With so many brands vying for the attention of online audiences, it can be challenging for new businesses to get noticed.

We get that.

In today’s fast-paced digital environment, you need to either build, borrow, or buy your way into the hearts and minds of potential customers. So, let’s explore the three effective methods behind those concepts to build an audience for your business: 

• organic content development
• influencer marketing
• paid advertising

We’ll look at the pros and cons of each method and explain how you can use each to build your audience.

Key Takeaways:

• There are three effective methods for building an audience for your business: organic content development, influencer marketing, and paid advertising.

• Organic content attracts and engages potential customers cheaply but takes time and effort.

• Influencer marketing helps you gain exposure but can be time-consuming and costly.

• Paid advertising targets your ideal customer but can be expensive and waste time and resources if done wrong.

• Building an audience for your business requires a comprehensive and multifaceted approach.

Build It: How Organic Content Builds an Audience

Organic content attracts and engages potential customers without breaking the bank with a big advertising spend.

Here are some examples of organic content you can use to build an audience for your business:

• Blog posts: Informative blog posts that target your audience’s interests can help drive traffic to your website and build a loyal following.
• Social media posts: Posting regularly on social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter keeps audiences engaged and interested in your brand.
• Video content: Videos that showcase your products, services, or expertise can help build trust with your audience and increase engagement.
• Podcasts: Hosting a podcast or appearing as a guest on one where you discuss topics related to your industry can help establish you as an expert in your field and attract a dedicated audience.
• Ebooks and guides: Free ebooks and guides can help attract new leads and build credibility as well as a faithful following.
• Infographics: Creating visually appealing infographics can help convey complex information in a digestible format and attract shares and engagement.
• Webinars: Hosting webinars on topics related to your industry will help build an audience and attract new leads.

These are examples of the sort of high-quality, informative, relevant content that our clients use to establish themselves as industry leaders and build a loyal following. It’s cheap and effective, and – chances are – you’re probably already doing some of these things to build your brand.

There’s just one catch, it requires lots of time and effort, especially if it is going to be strong enough to cut through all the noise and competition. Building a brand organically can take years because it takes a lot more than a social media following to become an authority or a household name in your field.

Pros

• You can develop organic content with little to no investment, making it the most cost-effective option for small businesses to build an audience.
• Organic content offers tremendous long-term gains, as it can establish your brand’s presence and build trust among your target audience.
• If successful, your organic content can become a powerful flywheel that helps you attract and retain customers.

Cons

• Developing organic content can be time-consuming and labor-intensive, requiring effort and dedication to create content that engages your audience consistently.
• It can be challenging to measure what’s working and what’s not, as the impact of organic content is often difficult to quantify and not as easy to measure as paid ads.
• Building an audience through organic content requires patience, persistence, and perseverance, as it may take time to see the desired results.

How to Build an Audience Using Organic Content

So, you know it’s going to take some time, but you still want to harness the power of organic content to build an audience for your business.

Here’s what you’ll need to do to get there:

Post consistently on social media

And I mean every day. Regular posting is vital to building an audience. Social media audiences are hungry for content, and if you can’t post every day, then at least make sure that your followers know when you’ll be posting. Set a regular schedule so that they have something to look forward to.

Determine your business’s best social media platforms, and create a content calendar to ensure consistency.

Social media content should be consistent, engaging, valuable, and relevant to your target audience. 

Remember, it’s not just about your passion but about identifying and filling an unmet need that your audience has. Consider your customers’ problems or challenges and create content that addresses this.

Keep in mind that different people engage with social media differently so you’ll want to consider diversifying your social media content to include videos, infographics, blog posts, and podcasts. Always connect your product or brand to your customers and their needs.

Ensure your messaging is consistent, your content aligns with your brand’s values and mission, and is always authentic.

Collect email addresses

When you access a subscriber’s inbox you open up an entirely different way to communicate with your community, and this is where you begin to turn your followers into your customers because you can communicate with them directly.

