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Jan 24, 2023
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In the online space, you’ll often hear someone telling you that their system will work even if you don’t have an audience or a list. Don’t buy into that hype.
In the online space, you’ll often hear someone telling you that their system will work even if you don’t have an audience or a list. Usually, that’s because they’re trying to get you to buy a course, a group coaching program, or some other program by promising that their product can work even if you don’t have an audience.
Don’t buy into that hype.
If you don’t have an audience, you shouldn’t buy a program to create a scalable offer unless it’s a program that’s built to help you build your audience or list. Instead, you should concentrate on building your audience before you invest in another course, membership, or program.
Let’s look at three reasons why building an online business without an audience or a list is a huge mistake.
1. You Need To Know What Kind Of Product To Create
What does having an audience have to do with picking what kind of product to create? EVERYTHING.
Until you know your audience, understand them at a deep level, and understand what they want and how they want people to serve them, you shouldn’t create a product.
You’re not gonna know whether you should create a course, a membership, a group coaching program, or one-on-one services until you do the work of building your audience. Your audience is going to tell you what they want.
Don’t create a product unless someone is asking for it. In case you’re wondering, this is the approach that professional marketers take. They listen to what their audience says they want, then create it.
No matter how obvious you think the thing people need is, you’re not going to know for sure until you take the time to build an audience, get to know them, and understand what they’re asking for.
2. Who Is Going To Buy Your Product?
If you don’t have an audience, who the heck’s going to buy the product that someone’s going to teach you to create?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for taking action and getting out there for clarity. But I want you to understand is that you’ll have better success selling to your existing list than you will running ads and trying to get people to buy your product.
I’ve seen this over and over again. If you have an email list, you can assume that you can convert 2% when you launch a new product.
If you don’t have an audience, chances are your messaging is not going to be dialed in, you’re not going to have the right thing, you won’t be able to really express the benefits of your program in a way that’s likely to convert a cold audience.
Ask yourself this question: “Who in the world am I going to sell this thing to?” If you believe you’re going to be able to use ads to get people to buy right away, you’re probably gonna be disappointed.
3. You Don’t Want To Bet Your Business On Long Shots
Now you might say, what about those success stories they’re telling? Every one of these programs can talk about a couple of case studies, a few people who had success even though they had no audience.
That’s gonna happen. I’m going to be honest with you… there will be some people who succeed, but the chances it’s going to be you are exceedingly low.
The case studies in these programs are outliers. They’re maybe the top 5% of people who went through the program. But don’t assume that the results of the outliers are representative.
If you don’t have an existing audience and don’t have an amazing level of expertise in what you’re talking about based upon years or decades of helping people with that problem, you’re gonna have a hard time.
What Should You Do Now?
Well, you should build your audience. That’s where every person should start in building an online business. I know that kinda sucks because you’re not going to make money right up front by building your audience, and selling seems like more fun.
But the reality is that doing that work to build your audience and understand them will help you dial in your messaging and figure out what they want … that’s the real work. That’s what’s going to help you build a lasting business.
If you need help with building your online business, you can get plenty of training when you join my 100% FREE program, BADA$$ Online Marketing University.
