Cultivating Genuine Relationships for Business Success: Insights on Audience Building and Community Engagement | EP204

Unlock the power of audience building and transform your business with me, Donna Eade, on Mindset and Action. In the bustling digital marketplace, I decode the art of fostering relationships that go beyond the click of a purchase button. Dive into the world of email lists—a treasure trove often overshadowed by the fleeting rush of social media—and learn how to nurture connections that stand the test of time. I share insights from marketing expert Emily Hirsh. We'll look at the buyer's journey, revealing how to resonate with a spectrum of personalities, from the impulsive to the contemplative. It's not just about the sale; it's about cultivating trust and patience, ensuring your business thrives through genuine, sustained relationships.

Stay tuned as we explore the intimate realm of podcasting—a medium where your voice is a welcomed guest in the lives of your audience. Discover how this unique form of content can weave into the daily routines of listeners, enhancing retention and fostering a personal connection. Let's reflect on the need to maintain marketing momentum, even in prosperity, and consider the revolutionary impact of an exclusive online community or a robust email list on your business growth.  This episode is your guide to audience engagement and the long-term success it can bring.

Apply for one of my spring Cohorts HERE

www.donnaeade.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:51

You're listening to the Mindset and Action podcast, the place to be to grow and streamline your business. I'm your host, donna Eade. Let's jump into the show. The most valuable thing you can build is an audience, alex Hormozzi. Hello there and welcome back to the podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:18

Now, this is a subject that is so near and dear to my heart and I am so glad that, when I was looking for a quote for audience building, that one from Alex Hormozzi came up, because it is so true, building an audience is the foundation of your business and for me, this is one of the key pillars of this podcast. So I wanted to do an episode dedicated to the power of audience building. So if you are new to business, if you have been in business for a while, audience building is something that is an ongoing thing in the entirety of your business. If you wanna keep your business going, you've gotta get new eyes, new ears, new people in listening to what you've got to say and understanding why you are the perfect person for them to work with. So today we're gonna be talking about audience building. We're gonna look at the foundations of it for business success. We're also going to look at the role podcasting has in being an effective audience builder. We are, then, going to talk about harnessing the power of community and engagement. So you may well hear Twinkle in the background. She is not behaving herself today, that's for sure, so my apologies. You will often hear entrepreneurs talking about audience building. What does this actually mean? When we talk about audience building, we're talking about bringing in people who may well buy from us in the future, and bringing them into our world so that we can connect with them on a regular basis.

Speaker 1: 3:00

Now, there are many ways to build your audience, but one of the strongest and most powerful ways to collect your audience in is your email list. I am 100% a believer that you should have an email list and you should keep that safe, as houses Download it regularly. So you've got a copy of it, but make sure that that is kept safe, and this is because we can build audiences on social media. We can create groups on Facebook. We can have communities on Instagram of people that just always there talking with us. We can create groups on LinkedIn. There are a number of ways on social media to build a community of people. However, one day we could wake up and all of that be gone, and sometimes I'm not gonna lie. I wish it would, but that's a topic for a different day, maybe a completely different podcast. In all honesty, but we don't own social media. We don't own our profiles on social media. It is not ours to keep.

Speaker 1: 4:07

So if you are building your audience on social media which is a great way of doing it, to get in, people in and talking to you if that is the only way you're building your audience, you're building on Rocky Foundations, and when I ever talk about foundations, I always think of the song that I used to sing at junior school the wise man built his house upon the rocks. And I always hear that when I think of foundations. And you need that strong foundation and really building your audience on social media alone is like building your house on sand. It could be gone just like that one big storm and you could lose it all. So establishing your own audience and building that audience on your email list, building it on your own land, so to speak gives you a much stronger foundation. And one of the things that we've got to remember with our audience is that we're talking about the longevity of our business when we talk about audience building, because audience building isn't about getting a load of people in and getting them to buy from you straight away. That's not an audience. They're clients. So an audience is a pool of people who are interested in what you have to offer but aren't necessarily ready to buy yet. And the reason you want to bring them into your audience at that stage is because you want to build that know-like and trust with them so that when they are ready to buy, you're the person who's top of mind.

