datafrom those ads and you can use
it to create warm audiences,meaning audiences of people
who've already shown an interestin you and what you offer, and
you can run additional ads tothose warm audiences.
Now I'm not going to go into allthe details right now, because
(16:22):
this episode would get reallylong and technical if I did, but
if you need some tips ordirection on how to do that sort
of thing, let me know, and I'llbe glad to point you in the
right direction to someresources that can help.
All right, now that we've talkedabout it in big picture, let's
break this down into someactionable steps. If you are
working on building a newaudience, here is what I would
(16:45):
encourage you to do this week.
Today, pick one platform whereyour ideal audience hangs out,
that you are going to put yourfocus on, and then at some point
this week, start doing someaudience research, gathering
that Intel, getting to knowthem, and figuring out how you
can best reach that audience andserve them.
(17:08):
And then your next step to workon, maybe starting next week,
would be to plan out and createthat perfect freebie. Here's how
you'll know that you are ontrack. You'll want to watch your
numbers, watch your data. Lookfor your follower numbers to be
growing, even if it's not hugegrowth, slow and steady growth
(17:31):
is just as good.
Watch for your follower numberson social media to grow. Check
Google analytics to see if yourpage traffic to your website is
growing. Another thing you canlook at in your Google Analytics
would be the traffic to that newcontent that's for the new
audience to make sure that youare attracting people who want
(17:53):
to see this newest contentyou're putting out.
That gives you a sign thatyou're attracting the right
people to this audience ifthey're engaging with the new
content. Keep in mind, buildingthis audience is not something
that's going to happenovernight. It's going to take,
like I said earlier, months, notdays or weeks. And it's not
always about getting the mostfollowers or subscribers either.
(18:15):
It really is about connectingwith the right people who
actually want to buy the thingsthat you are selling. So start
with these steps that I outlinedtoday and focus in on building a
quality audience over quantity,even if that means that the
audience building process isgoing a little slower for you.
Thanks for listening to today'sepisode. If this has been
(18:37):
helpful for you and you knowsomeone else who's working to
build their audience, thenscreenshot today's episode and
share it with them. Talk to yousoon.
One of the hardest things to doin online business is also one
of the most important, and thatis building an audience. And
here's the thing, building anaudience is not just for total
newbies. Maybe you've been inbusiness for a long time, but
you're pivoting to serve a newaudience, or maybe you want to
(00:22):
add a whole new segment to yourexisting business.
Either way, building the rightaudience plays a huge role in
how successful your business is,and that is what today's episode
is all about.
Are you a digital product orcourse creator, selling on
platforms like teachers payteachers, Etsy or your own
(00:43):
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
in the right place.
Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'mKristen Doyle, and I'm here to
give you no fluff, tools andstrategies that move the needle
for your business withoutburning you out in the process.
(01:03):
Things like SEO, no stressmarketing, email list building,
automations, and so much more.
Let's get started y'all.
Hey there! Building a newaudience from scratch, even
while maintaining an existingone is actually something I have
(01:24):
done multiple times in my ownbusiness, and it's something I
get asked about a lot. So todayI'm going to walk you through
exactly what I would do if Iwere starting to build a new
audience right now.
Before we get into the strategythat I would use, let's talk
about what not to do, because Isee the same mistakes over and
over, and it all comes down tothat old saying about throwing
(01:47):
spaghetti at the wall. You knowwhat I'm talking about, throwing
spaghetti at the wall to seewhat sticks?
Well, a lot of people, when theyare trying to build a new
audience, they start justthrowing everything out there,
trying to be everywhere, all atonce. They're posting on
Instagram, they're creatingtiktoks, they're starting a
YouTube channel, they're writingblog posts, and none of it
(02:08):
really sticks when you arespread super thin.
So there are two problems withthis throw it all out there and
just see what happens approach.
First of all, it is random. Itis not planned out, and there's
not a strategy behind it, andthat can feel pretty chaotic for
you, but also for your audiencewho's trying to follow along.
(02:29):
But the other problem is that itcan be overwhelming for you to
try to do so many things at onetime, and that can lead straight
to burnout, especially if youfeel like you aren't getting
results from the work you'reputting in. Something else that
nobody really talks about whenit comes to throwing spaghetti
at the wall, is that unlikeactual spaghetti, the problem is
(02:49):
that most people don't wait longenough with the strategies
they're trying to see ifanything actually sticks.
