Leveraging Other People’s Audiences & Putting it All Together

Chances are, you’re missing the two big links in your content and marketing strategy. Sure, you’re publishing content regularly. You might be emailing your audience at least semi consistently. And this is great for nurturing the people who are already following you.

But are you leveraging other people’s audiences so you can put together the pieces of minimum viable content marketing? I’m going to take a wild guess and say no, you’re not.

The most common complaint I hear from podcasters is that they’re struggling to grow their audience. Their email list isn’t growing. And their social media isn’t getting any interaction.

It’s no wonder, because they’re doing little to grow any of these.

This week on the podcast, I’m again sharing why leveraging other people’s audiences is key to the success of your content marketing. And I’m also sharing a bit on how to put all these pieces together.

Mentioned In This Episode

Transcript:

Welcome to episode 177 of The Content Experiment Podcast, a podcast for podcasters that supports the idea that content and marketing are ever-moving targets and it’s okay if you don’t feel like you’re doing it ALL right, ALL of the time. You have permission to experiment with little tweaks and changes in your content to find what works for you, what increases value for your audience and what grows your business. And most importantly, what feels good for you.

I’m Abby Herman, content strategist and consultant for podcasting business owners who want to make their podcast, their primary content marketing tool, feel easier and more streamlined so they can get back to serving their clients and making those sales. Because your podcast is your primary marketing tool and you want to leverage it to grow your audience, authority, and business. I’ll show you how, while you do business in a way that works for you–I can help by supporting you through building a content and marketing strategy, taking care of the podcast management for you, or giving you the tools and resources to take this on yourself.

Today’s episode is the seventh in the 7-episode series on minimum viable content marketing, and if you’ve been enjoying the series, don’t worry! I have a 10-episode solo series on podcasting coming up for you starting in a few months. You’re going to love it. More on that to come.

But today, I want to round out this series on minimum viable content marketing with something we’ve talked about before. In fact, we talked about it in episode 176 last week. But it’s so incredibly important that we need to talk about it again.

First though, I want to review a bit what we’ve talked about during this series. It’s all connected. All the pieces of content that businesses should have to market themselves.

Because I hear from biz owners all the time that the content marketing they’re doing isn’t working. Sometimes they’re exclusively publishing a blog and that’s it. Or they just have an opt-in form on their website but don’t have any way to send people to that form. Or once someone is on their email list, those subscribers just sit there with no contact from the biz owner.

Or, and this is the case for so many biz owners, they’re consistently publishing a podcast and are surprised when new people aren’t clogging up their calendar for discovery calls.

The biggest thing to remember is that the content you’re creating for your platforms, the minimum content you have? That’s for nurturing your audience. The people who have already found you. While you may attract a few new people to you through your podcast or your blog or YouTube channel, that’s not the main purpose of that content. At least not in 2022 when the online space is so crowded.

So what are those minimum pieces of content you should have? I recommend going back and listening to any of the episodes you missed. All of these are linked in the show notes. You can also get to them by going to thecontentexperiment.com/episode (and the episode number).

In episode 165, the first of this series, we talked about the pre-work you should do before you start creating content. That includes surveying your audience to gather ideas…in their words.

In episode 167, we talked about having a quality opt-in to help you grow your email list. Your email list is where you’re really able to start connecting directly with your audience. This is critical to get in front of them because you’ll get to land right in their inboxes.

In episode 169, we talked about your welcome sequence. Because opting in isn’t enough. We need to make sure new subscribers know who we are and that we have an incredible amount of value…free value…to give them. A welcome sequence is something that you can create once and automate. Then just review and update maybe once or twice a year.

In episode 171, I talked about nurturing emails. The emails that subscribers receive after they’re done with the welcome sequence. We don’t want them to just sit there. And we don’t want them to not remember who you are when you’re ready to sell something. So give them value with nurturing emails. Send an email weekly (or every other week at a minimum) to share your most recent podcast episode or other content. And tell a story or give some additional value in that email too.

In episode 173, I talked about pillar content. The content that you own that you use to elevate yourself a bit. This is the main content you create for your business. Your podcast, blog, or YouTube videos. And this content is critical because you own it. It belongs to you, not a social media platform.

And in episode 175, I shared more about social media and why this is important, but shouldn’t be your end-all for content marketing. Because you never know when the platform or your account will go away. But the biggest message here is that social media is NOT going to make you sales or grow your audience. It’s so hard to get found on social. It’s not meant as a place to simply push content. It used to be that you could get a lot of traction doing that, but not anymore.

So what’s the missing piece to this all? How are you supposed to grow your audience if your content marketing is just designed to nurture your existing audience?

There are two missing pieces that we’ve talked about before: leveraging other people’s audiences and building relationships online.

Leveraging other people’s audiences means you’re getting in front of other people’s people. You’re guesting on podcasts, you’re speaking on stages, you’re teaching in other people’s memberships and programs. You’re letting other people vouch for you. It’s social proof.

Being a guest in front of someone else’s audience gets you in front of people you never would have been in front of before. But here’s the thing: You need to talk about your stuff. You need to have that opt-in I mentioned before. And you need to make sure you welcome new subscribers to your list. You should have some content for them to consume, some additional value.

Because sending them just to an Instagram handle does not guarantee that they’ll ever see your IG posts. In fact, chances are they won’t.

And the other missing piece to your minimum viable content marketing is building relationships online by commenting and interacting with your followers and other people’s followers.

By this I mean, comment on people’s social media posts. Send direct messages when something really resonates with you. Share people’s content, and give them credit for it. And tag them.

Social media is meant to be social. You’re meant to interact with others there.

And this can be really frustrating. You hire someone like me to manage your podcast or your blog and email content, and you expect to grow your list and make sales. There are definitely some things we can do to help that, but the only way to see true growth is by YOU doing the work too.

Getting in front of other people’s audiences and interacting with them via email and social media is the best way to build relationships and grow the know, like, and trust factor. We can’t simply publish content and expect people to flock to us. Especially as small businesses.

People want to buy from people. People who demonstrate their expertise. People who are visible in the online space, and not just through social media posts.

If you’re listening to this in real time, Lisa Simone Richards, last week’s podcast guest, and I are hosting a training today, April 20 at noon Pacific and 3 p.m. Eastern where we’re sharing how to pitch yourself to be on podcasts and how to nurture your new audience members once you woo them to your space.

Stop wasting your time with overwhelming marketing tactics (that may not work). Start generating qualified leads and nurturing them to the sale.

We’re going to teach you how to:
Use podcast guesting as your #1 marketing tool
Book the podcasts your people are listening to
Turn listeners into followers and subscribers
Deliver content that converts them into buyers

Sign up for free at thecontentexperiment.com/smarter. And if you can’t make it to the training today, sign up anyway and we’ll send you a replay.

I hope to see you there!

And if this workshop sounds like something your own audience would love, please share it! We’d love to have as many people present as possible. And if you share, I’ll be sure to give you a shout-out too!

If you found value in what you learned here today, be sure to share it on social media. Take a screenshot of the episode on your phone and share it over on Instagram stories. Tag me at thecontentexperiment. The more you share, the more we can get the podcast into the hands of more business owners, just like you, who need to hear the message that they are not alone.