Speaker 1: 5:46

So Emily Hirsch, a wonderful marketer, and if you're on my email list for my podcast, which is at donateedcom forward slash pod squad, if you want to sign up, you will know who she is, because she's someone I talk about regularly and I listen to regularly. When she talks, I listen, she understands the buyer's journey and I think that is something that we all need to take into consideration, because somebody who comes into your world today might not buy from you for three, six, nine, 12, even more months down the road. You have to build a business knowing that you're okay with that and creating a system that allows you to be okay with that. So I recently did some copy training with a lovely lady called Sage and she was talking about there being four different buyer types and she related them to the Simpsons, which I just thought was brilliant. But she said that you have the barts of this world, who are quick, fast decision makers, and those are the people that are going to buy straight away. They don't need a lot of nurturing, they don't need a lot of that trust factor, particularly in you. If you are marketing right, if you're sort of being very transparent with what it is that you're doing and you're giving them a way to buy it. If it's something that they want, they're going to buy it. And so you need some barts in your audience because those are the people that are going to pay you in the interim while you're nurturing the others. And some of those other buyers are Marges, and Marge likes to have a deep connection. So she's going to be on your list for a good while before she's going to buy. She's going to be one of those longer stay, maybe 12, 24, 36 month kind of clients. And that's me. I'm a bit of a Marge.

Speaker 1: 7:41

I was on Amy Porterfield's list listening to her podcast for probably about four or five years before I actually bought anything from her, because I liked her. I wasn't necessarily thinking that what she did was something that I wanted to do, but I enjoyed listening to her. I enjoyed the people she had on her podcast. I liked her freebies for building your email list and things like that. So I wasn't sure that her big program was going to be right for me or that I wanted to do my business the way that she did her business. But I listened to her for a long time and when I was ready to take the plunge and I wanted to start building an email list, amy is the one that I went to.

Speaker 1: 8:23

So it's something that you need to like consider when you're starting to build your audience is that you're going to have these different Biotypes within your audience and you need to appeal to each of them in a different way. But you also need to understand that some of those biotypes mean that you're going to get somebody who's going to buy Right now without any issue, and others they're going to take time but they will buy eventually. And then you've always got people that are going to stalk on your list and be there just Absorbing everything that you put out and have no intention of ever buying from you, but they either just like what it is that you do and the information that you put out there or they've. They've fallen asleep somewhere and not realized they're still on your list, but there's ways to deal with that. So it's important to have a good variety of buyers on your list, and that is something that I think people don't necessarily think about. They just think about getting people in In to their world and selling to them straight away, and not everybody's going to be ready to buy straight away. So that's why we need to build an audience and we need to have somewhere where we can talk to them and nurture them.

Speaker 1: 9:36

So One of the things that people often say is that if the more people you've got in, the more people You're going to get by, the more people you get in, the business is going to grow quicker and things like that. But to me, I don't think that is always the case, because for me, it's about getting the right people in. You could get a thousand of the wrong people and not one of them is going to buy. Yet you can get a hundred of the right people and 80 of them will buy. So a good example of this is a guy called Colin who is a speaker and I forget, I think his last surname is Boyd and he tells a story about how he ended up at this speaking gig one of his first speaking gigs and he was allowed to sell from stage and he made an offer to a room of like 130 something people and 120 of those people took him up on that offer. Now, that is an immense, amazing conversion rate, but it's because what he was selling to them was what they needed, so that he was in a room with the right people.

Speaker 1: 10:46

So they often talk about conversion rates on webinars being around one to five percent, something like that. You know people who have signed up, because you've then got to get the people that actually turn up which is even less than signed up and then people that are actually going to buy, so the conversion rate always seems to be quite low. However, if you only got 20 people show up to your webinar, but those 20 people have been in your world for the last six months. They've been engaging, they've been waiting for this, you know, maybe they they got on a wait list for it. You know you might get Three to five people sign up. You possibly could get more, but just for the for the sake of numbers, I'm choosing three to five people signing up. Well, that conversion is a lot higher than one to five percent. If it was one to five percent and that was the conversion you were going to get then, on 20 people, you're not even going to get one person signed up, or you'll get one if you're lucky.

