[Article Discussion] - The "Audience First" Strategy

[Sharona87]

This is an awesome thread! I'd love to hear about your progress @Timmy C. I'm using the same audience first approach but via educational summits. I'm running my first one next week and just crossed 100 registrations. I thought I was crazy when I set that goal but here I am. So proud. Would be great to hear how you're going!

 

[Andy Black]

Here's the link to @Phikey 's post where he mentions this article, and where he discusses how his relentless helping people by creating content is opening doors for him:

• GOLD! - Ecom Youtube Challenge - Building a channel with 120 videos in 120 days

 

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[DeletedUser-1]

Coincidentally I had a bf yesterday to write the journey of our 5 dogs over the 10 years we've had them. There's a possibility for a 5 cat story going back 30 years that intertwines with the dogs.

I just thought it would be gold for gaining an audience, building trust, credibility & ultimately launching a brand.
Those products are part of the story.

Be great to have the gang narrate rather than us; think various rhetorical devices in a pseudo novella style. LOL

Déjà vu?

Continue to grow your audience with engaging & useful free content

I'd think about funnelling them to a website though because you've got no control over YouTube
By all means use YT to garner a wider audience but with the aim to draw them to your website
Once you've got multiple videos it's going to be a nightmare replying to comments all over the place on YT, on your website it's much easier

You can get contact details by offering exclusive newsletters, videos, courses etc, then you could offer paid versions of the same, it's an old strategy

Eventually you can have a paid area of your website like 'INSIDERS' here

Essentially if you're a relative unknown you have to offer something of value for free before you ask for subscriptions

As for the affiliate links, what's in it for you?
It might be better to negotiate a deal directly with whoever you send them to once you have a sizable audience
You can also get ad revenue on your site, click-through revenue...

Build your audience, gain their trust, offer them unique value and the revenue opportunities will follow

PS what's a bf?

 

[Odysseus M Jones]

Déjà vu?

PS what's a bf?

Maybe, I even considered blogging about potatoes for my own nefarious reasons.
But with the dogs I've got a decade of real life adventures with photos & videos.

Should I change the dogs'names to protect their identity? I don't want to get mobbed by fans when I walk them.

PS my screen name Odysseus was originally for my dog when I opened a Facebook profile for him.
He's very cunning & crafty, takes his time getting home too.

PPS Blue Falcon

 

[Timmy C]

Some days your brain is fried or you have other things you are thinking about.

Coming up with new content can be hard.

You have to try keep it interesting and not always talk about the same thing aswell.

Curate content to.

As i'm writing this i could curate it later if it fits.

Problem solved.

 

[cmatth]

For me this approach was cemented in my head by Amy Hoy (Nathan Barry also learnt from her).
BTW his journey was not straight forward at all as it seems here.

Overall I feel like this approach is very viable.
It's strength is in the flexibility and lack of ego.
I don't start with my idea I start with the group of people that I want to serve and then figure out how I can help them.
Starting with the smallest education bit (e.g. an email to someone a blog post etc).
And gradually building up the products and offers while growing the audience.

Just a personal bias maybe but I feel like I personally have very little patience for content lately.
Mostly it's a time waste and mostly very repetitive.

Especially for someone that likes to write I think it's a really great strategy.

Another fan of Amy Hoy here - I'm just finishing up 30 x 500 and learned a ton. One thing I like about the idea of moving content on to other platforms (Youtube, Facebook, etc.) is that it can scale much further than just your own email list.

 

[Bearcorp]

People want the instant win, they want 100k followers straight away, without earning it. It just doesn't work that way, no matter how many You Tube videos people watch that say you can cheat the process.

 

[Timmy C]

People want the instant win, they want 100k followers straight away, without earning it. It just doesn't work that way, no matter how many You Tube videos people watch that say you can cheat the process.

There is a few that are truly hustling.

There is quite alot more who are trying to scam people and do the same thing everyone else does.

Quite a few piggybacking of large accounts making it look like it's them. Selling them stuff and running with the cash.