We always tell clients to consider various email collection methods, such as offering a lead magnet or running a contest. 

Once you have their email address, give, give, and give some more. 

That means providing free, valuable content that helps solve their problems or entertains them and keeps them interested in your products. Doing so has helped us attract the right audiences and engage with them on a more personal level in a way that makes them feel their part of something exclusive.

We’ve found that this is the best way to establish trust and build relationships, but also, the best way to validate your product and build a reservation funnel that converts.

Use the reservation funnel to qualify your emails and subscribers

At Launchboom, we’ve used our reservation funnel to segment our subscribers based on their level of interest and engagement.

You can do this by asking those who sign up to pledge as little as $1 to become VIPs. This allows you to gauge buying intent and build a list of customers that you know are most likely to back you when you launch a new product.

In exchange, you’ll want to offer these VIPs something like a discounts.e have a more in-depth guide on how to do that here. But ultimately, learning how to do this will increase the likelihood of converting followers into paying customers.

Borrow It: How Influencers Can Help Build Your Audience

Influencer marketing is another proven strategy for building an audience.

You already know what an influencer is so you probably have an idea of how they can help. 

They can influence their audience’s opinions, behaviors, and purchasing decisions through their credibility and authority in their particular niche or industry.

By partnering with social media influencers with a large following, you can tap into your audience and gain exposure to a broader range of potential customers. 

That process is known as influencer marketing. 

It’s one of the most powerful ways to build an audience for your business. 

One thing we’ve found, however, is that finding the right influencer and negotiating a deal can be time-consuming and costly.

Pros

• Influencer marketing is the fastest way to reach a large audience because the best influencers already have a substantial audience. When you partner with the right influencer, you can tap into that audience and gain exposure for your brand.
• When an influencer recommends your product or service, their followers will likely trust you and purchase what you offer. That helps establish credibility, increase brand loyalty, and ultimately build your audience.
• When an influencer creates content for your brand, it really is the gift that keeps giving! You can use that content for paid marketing and organic content development efforts, saving you time and money in the long run.

Cons

• Depending on the popularity of the influencer and the size of their audience, partnering with them can be expensive. So be sure to weigh the potential return on investment against the cost of the partnership.
• To use influencer marketing effectively, it’s best to have a finished product ready for sale. Finding an influencer to work with can be a challenge if you are still in the development stage of your business.
• The success of influencer marketing can be unpredictable. Even if you partner with a famous influencer, there is no guarantee that the influencer’s audience will become yours.

How to Use Influencer Marketing to Build an Audience

We’ve found that the best way to use influencer marketing to build your audience is to target the right influencers. 

Think of who the biggest influencers in your niche are. Look for influencers in your niche with a large following and lots of audience engagement across their social media channels.

If you don’t quite know where to begin, we highly recommend tools like BuzzSumo or HypeAuditor for finding influencers in your industry.

Once you have identified potential influencers, reach out to them and introduce your business, but don’t expect them to respond just because you reached out. Offer to send them your product to try out or give them a referral deal to promote your brand. Negotiate.

From here, you have a few options:

Get the Influencer to Share Your Product

Once the influencer has tried out your product and is happy with it, ask them to share it with their followers on their social media platforms. 

An influencer’s post, story, or video showcasing your product can go a long way.

Get the Influencer to Review Your Product

Ask the influencer to review your product on their blog or social media channels. 

A product review will help establish your brand’s credibility and encourage the influencer’s followers to purchase from you. They may even follow you and join your mailing list.

Have the Influencer Send Traffic to Your Site or Funnel

After the influencer has shared and reviewed your product, give them a unique referral link that will direct their followers to your website or sales funnel. 

From there, you can track the traffic and sales generated from their promotion and analyze the value of the partnership.

Work With the Influencer to Collect Emails

You can also work with the influencer to create content with a call to action, asking their audience to sign up for your email list. 