They try something for a week ortwo. If it's not giving amazing
results, they switch gearswithout really giving it enough
time to take off. It's reallyimportant that you set some
realistic expectations for howlong it's going to take to build
(03:10):
a new audience. Whether this isa brand new first audience for a
new business, or you're adding anew audience to an existing
business, either way, buildingan audience takes time, and
we're talking months, not weeksor days, especially if you're
trying to do this organically,meaning you're not using paid
ads to grow your audience.
(03:31):
So it's really important as youstart to build your audience,
that you are being consistentand that you're giving your
strategies enough time to startworking. Another thing to keep
in mind is that quality of youraudience members is a lot more
important than quantity. Infact, having 100 Perfect Fit
(03:53):
followers for your business isso much better than 1000 random
ones who aren't perfect.
It's really important that whenyou are building your audience,
you are actively trying toattract people who will actually
want to buy your paid products.
Sometimes, in our efforts tojust grow our audience as much
as possible, as fast aspossible, what we end up doing
(04:15):
is building a giant audiencefull of maybe people who only
want our freebies and aren'twilling to purchase anything.
Or even just people who aren'tthe right fit for our freebies
or our paid products, but maybethey liked a Tiktok that we
made, or they thought ourInstagram reel was funny. So you
really want to focus on tryingto attract people who are
(04:38):
actually going to want topurchase the things that you're
trying to sell them.
Okay, now that we know what notto do, let's talk about what
actually works. If I werestarting to build a new audience
tomorrow, here is exactly what Iwould do. The very first thing I
would do before I created asingle piece of content for this
new audience is some seriousaudience research. And I don't
(05:02):
mean just creating some idealcustomer avatars based on what
you think you already know.
I mean really digging in andgetting to know this new group
of people that you want toserve. One great place to do
that is to look in Facebookgroups or other Online
Communities that these peoplemight be hanging out in and
(05:22):
paying attention to what's goingon in there, joining those
groups with the goal of learningabout people, of being helpful,
so that you're building apositive reputation in those
groups as someone who knows yourstuff and is willing to help
other people, but not as a placeto start selling anything just
yet.
First of all, it's prettysketchy to start trying to sell
(05:44):
your products or services insomeone else's Facebook group.
But also, you just don't want tobe that person who comes in and
immediately starts trying tosell without ever serving. So
show up in those Facebookgroups, but use them primarily
for audience research and justto build a reputation at someone
who's helpful.
Use those groups to find outwhere people are hanging out
(06:06):
online when they share contentto the group. Is it coming from
Tiktok? Is it Instagram reels?
Do they share Facebook posts?
Are they sharing blog posts?
Find out where they are hangingout online, and that can also
help you understand what kind ofcontent they prefer. Are they
reading or are they watchingvideos, or are they listening to
podcasts?
(06:26):
You can also use those groups topay attention to the kinds of
questions people are asking sothat you can figure out what
kind of problems they're tryingto solve, and make sure that
your offers are addressing thoseproblems as well. And don't just
limit yourself to free Facebookgroups. I have found some of my
best audience insights andconnections that I've been able
(06:48):
to make have actually come frompaid communities.
Now that might be a mastermindgroup that you have to pay to
join, or coaching program orsome other type of membership
community. In those groups, youmight find customers, since paid
groups tend to be filled withpeople who are serious about
whatever topic, and they'veshown that they're willing to
spend the money to join thisgroup. So you know that they're
(07:10):
not just freebie seekers. Butthe other thing that you might
find in those groups is somereally great people to
potentially collaborate with inthe future.
So if you are looking for gueststo come on your podcast or your
YouTube channel, or you arelooking for someone who might
refer clients or customers overto you, those are some great
(07:33):
places to find those as well.
Once you really understand youraudience, then it is time to
create something free that theyactually want. But here's the
key, and this might be differentfrom how you've thought about
your freebies before.
Your freebie needs to be superspecific. You want to make sure
that it attracts your idealaudience, but only your ideal
(07:58):
audience. See, what you don'twant to do is create a freebie
that is so great but also sobroad and applicable to so many
people that it attracts peoplewho really aren't ideal for
purchasing your products or yourservices.
