People buy from people, period. And people buy from people they know, like and trust.

Which is why building an online business means building an online community. 

I’m taking a red hot guess that you are a YES for this.

🔥 Growing your email list into the tens of thousands and beyond

🔥 Getting your audience to open every email you send 

🔥 Building your Facebook group to 20,000 plus followers

🔥 Launching social media campaigns that create major buzz

🔥 Creating raving fans who buy your offers every time you launch

Want to get more of what you want? 

Build a captive audience. Nurture your captive audience. Sell to your captive audience. 

And it’s not once and done, babe. You have to continuously build, nurture and sell to build the kind of brand loyalty that will take your business to the next level. 

“Sounds great, but where do I even start?”, I hear you ask. 

Lean in for a listen. 

The way you build and nurture your audience is through content that must do these three things:

Deliver Value

First of all, building and nurturing an audience you can ultimately sell to is all about the value you provide to develop a relationship with your audience. You have to give your audience actionable insight (for free) that’s going to solve a problem for them or is going to make their life or business better. If done well, this moves your audience into gratitude for you and what you are offering them. You also want to establish yourself as an expert in the mind of your audience. That way, your audience will pay attention to you every time you speak to them. That’s a captive audience. And a captive audience is what is going to get you ready for a sales process.

And don’t be afraid to burn your audience out on launches. Launches can be a great way to build your audience, even if they don’t actually buy from you this time around. Why? Because as part of your launch, you’ll be sharing valuable free content that will attract new followers, nurture existing leads, and deepen your relationship with your community.  My last launch added 5,000 people to my email list. How’s that for burned out?⁣⁣

Create Connection

The highest measure of brand loyalty is when your audience actually proactively seeks you out, searches your name, and routinely engages with your content. The only way they will ever do this is if you demonstrate that you care about them and that you are willing to show some vulnerability yourself. Showing your humanity is what demonstrates that you are authentically connected and committed to your audience. People can sniff out in a heartbeat if you are being phony. Your best bet will always be sticking to your true self and true story to connect with your audience in both the struggle and the triumph. People want to know where you’ve come from to get to where you are because it lights the way for others to step forward into their own possibility.

Be Consistent

Every successful online entrepreneur is a prolific, consistent presence with their audience. They show up big and often to retain their audience’s attention and build durable connections that can convert to sales. This is essential in a world of fleeting social media personalities, mountains of content, and millions of new businesses looking for an online springboard every single year. You have to stand out to make an impression and an impact. And if you do, people will keep coming back to you for the value you provide. They will follow you, opt in to your email list, look for early bird offers, and engage with you in a way that creates sales opportunities. 

Building and nurturing your audience requires you to deliver value and create connections, consistently. From an execution standpoint, you have to make CEO decisions on where you are going to show up and meet your ideal clients. You also need to get clear on the messages you want to deliver.

Location, Location, Location

Where you say it matters as much as what you say. 

Where is your ideal client spending time? Instagram? Show up there. YouTube? There, too. Wherever your ideal client is, go there. 

Still, you should have a home court as well, where your audience can come to find you to connect and engage. For example, your very own Facebook group where engagement is highest. It could also be an email list, a Facebook page, LinkedIn group, or a Slack channel. Whatever it is that you decide to do, you need to have a place where your audience knows you’re going to show up and connect and engage with them. Where’s your audience going to be spending time with you?

Magnetic Messaging

Magnetic messaging is the key to speaking to your ideal clients. It’s the foundation of your entire brand. It’s the thing your audience can emotionally invest in, beyond just the practical results you can get them.

A message is bigger than just you. It’s what you have to say to the world.

As part of building your audience, make sure you are attracting the right people for what you have on offer. And the right people are going to be attracted to your message of what you believe to be true. Your answer to that question is something that will resonate with your ideal client. And if you bring an ideal client into your audience and nurture them really well, they will be ready to be a buyer at some point. So make sure that you are always on message and communicate your message very clearly when building your audience.

“I’m new to online business, where do I even start?”, is a question I hear all the time from my clients.

Even if you haven’t built a big audience yet for your own Facebook Group, show up in established Facebook groups where your ideal clients hang out. As an example, maybe your ideal client is hanging out in my Facebook group, The Intentional Entrepreneur, with over 20,000 followers. You could post there and share your message and what you care about. That way, you’ll start building your audience on their turf until you create the brand loyalty to nurture them on your turf.