We strongly recommend offering a lead magnet, such as a free guide or ebook, in exchange for an email address.

Once you’ve collected email addresses, get busy nurturing those leads with more value. 

Some of our preferred methods are sending regular newsletters, offering exclusive discounts or promotions, or sharing helpful content to address their pain points.

Finally, you’ll want to use that sales funnel to qualify your email subscribers and move them closer to a sale.

Buy It: How Paid Advertisements Build An Audience

Paid advertising is a surefire way to quickly build an audience for your business.

With a well-crafted ad campaign, you can target your ideal customer and generate leads and sales.

However, paid advertising can be expensive, requiring a whole lot of time and resources to develop effective campaigns.

Pros

• With paid advertising, you can reach large audiences quickly and reliably.
• Paid ads require relatively little effort and have a low barrier of entry, making them accessible to businesses of all sizes.
• Paid advertising campaigns are scalable, predictable, and measurable, meaning you can adjust their spending and targeting to maximize results.

Cons

• Paid advertising costs money. However, you can control your spending and adjust your budget as needed.
• Running a paid advertising campaign can get technical and require some expertise to set up and optimize. That can be a challenge for some businesses.
• The gains from paid advertisements are usually proportional to your spending. So, be prepared to invest deeply in your campaign if you expect to see significant results.

How to Use Paid Advertising to Build an Audience

We can’t stress enough how paid advertising effectively reaches a targeted audience rather quickly.

Platforms like Facebook, Google, and Instagram allow you to create highly targeted ads that not only get your product in front of the right people but also provide a treasure trove of data that allows you to tweak your targeting and your message until you’ve got it just right and your ads are bringing in consistent leads.

The first step in building an audience through paid ads is to define your target audience.

Ask yourself:

• Who am I trying to reach?
• What are their interests?
• What are their needs and their pain points?

Once you have a clear idea, create ads that appeal to them and follow these steps:

Use Meta Ads To Send People Through Your Lead Funnel

Your Meta ads can link to a landing page or lead form where people can enter their contact information.

Once you have their contact information, you can add them to your email list and nurture them through email automation..

Qualify the Emails with a Reservation Funnel

To qualify the emails with a reservation funnel, offer your email subscribers an incentive (like a discount) to put down a $1 reservation deposit to upgrade to VIP. 

We’ve found that those that put down a $1 deposit are 30 times more likely to buy.

You can also offer VIPs exclusive content, helping build trust and loyalty.

Nurture Your Leads With Value-Giving Email Marketing

Email marketing lets you stay in touch with your subscribers and keep them engaged. 

We recommend sending them regular updates on your business, including new products, services, or promotions, early access, and reminders to look out for new launches.

However, you should also provide them with valuable content. Remember to use blog posts, infographics, and videos to keep them engaged and help deepen your relationship with them.

What’s the Best Way to Build an Audience for your Business?

Building an audience for your business is probably going to require a little bit of each of these techniques.

Whether you choose to focus on organic content development, influencer marketing, or paid advertising, each method has advantages and disadvantages and can be complementary to one another.

Developing organic content is the most cost-effective option, offering long-term gains, but it’s also a long-term strategy. 

At the same time, influencer marketing is a quick way to reach a large audience and build credibility and brand loyalty. But without organic content for influencers to promote, they won’t have anywhere to send their followers. 

Paid advertising offers more immediate results, but can be expensive and requires a higher level of investment. So you’ll probably want to get established before you take this route.

Ultimately, the key to building a successful audience is understanding your target audience’s needs and interests and creating valuable, engaging, relevant content and products that resonate with them and meet their needs.

Consistency, authenticity, and a focus on building relationships based on trust and credibility are critical components of audience-building.

By implementing these strategies and constantly testing and optimizing your approach, we are confident that you can build a loyal and engaged audience to help your business grow and thrive.

But if you need more help building your audience, reach out to our team of experts at LaunchBoom to find out how we can help you do just that!