Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey everybody, this is the Marketing with a Twang podcast. I'm your host, ben Blackman, and on this episode we're going to talk about how to build an audience. Here comes episode number three. All right, all right, all right, it's time for Marketing with a Twang. You're down home no BS online marketing show, so pull up a chair and ease on in with your host, ben Black. Hey, welcome everybody to episode number three. I'm excited to have you here.

Speaker 1: 0:31

I really enjoy talking about this. I mean, I enjoy all marketing stuff really, but this is kind of fun for me, and so I'm going to do my best not to ramble on and on, because I get excited about it, and I hope that a lot of this stuff is not too rudimentary for many of you, because I know most of y'all have done some of this work. Okay, but I just want to make sure that we cover all our bases so that people who haven't can benefit from that, but the people who already have can go ahead and expand on it. So what am I talking about? Well, I'm talking about defining your audience, and you know most of the people that I talk to, especially coaches, especially coaches will say something along the lines of well, I know my audience because I am my audience, and that very well may be true. The only challenge with that is that if you don't go through the process of defining your audience and really getting to the nitty gritty of where they are, what they say, what their going to pigeonhole yourself into a very small group of your audience who will actually convert, because there's going to be a whole lot of other segment of people who would otherwise convert if you just changed your messaging or changed your offer a little bit to kind of suit where they are. Because maybe they're not, you know, maybe they're not solution aware, right, maybe they're only problem aware, or maybe they're unaware, but you're coming at it from solution aware. So you have to take these things into account.

Speaker 1: 2:11

In an ideal situation, you would really want to ask them what they want, then make it right. You would want to do a huge survey, if you could, and then whatever they say they want, then make it and sell it to them. Survey, if you could, and then whatever they say they want, then make it and sell it to them. But in most cases people have already made their offer, made their course, made their group coaching program, whatever it is. So now they have it, and that's a tough thing to come back on and say I want to change that, and I totally understand. Just be willing to pivot though, when you need to, and from a marketing standpoint, especially ads. So with your ads that's one thing that's kind of nice about ads you can do a lot of different versions okay, with different messaging. You can see which one works better. So that's really kind of a fun thing.

Speaker 1: 2:57

But really want to define your audience, and then we want to kind of talk about how to build it. But first I want to kind of give you my to build it. But first I want to kind of give you my five by five by five rule. Now, this is not part of the five second rule. If you've ever read that by Mel Robbins which, by the way, might be my and it's scary for me to say this, but it might be my most favorite business book the five second rule completely changed my business. That and profit first, because I use it all the time and I have read that book. I have been through it at least half a dozen times, so it is very impactful. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about this is my self coined five by five by five rule, and what it means is this is that for most coaching programs, if you don't convert somebody who comes into your world in the first five weeks, they are likely not to convert for a minimum of five months and they have to consume at least five different pieces of content by that time. Now we all have heard that it takes seven touches before somebody will buy, right, and Google will tell you you know, you need 21 touches or something along those lines and all that's true, right, it's not that that's not accurate. They're just they're taking that off of different data, okay, than what I'm taking it off of. So most of my clients, because they're in the coaching world, I know, you know, when people join their Facebook groups or any other kind of group that they have, I know how long it takes, I know how many, because I can look back how many times they have to opt into a challenge or a webinar or whatever. Okay, so you'll get a segment that'll be ready to convert quickly, but most of them need more time, right? So that's the five by five by five rule.

Speaker 1: 4:42

So let's just talk about the audience themselves, right? Let's just talk about what I mean by audiences and the acquisition of potential clients. So obviously, social media is one component. Right, we're going to have these followers, fans and raving fans. That's how I kind of segment them. So followers are just the looky-loos. They're never going to do anything, they're never going to get off the fence. You know that's just part of the deal. They're just going to follow you. They're probably not going to like, comment, share your organic stuff. It's fine, it's okay.

Speaker 1: 5:13

But that's the bulk of people and it's hard, it's hard to take that in, to realize that 80%, 90% of the people who are there are never. They're either not a good fit or they're never going to buy anything. They're never going to take the next step. And you know it's. It's I see this happen a lot where people want more traction. Right, they're like you know they want more people to reply. You know they. They've got a hundred people, um, that have contacted them. Yet you know only two people will follow up, you know, will reply back from a follow-up email or a follow-up direct message or whatever it is. And those kinds of numbers they sting a little bit, um, cause it's like nobody wants to do this. Well, it's not nobody.

Speaker 1: 5:57

The point is is you have to focus on the people who do want you to follow up, because that's where the money is and and you know, if you want to break it down to money, that's where the money is. It's in the small 20% of 20%. Okay, the top 20 of the top 20, if that makes sense, and the fans that you have right, these are the people who comment share. They just need more information. They're in the second five of the five-by-five rule, right? They need more time and they need more information. They're in the second five of the five by five rule, right there. They just they're. They need more time and they need more information. That's it, ok, they like what you have to say, but they're just not ready to take the next step. They haven't heard the right messaging yet. It hasn't clicked for them. And then you have the raving fans. I love them. Whatever you put out, they're going to take it. I'll never forget.

