A lot of content and information targeting marketers focuses on attracting and engaging with an audience. All our customers were first prospects (who, previously, were members of an Audience).
Without first identifying the audience with whom you seek to engage, there will be no marketing strategy identifying prospects and converting them to customers.
What Is An Audience?
An audience for our purposes has two equally-important characteristics.
- A group viewing and engaging with you and your content
- A group existing on a platform that you control
Viewing and Engaging
Before individuals can become Prospects or Consumers, they have to be aware that you exist and you have to be sharing something of interest to them. Awareness and Interest are the first two steps along any Customer Journey.
Note: Some would incorrectly suggest a Need (or Want) as their first step. Desire for what you offer (arising from a need or want) is a characteristic you should be targeting among the groups to whom you speak. If you are not directing your message toward a group who would have a need or want of your product/service, there will be no reason for them to become aware or have interest in what you offer!
Having generated awareness and interest in what you offer, we must now build engagement with them.
Marketing, at its core, is Eyeballs and Action! Having attracted their attention, we need to motivate them to engage in a closer relationship with us. Once they see us, we provide them avenues to stay!
On Platform You Control
This second key aspect of your Audience is the one most often overlooked!
For many companies and influencers trying to grow online or through social media, this is the weakest point of their business models. They are using the online platforms as their foundation. They are building their business on Amazon, Facebook, Shopify, or Instagram as opposed to using the platforms for their business.
Why is this an important distinction?
Building your business atop a platform that you control is a key component of long-term success.
Hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of businesses were built atop MySpace which was the dominant platform from 2003-2008. Others were built as storefronts atop Ebay.
In 2008, Facebook overtook MySpace and it has been declining ever since. Around the same time, Amazon (and Shopify) displaced Ebay atop the mountain.
In a similar pattern, millions of businesses are now built atop Facebook (along with Instagram, Etsy, Pinterest, etc).
These foundations are just as risky (even if those platforms do not recede – which they will). We are perpetually at risk of violating their rules and having our accounts disabled (or deleted).
We simply must have our business’ foundation (re – Your “List”) built atop a platform that we control.
Who Is Not Your Audience?
Based on these two characteristics, these would not be an “audience”.
- Friends
- Followers
- Subscribers
- Etc.
An audience of 500-1000 on a platform you control is more valuable than tens of thousands of “followers” that you can lose due to your actions or market forces.
In March 2008, Kevin Kelly posted an article entitled “1000 True Fans”. It has been a reference for multiple writers and techniques for over a decade highlighting the importance of attracting and developing a group of users/consumers who represent your best customers and evangelists.
Note: I include purchased Leads (from Zillow, LoanBright, Leads4Lawyers, etc) among this “non-audience” group as well. Unless you are able to elevate them to members of your list, leads from aggregators are their audience; not yours!
Why Is It Important?
Developing and nurturing your audience is important because it is with your audience that you can build and foster a relationship. In our competitive business environment, it is not your list that holds the value, but the quality of your relationship with your list!
By building a strong relationship with your audience, you can more freely interact with them and can become a trusted partner for them.
Competitive differentiators like Price or Ease of Purchase are difficult areas to compete. Market leaders like Walmart and Amazon have already won the game on those fields.
However, implementing a strategy of strong, personal relationships with your audience (and thereby prospects & customers) delivers returns over the long haul.
Once built, entry and encroachment by competitors is much more difficult.
Check out more...
This topic is part of a webinar reviewing the usage of Social Media Platforms for Lead Generation and Engagement Building.
The below video shares specific recommendations for Mortgage Originators and Loan Officers. (See below for similar videos targeted other niches.)
Other niches:
If you have questions for how this might relate to your specific niche, feel free to add a comment below or send me an email directly.
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