Speaker 1: 11:41

So when people talk about the stats, yes, they are there as a measure and yes, it's important to consider them, but don't turn around and think that just because your audience size is small, that it means that you can't earn from it. I think that is a fallacy that we get wrapped up in. When we think of these conversion rates and I think when you are a Big business and you're dealing with big numbers, then these conversion rates often track more accurately. But if you are a small business owner and you are giving a more personal service and you are Talking to the right people, then I think your conversion rate can be an awful lot higher. So please don't get discouraged by those numbers.

Speaker 1: 12:29

We want to build an audience, but we want to build an audience of the right people. There's no point at all in spending money on Facebook ads or LinkedIn ads or Google ads just to get lots of people on your list in the hope that they're going to buy from you. It is much better to nurture your audiences, wherever they are, get them on your email list and have them Volunteer for that position, because if people are volunteering to come on your email list, then they're already saying they want to hear from you and that they're interested in what you've got to say. So that is kind of the permission that you need to then move forward and sell to them as well. So this is all about building that foundation of your audience, the audience of the right people, not lots of people. So if you are not yet part of the pod squad, I did mention it earlier, but that is where I kind of give people a little bit, a little bit of behind the scenes of what goes on in my business, and I also share Information about the speakers that I have on the podcast and things like that. So if you want to get on to the pod squad list, you can go to Donateecom forward slash pod squad and then you will get an email from me in your inbox Letting you know about the upcoming podcast episode and what it's all about.

Speaker 1: 13:51

So what I would encourage you to do is to look at your target audience, and I'm not talking demographics here. I'm not talking well, I am talking demographic sugar. I say I'm not talking about what do they eat for breakfast, what handbags do they buy, what shops do they go to all of that kind of ICA work that you hear people talking about. I'm talking about the core demographics. You know, how old are they? What country, slash county do they live in? You know, because if you're a local business owner and you only deal with local businesses, then you don't want people that are in America. If you're in the UK, that's not going to work for you. So who are they? Where are they, what is it that they want and where are they hanging out online? So you can look at the demographics of the different social media platforms, which is something that I'm looking into right now, thanks to my mentor, who sort of pointed out to me that, yes, you've got to go with the platforms that you're happy using, but also you need to know if your audience is there, so do a demographic research on it. So I am urging you to do that for yourself as well, so that you can see where your audience actually are, so where it's going to be most beneficial for you to start nurturing that audience, to get them on your email list.

Speaker 1: 15:06

So next we're going to go into the role of podcasting in effective audience building. So podcasting to me is obviously the best way to build your audience. I talk about it a lot that I feel it is such an intimate way to talk to your audience. And even if they aren't on your email list which a lot of my listeners aren't even if you're not on my email list, you are logging in each week to listen to a new episode of the podcast, to hear my voice, to hear what I've got to say, to hear what my guests have got to say, and you're doing that on a regular basis. And that means that I don't necessarily need you on my email list to be able to nurture that relationship, because I'm nurturing it every week when you listen to me. So when it comes to offering or selling something, I can do that through the podcast and maybe get you on my email list from that. Or get you into a Facebook group if I'm running a challenge, or get you to go to my website and sign up for whatever it is that I'm offering. So the podcast provides this way to connect with your audience.

Speaker 1: 16:16

That, to me, is a lot more intimate than any other method of communication, and that is because of the limited senses it really is. It's so subconscious, but the limited senses that you use for a podcast, we literally use our ears and that's it. We can't hear, we can't see it. You know, you can't taste it, you can't smell it. So it's just this one sense and it is entirely focused on the voice of the podcast host, slash guests, and to me, that just up levels it, because when you are reading, you are using your sight, but you are also feeling. You're holding your tablet, you're holding your phone, you're also hearing, because when we read, we often hear a voice in our head, and there's the danger of that is because you create this voice for the person that you're reading the blog of and their voice and personality might not be like that at all and then you have made it up in your head. Now some people who are very, very good at writing can write exactly the way they speak in a way that makes you hear it the way they'd say it, and when that happens, that's also magic. But we're not all fantastic copywriters in that way. So one thing that we can be authentic with and really show our personality through is our voice.