Speaker 1: 6:46

I had this a couple of times, but there was one person in particular on my other podcast, facebook Ads with a Twang, where a lady contacted me and she told me that she was driving somewhere in Colorado, like crossing states or something. A really long drive. She said she listened to every one of my episodes back to back. At the one time I was like, oh my gosh, that would have made me sick. You know, like to listen to myself talk that long, but that's the type of raving fan I'm talking about. Okay, so, okay.

Speaker 1: 7:19

So that that's it for social media. That's what I'm talking about when I'm, when I'm talking about building an audience there, and then you have your podcast audience or blog post or maybe video blog or whatever it is. You have something like that where you have an audience there, and then you have your email audience, which, by the way, I just I don't know how to say this enough, but build your email list constantly. Be building your email list. I haven't come up with a good acronym, you know. You may have heard the ABCs always be closing, right. Well, it's always be building your email list. Whatever that is. Do that Because that's where the money is. Again, I said that twice on this episode about where the money is, but it really truly is, because you're in control of the email list and if Facebook shuts you out, or TikTok or wherever you are, you still have your email list. Right, you're not, but it's not that you don't have that available to you. So building your email list is a big deal.

Speaker 1: 8:21

So the question might be well, how much content do I need to produce for this audience and to build an audience? And the question is or not? The question. But the answer is as much as you can Now. Are you going to produce as much as Gary Vee or Alex Ramosi or some of these other people that just do massive amounts of content? Well, maybe, but they have a team right. They have a team that does that. It's not like they're trying to do it all themselves. So if you're not you don't have that big team where you can do that then what you have to do is realistically map out what you can do, and you're probably going to have to push yourself on this, especially if you're not used to producing content consistently. This is how you're going to build these followers right and get in touch with these people and give these people a chance to get to know you better.

Speaker 1: 9:11

So they want to take the next step, and it takes time, even running ads. You know what will happen is ads will be a supplement to this. You know what will happen is ads will be a supplement to this. But unless you have a big you know budget for your ads and you have plenty of testing time, you know it's not going to work overnight. You have to work at it, and I think that with several people who are just the smartest people you have ever met and their stuff is really good and they just don't get why people don't. You know why people listen to people who you know aren't as educated about something Like they'll. Their audience tends to follow this person that has really no background in this, whatever it is, and they do have the background in it and they don't understand why people won't buy from them. And so they're coming at it from the wrong angle, right, they're not. They're, they're not thinking about their audience there. And you have to be thinking about your audience and the how to solve their problem and then once you focus on that, once you come at it from that angle, then things will start to work. It's never going to, nobody's going to pick one person over another just because you know they've been at it for 20 years and this person has been at it for two. It's whoever they think can solve their problem the fastest. That's it. That's, that's the crux of it.

Speaker 1: 10:36

Ok, and so, if you know, having all this stuff in your course and stuff, you know, I remember looking at a course not that long ago and there's like 48 modules or something and I'm thinking, what do I need to do? Quit my job or do this or or what is it? But it wasn't about that. So I ended up with this course where there was like four modules and it was just a condensed version of the of the other thing and I mean, that's what I wanted you know, even though I knew the other person probably had more knowledge about what I was buying it for. Anyway, I think you're getting my point, but that's kind of. I just want to kind of make sure that I reiterate that a little bit as we go through this.

Speaker 1: 11:15

The other thing is, you want to email as often as you have something very, very relevant to say, but a minimum once a week. You've got to email your audience, just like you've got to post on social media. Now you can repurpose these things right. If you just got done with your podcast, hey, that's an email Done, send it out Great. You just did a blog post Great, send that out Whatever. Put it on social media, see, great, send that out, whatever. Put it on social media. See, now you've gotten multiple things content that you can send out there but you've got to stay in contact with your email list and you have to pay attention to the numbers. Oh my gosh, pay attention to your numbers. If you see one email was opened up way more than another, why? Well, it's the headline right the headlines. What got them? One email got more clicks Great. Keep track of that. Pay attention to that. Keep a spreadsheet of it. Make sure that you know what the content was of each of them so that you know what to put out more of.

Speaker 1: 12:11

Your audience is telling you what they want. Just keep giving them more of what they want and expanding on what they're telling you. And expanding on what they're telling you. You don't need to have something new every time. I tell this story. All the time I've been subscribing to this newsletter it's actually Dan Kennedy, the no BS Marketing Newsletter for like 20 years, and every newsletter says the same thing. Every one of them is more or less the same, but yet I can't get enough of it, and so that's kind of what you're trying to trying to do, and you just don't want to think that you're, you know, saying the same thing over and over, because they you are and that's what they want to hear.