So let's talk about someexamples of the types of
freebies you might want tocreate. If you are a teacher and
(08:20):
you're thinking about creatingsomething like a lesson plan
template as a freebie. Well, ifyou create a generic lesson plan
template, literally any teacherin any grade level or any
subject could use it. But if youonly want to attract high school
science teachers, then fillingyour audience or your email list
up with any teacher who wantedthat lesson plan template really
(08:44):
isn't going to help you.
In fact, it's going to be adisservice to your list, and it
might end up costing you moneyin the long term, because those
email lists typically charge perperson who's on your list. So
you really don't want to fill upyour list with people who aren't
interested in your offers, evenif you're on one of the handful
of platforms that charges a flatrate and not per audience
(09:05):
member.
You really don't want people whoaren't interested in your offers
on your list, because that willdrive down your open rates and
your click through rates, it caneventually hurt your
deliverability for your emails.
So you want to make sure you'refilling your list with the right
people.
So if you are that high schoolscience teacher, and that is the
group of people you want toattract to your email list and
(09:27):
to your audience, then create afreebie that is a lesson plan
template specific to high schoolscience lessons. There would be
things you include in those thatsay an elementary teacher
wouldn't want to include, orthings you might include as a
science teacher that a mathteacher or a reading teacher
wouldn't include.
So make your freebie morespecific. Another example, let's
(09:49):
say you are a service provideror a course creator who wants to
help online business owners withtheir finances. Well, instead of
creating an freebie for youremail opt-in that is a generic
maybe a to do list or a planningtemplate, a day planner for
business owners, create achecklist specific to business
(10:10):
finances, or create a businessbudget worksheet. Something that
is specific to the services,courses, products that you offer
to your target audience.
That will help you to build anaudience full of people who want
only what you're going to offer.
I have another episode that Idid a couple of years ago
(10:30):
specifically about freebiecreation and how to create the
right freebie to attract yourideal audience. So if this is
something you would like alittle more help with, check out
Episode 22 of the podcast. Youcan find it at the link in the
show notes, or you can go toKristendoyle.co/episode22.
Now, once you've created yourfreebie, you are going to need
(10:52):
to get your freebie out there. Iam a web designer, so of course,
the first thing I'm going totell you is put it on your
website, use your email platformto create a really nice pop up.
My recommendation for that isthat you do an exit intent pop
up. These are going to pop uponly once someone is finished
reading your page and they go tohit the back button or close
(11:14):
their browser window.
Make sure your opt in. Is therevisible and prominent on your
website. I would put it on yourhomepage as well as putting a
pop up across every page of yoursite. But beyond that, you want
to be sharing it in places offof your website as well, because
if you haven't built an audienceyet, chances are you're not
getting a ton of websitetraffic, at least not from this
(11:35):
particular audience.
So there are three places Iwould encourage you to share
your freebie. The first one isto put those opt ins on
Pinterest. Create lots ofdifferent images, different
descriptions, and put yourlanding page for your freebie on
Pinterest, on relevant Pinterestboards, share them out on a
(11:57):
somewhat regular basis, and tryto get them to build some
traction there.
If you have social media of anykind on any platform, definitely
share your freebie there on aregular basis. Don't just share
it once and walk away. Make it agoal to share that freebie at
least once a month on yoursocial media, if not more. You
can make videos about thefreebie. You can create static
(12:19):
image posts about the freebie,lots of different things that
you can do, depending on whetheryou are posting on Facebook,
Instagram, Tiktok, or anywhereelse.
And then the last strategy isone that costs you a little
money, but it doesn't have to bevery expensive. I really do
recommend running some low costads on Facebook and Instagram to
(12:40):
build up some interest and startgetting people onto your email
list.
These can get started as low as$5 or $10 a day, and can bring
in the right people, especiallyif you are targeting your
audience for those ads, to theexact group of people that you
want to get into your personalaudience and onto your email
(13:02):
list.
All right, so you've done yourresearch. You've created your
freebie. Now let's talk aboutwhat comes next. As you are
working on building thisaudience, you are going to
continue creating the same typesof content that you've been
creating all along for yourbusiness, whether those are blog
posts, podcast episodes, YouTubevideos, Facebook Lives, whatever
(13:22):
it might be.