When that happens to me, i know I've made it haha.

 

[Mutant]

Super interesting video about building audiences. I love at 6:54 ish where she talks about NOT building a personal brand.

View: https://youtu.be/-E3IUuJ09XY

Hah, speaking of social media, I just wanted to send this post to someone, but that functionality is not here, so I'll tag 'em publicly instead... @Primeperiwinkle - her energy reminded me a lot of you. Might be a route that would work for you?

 

[Primeperiwinkle]

Hah, speaking of social media, I just wanted to send this post to someone, but that functionality is not here, so I'll tag 'em publicly instead... @Primeperiwinkle - her energy reminded me a lot of you. Might be a route that would work for you?

Oh she seems so lovely! But I umm .. oh gosh.. I’m so ridiculously flighty that even when I had a blog and thousands of followers I couldn’t ever quite figure out what to write about or if anything I said even mattered.

Fast forward many years and the strategy I was using could have built me a huge audience because, apparently, it’s exactly the same strategy that Gary Vee says builds brands. Kind of a “admit you know nothing but keep trying in full honesty and openness” type of thing?

But I’m very easily hurt.. and one or two ppl misinterpreting what I’m saying breaks my heart, a bit, ya know? Even on this forum I have reached out here and there and been rebuffed enough to realize it’s probably better to stay quiet and focus on my own stuff. I know I seem extroverted but.. it’s just because my heart is so thankful for everyone here and I want everyone to be friends and.. well.. I want to be friends with everyone here too!

I don’t feel brave enough to share my whole life and all its ridiculous details with strangers on a blog that my kids could read someday... cuz a BIG part of my life has been unraveling abuse or narcissism or weird intimacy issues. They deserve to have a mom all to themselves with no online tragic stories connected to them, in any way, whatsoever.

When I do share here and there on forums it’s because I feel accepted or I feel a deep desire to help someone else or I’ve had enough caffeine to fortify my fears. Lol. A lot of caffeine. Lol.

Anyhoo. I can’t convince my darling of any of this. He says I should do precisely what you’re saying. Build up a following by discussing stuff.. and then sell courses but it sounds preposterous to me because I know so little. As far as I’m concerned... I’d really rather be an integral “quiet” part of a solid business at work and be “loud/gregarious/enthusiastic” at play when I’m with my friends, like you!

I’m a muddle. Lol. I love you to pieces for thinking of me though!

 

[Primeperiwinkle]

Absolutely no caffeine involved there...

View: https://youtu.be/AUZYUDJl2yk

She’s helpin ppl and makin money though. #rockstar

 

[Odysseus M Jones]

This is caffeine

View: https://youtu.be/WkFzYct_bFE

 

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[knz]

Hey @Andy Black great thread!

Been wondering:
What if you work on providing free educational content, but this same kinda content is also in your paid educational content?

I have a Facebookgroup with 550+ members since june (organic). We did it by sharing posts on social media that lead to a live webinar. From the webinar, we advise going in the group or buy one of our paid educational courses.

I've been thinking about making free content on youtube or in a blog on our website. Though, it always seems that I'll then write/make content around things that are also in the courses people pay for. This doesn't really sound logical to me as the free content overlaps the paid content.

What's your opinion?

Thanks in advance!

 

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[Andy Black]

Hey @Andy Black great thread!

Been wondering:
What if you work on providing free educational content, but this same kinda content is also in your paid educational content?

I have a Facebookgroup with 550+ members since june (organic). We did it by sharing posts on social media that lead to a live webinar. From the webinar, we advise going in the group or buy one of our paid educational courses.

I've been thinking about making free content on youtube or in a blog on our website. Though, it always seems that I'll then write/make content around things that are also in the courses people pay for. This doesn't really sound logical to me as the free content overlaps the paid content.

What's your opinion?

Thanks in advance!

People often pay to have a guide through all the free content. So if you have free content but it’s unorganised or there’s a lot of it then the people who value their time will pay to get the shortened and organised version.