Speaker 1: 12:53

So the next thing is where do you want to show up? Pick that out. Pick out where you want to show up that you're going to be able to do consistently Social media. Pick a platform, two at most, but pick one. If you're not doing it regularly, pick one or two at the most. Commit to it. Show up there every day for 90 days. Every day for 90 days. Make that commitment. If you don't, if you choose not to, then in 90 days you're going to be in the same place. All right, now do you have to stay on that platform? No, you don't have to. You can certainly change and do something else. But pick one so that your audience knows where to see you when they want to see you, if that makes sense. Your email list, right. How? When they want to see you? That makes sense. Your email list, right. How do you want to show up there? How often will are you? Are you committed to email? Are you going to do what I said and do it at least once a week, minimum? Ok, with with very relevant information? Ok, do that.

Speaker 1: 13:55

Your group. Maybe you have a Facebook group or school group or whatever. How often are you going to show up there? Are you willing to show up there? Like I had a Facebook group and I've had it for a long time. I just don't enjoy going into the group, so I don't post there. Like, people are still in there but I'm not in there so I don't do it. So don't start the group if you're not going to show up.

Speaker 1: 14:16

Okay, I learned that lesson. So learn how to post more and post faster. Right, that's a key thing is learning how to do more and more posts because you're gathering information. It's not I mean, yes, it's about providing your people with value, but you're getting information from that. You're learning what's resonating with them so that you can take that post. You're like hmm, that post went. Just, you know, I got 20% more views on this post, or likes or whatever, than I did the last one, so maybe I should turn that into an email. That's exactly right. That's exactly right and that's exactly how you do that. You just have to pay attention to your metrics, no matter what you do.

Speaker 1: 15:01

So real quick though, before we get wrapped up, let's talk about Facebook. Well, I think we all know that Facebook business pages suck. They just do. Nobody sees them and that's not likely to change. Doesn't mean you shouldn't post there, because when you post on your Facebook business page, even though it may not get a lot of reach, what happens is that helps your Facebook ads when you're going to do those later on, because Facebook takes that into account when they think about the relevancy between your Facebook business page and the audience you're trying to reach. If you don't have any posts and stuff on there, then your ads usually do worse. It's just the way it is. So, using a follower account like a creator account on Facebook, that's a good thing, but you still want to have a Facebook business page as well.

Speaker 1: 15:55

Okay, by the way, regarding your email, if you haven't, make sure you pick out a good CRM and listen, I have nothing against things like Wix and Squarespace and you know MailChimp and you can build a business with those tools. It's not that you can't at all. It's not that you can't, but I mean and I do remember one person and I can't think of who it was who was running a million dollar business using MailChimp. Now, maybe there's more. I mean, I'm sure there are, but all my million dollar clients, every single one of them has a very robust system. They're using high level I mean right now, you know these things will change. They're using active campaign. They're using convert kit. They're not trying to get by with a freebie, okay, or spend the minimum that they have a robust system, and that's only because they're paying attention to those metrics and those systems. Give them those metrics and those systems. Give them those metrics and those systems have been proven to work.

Speaker 1: 16:58

So if you want to run a million-dollar business, it's not that you don't want to skimp on the things that you don't need to skimp on. I mean, you don't need to overspend either. You don't need to go out and hire somebody and pay $10,000 to have a website built and all that kind of stuff, because that's not marketing anyway. That's more branding than anything else. But you do want to make sure that you're picking a good platform and don't overthink it. Ok, just pick one. All right, there's going to be things about you like, things that you don't like. Fine, just pick one.

Speaker 1: 17:38

Remember, when you're staying in contact with people, you just want to provide value and listen to their feedback. Stop overthinking it. Just don't overthink it and ask them directly. You know when you're posting your stuff. Ask them directly if they'd like to work with you. Right, send out an email and say hey, would you be interested in working with me? Would you like to see what it looks like to work together? That's it. That's all you got to say. Most will say no. Most will say no.

Speaker 1: 18:01

Most times you send it out, most people will not reply back. You won't get anything out of it. But how many times do you need to do it? When you've got an email list and you send it out once a month, even if one a year said yes, is it worth it? I would have to say it is. Now you're going to get better and better at it as you go and you're going to be able to collect more emails, and then you're going to be able to refine your messaging and it's going to work better and better.

Speaker 1: 18:27

But don't overthink it. Just ask people if they'd like to work with you. And the last thing is you have to detach from the outcome. Realize that most people will never buy and that's okay, it doesn't matter. I used to keep this up on my wall, um, and it was S W, s, w, s, w S W. Some will, some won't. So what? Someone's waiting, and I just think that's a really good way to look at it when it comes to this. All right, I hope you got a lot out of this and I'll catch you on the next episode. See you then. Are you late getting into the entrepreneur game? I got you covered. Grab my free newsletter at marketingwithatwangcom and each week you'll get bite-sized, no BS marketing strategies, just for you. Get it at marketingwithatwangcom. I'll see you next time.