But when it comes to thatcontent, it is important as you
are working on this newaudience, that you make the
content you're creating relevantto and maybe even focused on
that new audience during thisaudience building phase. There's
a couple of reasons that youwant to do this. First of all,
you'll be sharing that newcontent on your social media and
(13:45):
to your email list. So as thosenew people are coming in, you
want to make sure that whatthey're seeing on your pages is
relevant and related to thereason they got on your list in
the first place.
So for example, if you've alwayshad a teacher audience, and now
you're trying to reach parentsof students the same age. If the
(14:05):
only thing people see when theycome to your website is teacher
focused content, or when theylook at your social media is
teacher focused content, thenthey might get a little
confused, or think that maybeyou're not really creating
content for them.
So you want to make sure thatyour social media followers that
you might get from this audiencebuilding phase, your email list
subscribers and your websitevisitors are seeing relevant
(14:28):
content to them. Keep up thesame rhythm of creating content
that you've had all along,whether that's weekly, bi
weekly, or something else,continue keeping up that same
rhythm of putting out consistentcontent, but shift your focus on
that content to that newaudience that you're trying to
reach.
Even if it's just temporary, andat some point down the road,
(14:50):
maybe you start alternating thatcontent so that your old
audience is still seeingrelevant content from you as
well. And definitely take alittle while to focus on putting
out content for the newaudience.
Now, if you are a moreestablished business, I do want
to share what I'm going to calla power move for you. If you are
in a place where you can createand run more ads, you might want
(15:13):
to consider creating someeducational video ads to reach
that new audience.
Some of the things that youmight be talking about in those
blog posts or podcast episodes,you could create a little bit
longer ad, maybe it's fiveminutes, and really teach
something super helpful in thatvideo. If you can get a person
to watch more than 25% or so ofa five minute video about your
(15:37):
topic, they are telling yousomething really important.
What they are telling you isthey like you enough to stick
around and listen to you keeptalking, and they are interested
enough in this topic to spendtheir time on it. If somebody
will spend more than a minutelistening to you ramble on about
your topic, then they're a greatfit for your audience.
(16:00):
Once you've had those video adsrunning for a while, you can
then take the video view datafrom those ads and you can use
it to create warm audiences,meaning audiences of people
who've already shown an interestin you and what you offer, and
you can run additional ads tothose warm audiences.
Now I'm not going to go into allthe details right now, because
(16:22):
this episode would get reallylong and technical if I did, but
if you need some tips ordirection on how to do that sort
of thing, let me know, and I'llbe glad to point you in the
right direction to someresources that can help.
All right, now that we've talkedabout it in big picture, let's
break this down into someactionable steps. If you are
working on building a newaudience, here is what I would
(16:45):
encourage you to do this week.
Today, pick one platform whereyour ideal audience hangs out,
that you are going to put yourfocus on, and then at some point
this week, start doing someaudience research, gathering
that Intel, getting to knowthem, and figuring out how you
can best reach that audience andserve them.
(17:08):
And then your next step to workon, maybe starting next week,
would be to plan out and createthat perfect freebie. Here's how
you'll know that you are ontrack. You'll want to watch your
numbers, watch your data. Lookfor your follower numbers to be
growing, even if it's not hugegrowth, slow and steady growth
(17:31):
is just as good.
Watch for your follower numberson social media to grow. Check
Google analytics to see if yourpage traffic to your website is
growing. Another thing you canlook at in your Google Analytics
would be the traffic to that newcontent that's for the new
audience to make sure that youare attracting people who want
(17:53):
to see this newest contentyou're putting out.
That gives you a sign thatyou're attracting the right
people to this audience ifthey're engaging with the new
content. Keep in mind, buildingthis audience is not something
that's going to happenovernight. It's going to take,
like I said earlier, months, notdays or weeks. And it's not
always about getting the mostfollowers or subscribers either.
(18:15):
It really is about connectingwith the right people who
actually want to buy the thingsthat you are selling. So start
with these steps that I outlinedtoday and focus in on building a
quality audience over quantity,even if that means that the
audience building process isgoing a little slower for you.
Thanks for listening to today'sepisode. If this has been
(18:37):
helpful for you and you knowsomeone else who's working to
build their audience, thenscreenshot today's episode and
share it with them. Talk to yousoon.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.