I woke up this morning when our son walked into our bedroom and exclaimed that his Gro clock had lit up, or rather “Sun’s come’d up”. He walked around the bed to his mummy and said “I love you mummy.” and gave her a big hug.
Fantastic! Today is starting well!
I went in for the good stuff and told him I loved him.
He poked me in the eye.
Am I really going to relate your audience to my children? Yes, yes I am. Because your audience matters. Not as much as my kids, but a lot.
I got nothing but a sore eye from my son this morning. But that hasn’t changed the way I feel about him or how I treat him and if he comes home from pre-school and pokes me in the eye again it still won’t change anything.
Show your audience love, even if you get nothing back from them.
Because you will eventually, and it will be well worth the wait.
Give Everything for Free
Your audience isn’t stupid, they know you’re trying to get something out of what you’re doing online. But a lot of them won’t be keeping pace with the way the internet is being used right now. The information age, where everybody has the ability to exchange their skills and knowledge for money.
So, how do you still get your best stuff in front of your audience for free without damaging your ability to earn money from it later?
That’s a big question, and one that I’ll go deeper into in another article. But the high level view is that your audience will pay for simplicity and convenience.
You have a lot of knowledge on your subject. You can drip this out in articles, videos, podcast or webinars, giving your audience everything you know. But your audience will always need another way of taking that knowledge in, a way that makes it easier to understand, a way that doesn’t involve them thinking too hard.
This is where the age of convenience meets the information age. People expect to be able to get the information they need instantly online. If it takes hours of searching and piecing together, then that’s not going to cut the mustard. If, however, they come across a neatly packaged course or guide or video series that gives them exactly what they need in an easy to digest format then that becomes very attractive.
If they have been following that person offering that package already and know that they understand them and are very generous with their knowledge then they are even more likely to pay for the convenience of a neat package of knowledge.
So, give everything for free. Grow a following of people who are grateful for your generosity of knowledge. Become the go-to person for your subject. But know that you will be able to provide even more value to them that you can charge for and they will still be grateful for it.
But here’s the kicker; Don’t expect it.
Invest in Your Audience
I don’t mean buy followers. I mean invest in growing and nurturing a community that is made up of your audience because it will be your measure of success in the future.
If you need to pay for a decent email service provider so that you can provide subscribers with the best experience when you interact with them over email, do it.
If you need to pay for some advertising upfront to attract your audience to your site and show them what you can do for them, do it.
But I don’t just mean investing money. In reality, you don’t really need to do those things above if you are prepared to invest time into your audience. That’s what really shows them that you love them.
If you really care about growing your community, you need to put the work in and show your knowledge, show your understanding of their problems, show them how to solve them and show them your personality.
Every single person that signs up to your email list matters, so keep showing them that you want them to stay. Send them even more value through emails. Tell them stories that make them connect with you better.
Invest your time into your audience to gain their trust.
If you have their trust, you will probably see them first in line when you make them an offer.
Treat them with Dignity
I see a lot of tricks of the trade with online business. You’ve probably seen them all before.
“We messed up! Lots of you didn’t receive the last email before the doors closed on our product so we’re extending the deadline just for you.”
How kind.
“You’ve got 15 minutes to sign up at $47 before the price goes up to $9,999,”
Get outta here! Oh I surely must sign up now then.
Be sensible, treat your audience with dignity and grow a community that trusts you for what you do for them, not what you’ve brainwashed them into doing for you.
People shouldn’t be giving you money because they feel like they would miss out otherwise, they should be giving you money because they know you can help them. Show them you can help them, even help them for free, and they will come back again to you for more help.
Your audience are like children. Show them love, guide them, spend time with them without ever expecting anything in return and you will be rewarded with their trust and love because of it.
Or a poke in the eye.
One or the other.