Build audience before product. But how do you do it? Here’s how I’ve built an audience across channels and grown my startups from 0 to $2 million revenues. Involves a mix of marketing & writing. 🧵 (1/11)
When building audience on any channel, make personal connections. Share your personal experiences, stories & learnings vs. company or product updates. People connect with people, not with lifeless entities or brands. (2/11)
Channels: • Blog • Newsletter • Social media • Slack channels • Community websites • LinkedIn & Facebook groups (3/11)
Golden rule: Don’t always share updates or links to your product/content. Instead: • Talk about the problem • Critique existing solutions • Talk about how you’ll solve the problem • Share product building process & experience • Share launch plan, stats & learnings (4/11)
How to grow a newsletter • Define a clear goal for your newsletter ⇒ what value will your subscribers get? • Be yourself & write like a person would. • Submit to newsletter directories. • Publish & distribute your newsletter like a blog. (5.1/11)
• Share your newsletter on social media. Not as links, but handcrafted posts. • Launch your newsletter as a product. • Make a personal connection with your subscribers: ⇒ Send them a welcome email ⇒ Provide them an easy way to reach out to you. (5.2/11)
How to grow a blog • Focus on SEO from day 1 • Keep a mix of keyword focused & expert content • Write less, distribute more • Distribution channels: Social media, Newsletter, Reddit Pro-tip: SEO optimise your newsletter issues & publish them as blogs (6/11)
How to build a Twitter audience • Be yourself & bring out your own personality. • Share personal experiences, stories, opinions. • People should support you, not your company or product. (7.1/11)
• People love specifics. Share your secrets – what frameworks you use, what channels worked for you, how you make money & how much. • Engage with popular accounts. Reply to their tweets sharing your opinions. (7.2/11)
• Write consistently. Both your audience & the Twitter algorithm will appreciate this. • Bookmark tweets you like. Use the underlying idea and share your unique opinion/experience around it. (7.3/11)
• Analyse tweets that work, both your own & those of others. Don’t try to find a template but see what idea or emotion worked. (7.4/11)
How to build a LinkedIn audience • Be yourself & bring out your own personality. • People connect with people. Company, brand or product accounts don’t work. • Focus on sharing personal experiences & stories vs. company updates (8.1/11)
• Share your achievements. People love to celebrate with you. • Share your failures & learnings. • Make connections. Interact on other people’s posts. Chat over DMs. • Write consistently. Both your connections & the LinkedIn algorithm will appreciate this. (8.2/11)
How to build an audience on community websites • Contribute first, market later. Moderators can easily mark you spam. • Follow the community guidelines. Ex. Sharing your own blog posts rarely (1 out of 10 times) on HackerNews or Reddit. (9.1/11)
• Tailor your existing content to the theme of the community. Ex. On some subreddits, users love analysis & breakdowns while on others, personal stories work best. • Help others & ask for help. Community websites thrive on members who are keen to help each other out. (9.2/11)
How to use Slack Channels, LinkedIn & Facebook groups • Key is to find the right set of groups or channels. • Contribute to the group. Help others and even reach out to the admins. (10.1/11)
• Follow the guidelines. Usually there are specific days or threads where you can market your own content. • Make connections with people and take the conversations outside of the groups. Connect over email, chat or social media. (10.2/11)
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