It happened for me in this forum. I’ve quite a lot of Google Ads threads and people kept asking if I had a course. I didn’t create a course until someone messaged me saying it took them 4 days of 6 hours a day to get through all those threads. I felt I then needed to create a 1 hour course that those who preferred to move faster could pay for.

Some people pay to save time.

Also, give away WHAT to do and WHY, and charge for HOW to do it?

 

[knz]

People often pay to have a guide through all the free content. So if you have free content but it’s unorganised or there’s a lot of it then the people who value their time will pay to get the shortened and organised version.

It happened for me in this forum. I’ve quite a lot of Google Ads threads and people kept asking if I had a course. I didn’t create a course until someone messaged me saying it took them 4 days of 6 hours a day to get through all those threads. I felt I then needed to create a 1 hour course that those who preferred to move faster could pay for.

Some people pay to save time.

That's a good point indeed! Haven't thought about that one thanks.
I have multiple smaller courses on our page which are still 4 to 8 hours. Using bits and pieces of these courses and put these online in a random order can be a win-win for people and the business.
Eventually the whole paid course could be available in all the free content but it's scattered around. Probably also feels 'less official' (youtube vid vs a course and learning platform).

Some people will go and search everything and watch all the free content and basically look for the whole course online on lets say youtube. While others will go and check out the paid content including worksheets etc as well

 

[Andy Black]

That's a good point indeed! Haven't thought about that one thanks.
I have multiple smaller courses on our page which are still 4 to 8 hours. Using bits and pieces of these courses and put these online in a random order can be a win-win for people and the business.
Eventually the whole paid course could be available in all the free content but it's scattered around. Probably also feels 'less official' (youtube vid vs a course and learning platform).

Some people will go and search everything and watch all the free content and basically look for the whole course online on lets say youtube. While others will go and check out the paid content including worksheets etc as well

My thinking is that some people will never pay. If they get value from the free content and are prepared to spend their time piecing things together then cool.

I like to think “Sales is a screening process.” (Blaise Brosnan)

Our market are those who put a value their time and are prepared to pay to get results quicker.

 

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[Andy Black]

Exactly, those will never be clients. However, the positive thing of having free content is that even these people can be walking ambassadors if they talk about your free content to others. That person they talk to might become a future client. Therefore, these 'free-content-people' might still be very valuable.

Thanks for thinking with me. Will definitely take some action soon!

I agree. I think it would be a good to have thousands of people consume your free content on YouTube even if they never purchase. If that helps get those videos shown to even more people (because YouTube makes money showing ads in those videos) then that's a win-win.

 

[Kid]

service verified first and then building an audience around the product?

Your comment helped me understand what is that advantage that "build audience first" has:

Its trust.

Look, when you have product or service and you start talking about it off the bat then posts seem like another self advertising thing.
Probably, what you are providing matters even less then.

But when people see there's no "offer" behind your posts they see advice as genuine and spread it around.

 

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[Andy Black]

Great share Andy, the article is exactly how I grew my company, although I used social media as the starting point to grow my audience it’s the same concept.

Ooo. Please share more details!

 

[Timmy C]

That’s the opportunity. So much content is written for SEO or because, well, “content marketing”. People forget the goal is to help people with that content (or entertain or whatever). I think too many people are following blueprints and formulae and forget what the goal is.

I think as long as you focus on providing value

Even if that is content marketing or "growing"

As long as it's value and people are engaging with you.

Can't go wrong.

 

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[Lyinx]

PS what's a bf?

BF usually means BoyFriend
I'm guessing bf = best friend? (from the language used, points that way)
"Using" a BF or bf to write material seems so wrong unless he offered

 

[Andy Black]

This is a great interview btw:

View: https://youtu.be/Oze4Gf6vOnQ

 

[Andy Black]

Thought provoking article:

• The Billion Dollar Blog

 

[Andy Black]

It’s interesting because I subscribe to this viewpoint too. Run paid ads, get people to the top of the funnel, learn fast without creating so much content.

View: https://youtu.be/NLWZMyrJc6g