17 Ways To Grow Your Audience

The NUMBER ONE question I’ve gotten as a 15-year career business coach is a version on this…

“How do I get more customers?? I’m already doing ALL 👏 THE 👏 THINGS 👏 and it’s not working”

And this tells me everything I need to know.

This question is so common that I have responded to it in every place I help folks…with 1:1 clients, in group coaching, and in every community I work within. I answer it so much I have a permanent Google doc pulled up so I can copy/paste the answer wherever I’m helping folks, so I thought it would be a good idea to share about it here too.

There is a misconception in the business world that all we have to do in order to get clients is post helpful content.

And it’s not anyone’s fault they think this way. This is the story that a lot of folks sell (literally) on social media, and they make it look easy. They make it seem like these platforms (Tik Tok, Insta, etc) are the only tool needed to find clients, and while I’m sure that has happened to some folks, in my 15 years as a coach, I’ve seen that to be the exception and not the rule.

Whenever I think about this, I think about how long businesses have been in the world…from the dawn of time. And then I think about how long social media has been in the world…not that long. In order to be successful in business, posting Reels on Instagram is not the only answer, and in my experience, it’s not often the answer.

And this actually inspires me. Because the things that folks did back in the day to get clients, is essentially the same thing that we can do now to get clients. Marketing and sales is actually really simple (albeit not always easy), and that’s what I’m going to share about today in answering Jenna’s great question.

Dear Sally,

I really want to grow my business, but I’m feeling so discouraged. I feel like I’m constantly doing all the things I’m supposed to do but nothing seems to move the needle. I have 150 followers on my Instagram, and I put out tons of content, spending all my time crafting beautiful posts, but no one seems to be engaging or buying what I’m offering. I even post to LinkedIn and…nada. What am I doing wrong? How do I build that illusive audience everyone talks about?

Hey Jenna!

Thank you so much for sharing this and I can tell you're putting in a lot of effort to share content with your current audience and that is an AWESOME start. The place I see for improvement in most businesses is a really common one.

List and audience building.

Content is really important, but if you're not getting more people on your list to view that content, then it can be a bit moot. Think of it like this...if you keep putting content out to the same 150 people, it makes sense that you're not getting a ton of sales since selling is a numbers game. The more you grow your audience, the more sales will come.

It's kind of like if someone is at their house cooking a delicious meal, day after day, but the only people who are eating it are the people who already live at home. Someone has to engage more people to come over and eat the delicious food, and that usually happens by leaving the house and talking about the food everywhere and inviting people over. 😊

From what I’ve seen, a two-part strategy between “marathons” and “sprints” is a good way to build a list (as Marie Forleo talks about in B-School…which is a business program I totally recommend btw*). Marathons are those things that you do consistently over a long period of time that build the “know, like, and trust” factor, and put you in the position to be around more people who can benefit from your work and join your list. This is a VERY proactive place. Sprints are quick bursts of list-building activities. Here are some examples…

• Go to networking events local events, community gatherings, and tell every single person what you do and ask them to sign up for your list. Take their cards and follow up.
  

• Spend the majority of your time every week pitching yourself to people who have parallel audiences: podcasts, guest blog posts, Substacks, features in magazines, or websites.
  

• Collaborate with people with similar audiences to you (Ie if you sell LinkedIn marketing services, maybe you partner with someone who does LinkedIn resume builders and put on a workshop together). Do this A LOT. Like…a lot.
  

• Teach for people with bigger audiences (smaller audiences is good too…it’s about getting in front of new people).
  

• Have affiliate marketing where people get paid well to promote your work.
  

• Get media coverage in magazines and papers and articles.

• Challenges

• Bootcamps

• Webinars

• Quizzes

• Contest

• Giveaways
  

• Put out helpful and free content, consistently every week, that speaks to the exact pain points of your customer and make sure that in every bit of content, you point them back to your list.
  

• Create enticing and impactful opt-in offers on your website that your customers can't wait to get their hands on, that solve some of their biggest, current problems in a tangible and fairly easy way.
  

• Highlight your list everywhere (social bios, multiple places on your website, email signatures, in YouTube videos, and descriptions) and tell people to join it (everywhere).
  

• Lead magnets that are specific to a piece of content (for example if you write an article about how to get noticed on LinkedIn, maybe you create a special download for that article with a checklist on how to get noticed).
  

• Have clear Calls to Action in every post, meaning make sure you're telling people to like, sign up, follow you, in every piece of conten
  

As you can see, content is only one small piece of this pie. The basic idea is that list-building is a very pro-active activity and is the biggest thing that I've seen to make a difference in people's businesses.

It's about putting yourself out there anywhere and everywhere over and over again to get folks excited to join your list, then taking care of them immensely once they're there. And this continues throughout time…like you’ll never stop doing these things if you want to continue to grow your audience and business.

We don't own social platforms. The point of them is for the platform to make money. They can, and do, change their algorithms all the time. I've seen thousands of people build their businesses on social media, only for that platform to become unpopular, change their algorithms, or charge money for the audience that they already built for free, and those folks lose everything (it happened to me and so many of my friends).

An email list is still the only place that you own, where you can communicate with your people. And as the world changes, and more and more people want to be off social media, it's still a great way to connect with folks. You can still use social media as a part of the communication plan, but I wouldn't recommend using it as the main way to try to sell your offerings.

Now...you might be thinking, "But I hate getting emails and my customer probably will too," and to that I say...if your emails help solve problems for your customers that they're already looking to get solved, if you speak to them in the way they want to be spoken to, if you surprise and delight them, if you provide them with helpful content that makes their lives better, then they'll love your emails. I bet you can think of at least one person’s emails you still love receiving. Am I right? (that’s rhetorical 😂)

I know it's overwhelming to do a lot at once, so I would pick 1-3 of these ideas, especially in the marathon section, to start with, and spend 80% of your business working time each week on them. Yes…80%!

And now I want to hear from you.

1. Will you accept my invitation to try these things out?

2. What is one thing you resonated with in this?

3. What is one question you still have about this?

Let me know in the comments!

* This is an affiliate link which means that if you purchase something through it, I may get some cashola from it. I stand behind this program wholeheartedly. It, and experience implementing it, taught me everything I know. Reach out with any questions.

It’s my FAV EVER to answer your specific business/marketing questions. Please oblige me by asking yours? Here’s a form to drop your question here anonymously and I’ll answer it in future columns.

ALSO…my mission is to help as many folks as I possibly can with free business advice. I believe business can be a beautiful and fun experience that allows for a life of fulfillment and freedom, instead of an overwhelming rollercoaster. I want to save you that overwhelm.

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