The Secret To Building An Audience Fast

In this article, I am going to do a deep dive into one of the most powerful, if not THE most powerful, way to build an audience of ideal clients that feel some kind of trust towards you–fast!

Quickly building an audience is a highly underutilized concept; however, when implemented, it capitalizes on the word "leveraging" - leveraging time, effort, and results.

The biggest problem that most people have when they embark on selling a high-value offer is that they are little known—they haven't got an audience that knows about them.? Therefore, they struggle to get clients.

There is a solution that capitalizes on the effort, investment, credibility, and trust that others have built with your target market. It is about aligning yourself with non-competitive businesses and people who can short-cut your timeline to success.? They can give you a surge in awareness by introducing your products and services to their audience on a collaborative basis. It can be a win-win for both parties.

As I have mentioned, it is the most powerful strategy available, and unlike organic content marketing (posting on LinkedIn or Instagram, etc.), you are not at the mercy of the algorithm. Additionally, unlike paid advertising, you are not at the mercy of giving all your money to Zuckerberg.

There’s no such thing as a self-made person. Building a successful practice is a team sport. The spirit of partnership is not about the legal definition; it’s not about written contracts.?

It is about understanding that:

• Whoever you want to reach, someone already knows them.
• Whenever you want to be seen as credible, someone can endorse you.
• Whenever you need someone to help, someone can.

Many different kinds of partnerships and strategic alliances include:

• Partners that give you helpful recommendations.
• Referral partners that send clients your way.
• Introducers to the team or software you might need.
• Affiliates that promote your offer and get a commission.
• Joint ventures where you team up with someone and do something together.
• A strategic alliance where you align yourself with someone to benefit both of you.
• Legal partnership - which is self-explanatory.

From these kinds of partnerships, the Joint Venture/Strategic Alliance partnership is the one that I really want to focus on.?

Let me give you an example of a strategic alliance that I first did when I came into the accounting profession. You see, my problem was that I was not known in the profession; when I first joined in 2016, I did not have one accounting connection on my LinkedIn or one accountant on my Facebook. My audience consisted of people who wanted to escape their day job and start a consulting/coaching business - none of whom were accountants.

I had to look at my time, financial resources, and situation very seriously. If I wanted to get in front of accountants, what was the best way to do this?

Was it to start creating content and hope that accountants would connect with me???

Yes, I did need to do that; I needed to create content to show my expertise and experience and position myself as someone who knew what they were talking about. This strategy alone would have been slow; it takes time to gain an audience through content creation alone.

Did I need to do Facebook advertising? Well, no - I had yet to understand my ideal client enough or have a lead magnet that I knew people wanted, so using Facebook Advertising would have been a gamble, and I could have lost a lot of money.

I was left with one strategy that I knew worked exceptionally well. Combining it with organic marketing would catapult me into the front of my ideal target market and give me instant credibility.?

I knew that the way to start building my audience in droves was to tap into joint venture partnerships and strategic alliances. I am sure you have heard of Ignition App.? Well, back in 2016, they were known as Practice Ignition.?

Practice Ignition, or Ignition as it is now known, had just what I needed—accountants and bookkeepers using their product and a large online community that I could reach out to.

I had something that they didn’t have at the time…

This was expert knowledge of marketing and sales. Maria Lauring, who was in charge of customer success at Practice Ignition, and I decided to team up and bring a series of webinars to her audience.? These webinars were designed around how to use social media to get clients. This was a really good partnership because between us, we had three things which every good JV partnership should have:

• Strong Brand
• Expertise
• Audience

For an ideal partnership to occur, each party needs at least two of these three.

I brought the expertise to the Ignition partnership; I had been posting content online for many years and had a strong brand, albeit not yet within the accounting profession.?

Ignition, on the other hand, had a strong brand in the accounting profession and the audience I needed.? So, this partnership was a perfect fit for both of us. I brought the expertise of sales and marketing, and they brought the audience.?

It was great - so great that over three years, I not only ran numerous webinars for them but also sponsored their pre-show events in London.??

I teamed up with both them and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in 2019 for a week-long roadshow. This alliance alone enabled me to build my email database by thousands and showcased me as the go-to marketing consultant for the accounting profession here in the UK. ? I can attribute thousands of pounds of revenue to this strategic alliance alone; never mind the other alliances and partnerships that were formed off the back of this one.

