How to strategically grow your audience (in 2021)

Understand how to use 2 different types of platforms for fast AND consistent growth

Guest Blog by Jono Petrohilos from The Course Creator Community


Most of my clients/customers are Online Course Creators who are EXPERTS in their field with AMAZING courses… However, these courses don’t sell… Not because the courses aren’t good but because they don’t have an audience. So if you’re reading this blog and you’re a coach/course creator and you’ve got something you want to sell, the first thing you need is people to sell it to - an audience

You’re in luck because in 2021 with Social Media it has never been EASIER to build an audience. If anything we are spoiled for choices! It would almost be easier if there was just one social media platform and you know to be successful all you had to do was master that one platform… These days you need to make a choice! Are you going with Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Clubhouse or the multiple new platforms that are going to come out by the time this blog is published? 

So that’s the first thing I'm going to suggest - make a choice! When growing your Audience I want you to focus on ONE fast performing platform and ONE slow-performing platform.




SLOW PERFORMING PLATFORM


Don’t be fooled by the name! I know in today’s society we want instant gratification and immediate results. Now don’t get me wrong - I’m going to give you some quick wins too but it’s also important to play the long game and master a slow-performing platform. 

What do I mean by slow performing? These are platforms like Google (Blogging) and YouTube where it’s less about you going out and connecting with people and more about you creating an optimised piece of content that people search for.

Why is this an advantage? 

If you can hit the first page of Google on the keyword you are targeting, or be the first video that appears on YouTube for the keyword you are targeting - you will have so many leads you don’t know what to do with them. 

On top of that, it’s passive! That’s the biggest advantage of slow-performing platforms! If you create a video on Facebook and it gets traction - great! Except for tomorrow it’s all the way down the bottom of the news feed and to stay relevant you need to create a new video tomorrow… and the next day… and the next day… and the next day… If you create that video on YouTube and it’s up the top of the search results - it can stay there for years! You can potentially not create any content again in your life and just live off those leads (I wouldn’t recommend that strategy… but it’s a possibility). 

Sounds like a no brainer right? Why would we waste time on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram? If our posts disappear to the bottom of the news feed after 24 hours… 

Well, it’s not quite as easy as “get on the first page of Google” or “become #1 in the YouTube search results” because chances are… you’re probably late to the party - there’s going to be multiple people/brands that are more established than you focusing on the same keywords as you.

So you could create the perfect YouTube video or write the perfect blog - it could be perfectly keyword optimized and you still won’t rank anywhere near the top of search results because someone with more “authority” than you has done the exact same thing.

So what’s the solution?

  1. Research: Get really good at keyword research (use TubeBuddy for Youtube and Keywords Everywhere for Google). Find keywords that your audience is actually searching for in high volume. There’s no point in being ranked #1 on Google for a keyword that no one is searching for
  2. Competition: Just because a keyword has high volume, doesn’t mean you should target it. Let’s say for example for the word “fitness” it’s got a ridiculous amount of volume but it’s also got a ridiculous amount of competition so there’s no point targeting it. You want to find keywords that have HIGH volume and LOW competition and focus on them! Once you become more established than you can focus on the more competitive keywords.
  3. Consistency: It is going to take you months, if not years to be successful at one of those platforms but once you are successful, it’s going to be one of the best assets you own so just ride it out. If you’re good at video - pick YouTube, if you’re good at writing - pick Google/blogging and commit to producing a piece of content regularly. Regular is going to be different for everyone - just pick what you can commit to - whether it’s once a week, once a month, once every three months - just commit to it. Your future self will thank you for it.


While you’re playing the slow game - you also want to be playing the fast game as I doubt you want to wait a few years for results.

CAVEAT: I always recommend completing a course oin a social media platform before trying to master it yourself. Before you decide to be a Blogger / YouTuber - take a course on Udemy and learn the basics. 




FAST PERFORMING PLATFORM

The big 3 here are Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. These are fast performing because you can get instant results. I can take a break from this blog, go on LinkedIn - connect with 20 people in about 20 seconds and then come back to the blog - that is instant results. I have grown my audience by 20 people in 20 seconds. I can do something similar on Facebook / Instagram too.

Sounds great right? If it’s that easy, why would we also need a slow-performing platform? Well, there’s also a couple of down points. 

Firstly, it’s more you ‘attacking’ or ‘chasing’ the prospect. Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing and you’re going to need to do a little bit of that when starting off but it’s always harder to sell if you’re going to the prospect as opposed to them coming to you. 

Secondly, you need to keep at it, it’s not like a slow-performing platform where I can produce a piece of content and it lives on forever and people find it - you need to constantly produce content or you will become irrelevant.

So why would we pick a fast performing platform? It’s the best and easiest way to start! Put in the hard work while your slow performing platform is building and within a couple of years you’ll have the best of both worlds.

Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn? 

If you target a specific profession then LinkedIn is by far the easiest. For example, I run a business where I help Fitness Trainers grow their fitness business. If I type ‘Fitness Trainer’ into LinkedIn - there are 1.1M results that appear, I will never run out of leads there. So if you target a specific profession - LinkedIn is probably the best option for you. I’ve also written a blog specifically on that topic, you can check it out here.

If you don’t target a specific profession - then you’re probably choosing either Facebook or Instagram depending on which platform you prefer or are more comfortable with.

Here’s the thing with Facebook though. If you want to grow your audience organically on Facebook - it needs to be via your Personal Facebook Profile - not your Business Page. You will need to make your personal profile fairly public and add people that you don’t know as friends and posting business content on your Personal Profile. If you’re comfortable with this - then Facebook is probably your best option. If you’re not comfortable with this then Instagram is your best option. 

Now I can’t really go into detail in this blog about how to grow your audience on every specific platform but what I want you to do is pick ONE slow-performing platform - take a Udemy course on that platform and start creating slowly. Then pick ONE fast performing platform - take a Udemy course on that platform and start growing your list rapidly. 

Anyways that’s it for me for today! 

Feel free to connect on Social Media, I’ll put my personal links below but you’re also welcome to join my community Facebook Group “The Course Creator Community - Click here to join

Jono Petrohilos

https://coursecreatorcommunity.net

IG: @jono_petrohilos 

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Categories: Sales, Strategy, Marketing

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