Should you build your audience before your offer?

I get asked this question all the time!

Do you create an offer (your product and/or service) FIRST , and THEN build an audience around it, or…

do you build an audience FIRST, and then create an offer for them?

In all honestly, if you have the right strategy in place, you can make either approach work for you.

But there are some advantages to building an audience before creating an offer.

Validate before building

A big advantage to building your audience first, is that you’d be able to validate whether there is an audience for your offer.

This is very crucial, especially when it comes to creating online training programs.

We all know creating online programs are time intensive. It could potentially take 4-6 months.

The last thing you’d want, is to spend all that time and energy, only to find there is no interest for it.

You can totally avoid this, if you first validate your idea, by building an audience first.

Create a more comprehensive experience

Here’s another benefit to using this approach: while you’re building your audience, and interacting with them, you’ll have the opportunity to create a product that’s more complete and more suited for your particular audience.

Let me give you an example:

Let’s say you’re an expert in essential oils, and you’ve been thinking about tapping into your knowledge and expertise, to create a training program on “benefits and uses of essential oils”.

Obviously the more specific you get, you’ll have a better chance of targeting the right audience. So, you’ve decide to create the program about various uses and benefits of using essential oils to combat depression.

The typical way, that almost 90% of people take, is to create the training program first. Then when it’s ready, try to drive traffic to it, in hopes of finding their ideal prospects and get them to buy their program.

There is a better way to do this!

What if you created a slimmed down version of your product idea?

This could be a simple PDF on “10 ways essential oils can be used to alleviate depression”.

You can then turn this PDF into a Lead Magnet.

Lead Magnet is basically a FREE gift, that you can offer to your prospects, in exchange to have them opt-in to get on your email list.

Let’s use your Lead Magnet to validate your product idea!

You can easily validate whether there is an audience for your product idea, by using your newly created Lead Magnet.

One approach I’ve used successfully, is by tapping into the power of communities , that’s specific to my niche.

That could be Facebook groups or LinkedIn groups around your specific industry and niche, filled with your potential audience.

Then on a regular basis, engage with the audience in those communities — look for opportunities to help other members with their questions; this will establish you as the expert in your niche.

When appropriate, offer them your FREE offer (your Lead Magnet).

If you’re getting a lot of interest — lots of conversations and interest around your Free offer, then you know you’re on the right track with your product idea.

People love to get in on the action

In addition, while you’re mingling in these communities, you’ll get advice and feedback from that audience around that topic.

You might hear comments like:

“You know what, I used to have depression. Then a friend sent me a list of foods to add and eliminate from my diet. You can’t believe how important diet is to depression. As soon as I made that shift, I felt so much better.”

Or
“My cousin had depression. His doctor recommended daily stretches, and regular 30-minute walks, along with breathing exercises. He was feeling so much better in a matter of days.”

Another person might say, “sun light and vitamin D are the key. That’s what got my mom through her depression.”

So, NOT ONLY you’re validating your product idea and building an audience around your topic, you’re also getting many positive input and feedback from your audience.

This feedback is a crucial piece in making your offer better!

You might then decide to create your program on “How to use natural remedies to combat depression”. Where not only you talk about essential oils but also all these other pieces that you found to be helpful.

As you can see, by using this approach you’re able to :

Easily validate your product idea,
Collect constructive feedback to make a more complete offer,
And, build an audience around your offer as well.

But remember, this is NOT just ANY audience. This is a targeted audience. These are people who are interested in your particular offer.

They are your ideal buyers, primed, waiting and ready to buy your offer.

Where do you stand with building your audience?

If you already know the key to selling your services and products is having an engaged, targeted audience, but you feel LOST, and don’t know where to begin, and what steps to take, then I’d like to invite you to check out my course “Email Marketing: Build an email list of your ideal buyers! ”

ENROLL NOW for only $14.99>>

This short course, will give you the clarity, structure, and the step-by-step roadmap you need to grow your audience quickly and effortlessly.

Imagine what it would be like for you and your bank account if ….

..You were able to effortlessly grow your audience and felt confident putting your products and services in front of them.

…You no longer felt like you were creating content in the dark, playing guessing games as to what type of content would attract your ideal buyer to you.

…You felt confident, clear and in control of reaching the revenue goals you set at the beginning of the year.

All of that is possible! You can grow your audience easily with engaged potential buyers, using the clear list-building system I teach in this course.