Accountex, the leading exhibition for accountants and bookkeepers in the UK, was another partnership that I had. I approached Zoe Lacy Cooper, the event director at the time, and asked her if she would be interested in supporting me in launching the BAMAs—a hair-brained idea of mine where we celebrated accounting firms that were great at marketing. The BAMAs stood for British Accounting Marketing Awards.?

Zoe said yes! She and several other key people from the accounting profession were judges.? We had five awards, with five judges for each award. These awards enabled me to reach out to people in the profession and build great relationships with them by asking them to be judges.

I had the expertise; these guys had the audience and brand. Can you see the pattern here? Partnerships are so powerful, especially when you need to reach a large audience.?

In a way, we are also in partnership with social media platforms. These platforms have our audience, and if you post on them, you can showcase your expertise and build your brand. Joint ventures and partnerships are all about one thing—LEVERAGE—moving you faster along your journey by leveraging other people’s contacts or brands. The benefits of such partnerships are manifold.?

Here are some advantages of leveraging:

• Shared resources and expertise
• Increased credibility
• Cost-effective marketing
• Cross-promotion
• Diversification of content
• Referrals
• Pooling data and insights
• Increased media engagement
• Enhanced-value propositions

I hope that by now, I have shown you the power of a strategic alliance or partnership. What I would like to do next is discuss a few tactics that you could use to get started.

First off, please remember that a partnership must be a combination of three things, and you need two of them:

• A strong brand
• Expertise
• An audience

You might be tempted to seek a partner with a big audience right from the moment you launch your business or practice, but I would warn you to stand down and make sure you have built up two or three elements.?

When building a strong brand, you need a firm vision of what makes an ideal client, a clear brand message, and visibility in the media—online and/or offline. Additionally, you may need a strong local presence if you are looking to build your business in your area.

To be seen as an expert, you need to have content showcasing your expertise, credible awards, or relevant exams that you have passed; Show everyone that you have been in the field for some time and have case studies of results, for example.

Don’t overthink this section. You can be an expert by being a qualified accountant or having worked as an accountant or CFO for a few years already in the industry.? The audience one is self-explanatory.?

Some seven years after building my brand, expertise, and audience in the accounting industry, I have all three to offer when it comes to joint ventures.?

Whichever of the three strategies you are missing, you can build up.? It just takes time.?

Assuming you have the expertise and brand and have been showing up online and in media for a while, we can now start to think about who might be a good strategic alliance/partnership for you. The best way to find these people is to network online and offline. When talking with my clients, we create a hot list of the top 10 partnerships that could be a great fit.?

You can look at marketing agencies that might target your ideal client. You bring the financial coaching, and they help businesses grow with marketing, as an example. You can also look at publications, exhibitions, conferences, and chambers of commerce, and you can reach out to software companies directly.?

There are so many options.? My favorite way of finding partnerships is to look at exhibitions that have my audience.? I look at who is exhibiting there and reach out to those businesses, as you both want to reach the same audience.

Right now, I feel I might just be throwing loads of ideas at you, but please remember this is not a difficult strategy. You need to find someone that has your audience and reach out to them.?

You then need to get a quick call in the diary to see if there is anything that you could do together. Don’t be scared about reaching out to people.? This is an easy conversation. You are not selling or asking anything of anyone. You are just having a conversation.?

I am going to give you a couple of scripts you could use - one is for strangers and one is for friends.

?Let's dive in with the one for strangers first. Just send a message on social media/email and get a call in the diary to see if there is a win/win opportunity.?

Strangers:

Hi (First name)?

You and I haven’t met yet - but we both work with (insert niche) and are non-competitive.?

I’ve heard good things about you. I’d love to catch up and see if there is any way we can help each other out.?

It’d be great to get to know you, and see how I can help.?

Would you be open to that??

Amanda?

Friends:

Hey (First name)?

Hope you are well… It’s been a while…?

I’d love to catch up with you to hear the latest and see if there is any way we can help each other out.?

Would you be up for that??

Amanda?

Let’s dive back into the process. When you create a partnership, what kind of thing could you do together? As a starter, sharing a webinar with their audience, and having them do the same, is a nice win-win for both parties. Teaming up and running an event together could be another win-win. You could even consider writing a whitepaper together.?

?Another option would be if you could start small and write a blog for their website;? they could do the same for you.?

Start with a conversation. If you have the same ideal clients, if your values align and you like them, and if you like their business and they like yours, this approach has only upsides.?

Through such collaborations, you can significantly expand your audience, credibility, and, ultimately, your success.

If you would like to find out how to add 500k of advisory services with delivery hours less than 10 hours a week, check out this 10-minute training, where I unveil all.