Speaker 1: 17:45

Now, with video, that's a double whammy you're using your eyes and you're using your ears, and we can often get distracted from that. But we tend to be doing things that are really kind of a monotonous, repetitive kind of task when we're listening to podcasts, driving a car, going for a walk, mowing the lawn, washing the dishes these are all like repetitive, automatic tasks that help us to actually focus on what we're listening to, because we are eliminating the other kind of distractions by doing something that we can do on autopilot, which actually helps to really solidify what we're listening to, which is just a bonus for podcasters and in talking about all those areas that people can be in and the things that they can be doing, it makes podcasts so much more accessible because they can literally do it anywhere. You can't read a blog or watch a video while you're driving a car and you can't really do that while you're walking either both very dangerous things to do. Don't advocate it, don't do it. But people can listen to podcasts when they're in those situations. So there is relatively few places or tasks that people can be doing that stop them from listening to a podcast over something else.

Speaker 1: 19:02

So one of the things that stops me listening to podcasts is when I'm working I'm somebody has to work in silence and if I'm writing something, I really I cannot listen to anything. I can have kind of ambient background music that's got no words, but if it's a song, I know I'll be singing it and if it's a podcast I'll end up typing whatever the host is speaking. So I can't listen to anything when I'm doing those things. But I also can't watch a video or read a blog when I'm doing those things either. So that's the kind of thing that I'm talking about. That would stop me from doing anything at all.

Speaker 1: 19:37

But majority of the time, whatever you're doing, you can listen to a podcast, and that just makes it so accessible to people. And nowadays, with the dawn of AI, we have the fabulous auto transcripts that mean that people that are hard of hearing can even follow along with the transcript or blog post. You know you can get those auto generated from your host as well. Where I get them auto generated from my host, I go in, I clean them up and make sure that it makes sense and that gives people who can't listen to the podcast, access to the information within it. So it is really accessible and you have the ability to reach people in all different areas.

Speaker 1: 20:24

And I think if you were around in the beginning of the year, when I was talking about places that my podcast is listened to, and I said that my podcast host told me that my most listened to town was a place called Council Bluffs in Iowa, and I was like what? That makes no sense whatsoever, don't understand it. Still don't understand it. But hello, council Bluffs, iowa. Shout out to you guys, but I'm reaching people in America, I'm reaching people in South Africa, I'm reaching people in Australia, I'm reaching people in Europe, I'm reaching people in Canada.

Speaker 1: 21:03

There is literally, I think, only one, maybe two continents where I don't have any listeners at all, and that is powerful. That means that I am reaching the potential reach. There is millions upon millions, upon millions of people and my audience is within that and yours would be too. So, by having a podcast, even if you are a niche down, even if it's only UK people that you want to work with, if you're based in the UK, or only if it's your state that you want to work with, if you're in America, then you can still access the people in those places through a podcast and your global audience is also going to be there. So if, down the line, you're growing your business and you want to offer something, you're going to have a built in audience ready to buy because they've listened to you on your podcast for so long. So it's a great option for building your audience and I will sing that from the rooftops until the cows come home.

Speaker 1: 22:09

So I want to suggest that starting a podcast, or at least guesting on existing podcasts relevant to your business, is a great way to start growing your audience further in 2024. So that might be something that you want to put on your to-do list. And if you do want to start a podcast, then I definitely want to recommend starting with me and coming and joining one of my cohorts. So I have an eight week done with you program and it is called Start your Podcast and you can apply at donateedcom forward slash apply so you can apply at any time and on there will be the next couple of cohort dates for you so you can see when we will start. It's an eight week program so you'll know when you'll finish so you'll be able to tell what sort of timeframe you could launch your podcast, and it would be absolutely fantastic to help you with that.

Speaker 1: 23:05

So let's move on to harnessing the power of community and engagement. Building your audience is great, but you do have to actually do something with that audience, because you can't just create a home for this audience whether it be a Facebook group or an email list and then just not do anything with it and then when you wanna sell something, you come along and you say, hey, buy my thing, and expect people to buy. You have to develop this relationship with this audience and this is where social media does come into play. So you can create a lot of engagement on social media through polls and questions and quizzes and things like that, gifts and all of that good stuff. You can play around with social media as a way to engage your audience. You can create a Facebook group. You can have things happening in there that can help your audience. It's a great way to build a lead into your paid products by having a free Facebook group that then leads into that paid thing.

Speaker 1: 24:16

So you can build your community. You can build relationships between your audience so that they know that whenever they go into your group. They're always going to see Sally, who's always in that particular group all the time commenting, so they can go and say hello to Sally. So they start building this relationship within the community with other members too, as well as you. And it is really important that you're there as well, because it's your community and a lot of the people who come into it are gonna be in there because of you. So you need to be quite present in those groups to actually get some traction with them so you can really start to hone in this community element.

Speaker 1: 25:02

And you don't have to have a Facebook group. It doesn't have to be on social. You can do this through your emails. So don't think that, oh, suddenly I've got to become a Facebook guru. You don't.

Speaker 1: 25:13

If social media isn't your thing and it's not where you're happy, then you can still do this through your emails. So you're not necessarily gonna get the community aspect of it, but you are going to build that relationship and you can encourage engagement as well by asking people to email you back, pressing buttons to register their thoughts on something. You can ask all of that kind of information and you can share the results of those interactions on your social media. So if, for example, you were to ask your audience something about what it is that you do, would they prefer this or that? If they had the choice, you can share the results of that on your social media and say, hey, I asked my email list whether they would like this or that. They said this. What would you say? And then you can create an engagement post for the social media platform and you can start to encourage your social audience to have some connection to your email audience and you can bring them both together in that way.

Speaker 1: 26:16

So it's really important for the long-term success of your brand and business that you have this funnel for your audience, this way of communicating and getting information to your audience on a regular basis, to nurture them. Let them know what's going on in your world, let them know what's new, what's upcoming and how they can work with you. More importantly, you've always got to come back to how they can work with you and I don't think we tell people that enough to be honest with you, especially as small business owners. I think the bigger business owners are quite good at this. I think as small business owners, we often are trying to balance that how many clients can I handle at once? Should I be talking about it? Shouldn't I be talking about it? But we should always be marketing, even when we're busy, because you never know when a client's gonna finish the program that you're on. You've got some kind of idea when that would happen, but if it's an ongoing retainer kind of situation, you don't know when a client's going to turn around and say, okay, I'm giving in my three months notice or whatever. So always be putting yourself out there and having people on a wait list or just aware of spaces coming up in your diary and things like that.

Speaker 1: 27:35

So today we have spoken about building your audience and how important it is, and I started with talking about building the foundations of your audience, building that brand loyalty and trust by having a way to communicate with your audience and to build that audience over time, because we have different buyers in our audience that are going to react at different times to our offers. And then we spoke about how you can use podcasting to do that obviously something that I'm very, very passionate about and then how you can then use that audience to create engagement with them, to start to nurture them and build that real sense of community with them. So I hope that that has helped. I would really encourage you to take a look at building an online community of your own in some way, whether that is a Facebook group or whether it is a special private Instagram account that you create that only special people are allowed into. Whatever it is, look at it, whether it will work for you and your business. I'm not trying to force you into that, but definitely look at how you could create a better nurture sequence within your email list.

Speaker 1: 28:50

Have a look at what podcasting can do for you and whether guesting on podcasting would be a good thing for you. I would say 100%. It would be a good thing for you, and starting your own podcast could be really, really valuable. I am here to help you with that if you would like to look further into that, and then also looking at who it is that you wanna work with and where they are hanging out. So that is it for today's episode. I hope that helps and I will see you in the next one. Bye for now, music.