Meeting your audience where they are instead of where you are

[00:00:00] Rene: Hey everyone. Welcome to Your First Digital Product, a show that helps maxed-out service providers create their first digital product so they can gain an additional income stream, grow their impact without increasing one-on-one work and experience more time freedom. On the show, I talk to business owners who have launched digital products and dig deep into how you can create, launch, and market your first digital product. I’m your host, Rene Morozowich. Let’s go.

[00:00:28] Today let’s talk about meeting your audience where they are. A few years ago, I taught a non-credit class at the community college about building a website with WordPress. In the last of the four, two hour sessions, I quickly covered the basics of analytics, email marketing, and SEO. After talking for 15 minutes about SEO, I asked if there were any questions and one student asked, what’s SEO? Ugh. In my zeal to share everything about everything, I completely missed that

[00:00:57] not everyone would know what SEO was. So how do you meet your audience where they are and not where you are? Today I have five tips for you on how to do just that. My first tip is to take a few steps back and remember what it’s like to be a beginner. You’re probably pretty far along in your service offerings, but think back to when you were first starting out.

[00:01:19] What was new to you? What were the very first things you learned? What have you learned in the various stages of your journey? What did you need to know to get to where you are now? It can be hard to remember that far back, so it might help to write it out. Grab a piece of paper or a new blank note on your computer.

[00:01:36] Write down what you know today on a specific topic. Then take a step back and write down what you needed to know to get to that point. Repeat the process until you get back to the beginning. So here’s an example. Let’s say I wanna talk about creating a welcome email sequence in an email marketing platform.

[00:01:53] The step before that might be one welcome email when someone signs up for your list. The step before that [00:02:00] might be creating a form for people to sign up for the list. The step before that might be configuring an email marketing platform. The step before that might be choosing an email marketing platform.

[00:02:12] And the step before that might be the first step, which is why you should consider email marketing for your business. Now, you don’t have to start at the absolute beginning if your audience is a little further along. You can create content about any of these areas, but the best areas will be the ones that your audience needs help with.

[00:02:30] So the first tip is to go back to the beginning. My second tip is to chunk it down. If you mapped out the path from the beginning to where you are on any given topic, you have a ton of possibilities for sharing. Don’t just jam all those together into one epic piece of content. Break it down into smaller pieces.

[00:02:50] This one is tough because if you’re anything like me, you’re super excited about your content and the topics you’re sharing. You want to give everyone all the information that you have right away. But that only leads to overwhelm to your audience tuning out because they just can’t keep up with the volume and the depth of the information you’re providing.

[00:03:09] So chunk it down, break that big block of content into smaller actionable pieces. Give people a quick win. They’ll be more likely to come back for more, and you’ll have additional pieces of content to share with them. My next tip is to not assume. I mentioned in the first tip that you don’t have to start at the absolute beginning if your audience is a little further along, but make sure that’s where they are.

[00:03:32] Find some data to support what they already know and don’t know; don’t assume. I struggle with not assuming. In the example I shared about SEO, I knew that my audience wasn’t super savvy. They were there taking a beginner’s class on building a website. But I assumed that at least heard of SEO and knew what it stood for.

[00:03:51] Search engine optimization. What are you assuming and how is that preventing you from meeting your audience where they are?

[00:03:58] Which leads me to my fourth [00:04:00] tip. Just ask your audience what they need, what they don’t understand or what they want to know. Now, I don’t recommend asking a general blanket question like, does anyone have any questions? It’s the equivalent of asking your teenager, how was your day? You’re probably going to get a whole lot of nothing.

[00:04:16] Instead ask specific targeted questions. You don’t wanna bombard people with a thousand questions, long surveys and a whole interrogation, but quick, easy to answer questions can work really well. People like to be helpful and also share their experiences. Sometimes all you have to do is ask. And even better is to create an environment where your audience feels comfortable asking you questions and giving you feedback along the way.

[00:04:42] Invite questions and comments in your blog posts, your videos, your emails, your social posts, and your conversations. Just ask. Now, let’s say you didn’t do any of that. My last tip to meet your audience where they are, is to respond. When I started this podcast, I hit the ground running and dove right in with solo episodes on when to work on your digital product, what kind of digital product you should create, how to do less, and how to choose an audience for your product.

[00:05:09] I thought the title of the show, Your First Digital Product was enough, and that I didn’t need to explain what a digital product was. And honestly, I didn’t even think about it. But when questions started to come up and I had a few interactions that signaled that not everyone was on the same page about what a digital product actually was, I stopped and created a new solo episode.

[00:05:31] Would it have been better as episode one or two? Probably. Is it okay that it was episode 12? Absolutely. I listened to my audience. Now, it won’t always be in the form of an outright question. No one asked me, Rene, what is a digital product? But I picked up on the confusion in conversations with people and knew that it was an area that I should So how can you respond to your audience and meet them where they are? To recap, here are my five tips about meeting your [00:06:00] audience where they are. Remember what it’s like to be a beginner. Chunk your content down for quick wins. Don’t assume, ask your audience what they need and respond. Now this is going to be a little bit meta, but what’s one thing you’re taking away from this episode?

[00:06:15] Or is there anything else I forgot? Send me a voice message at yfdp.show/share with questions or comments. I’d love to hear from you.

[00:06:24] Hey, thanks for listening. I’d love to continue the conversation in your inbox. Email SUBSCRIBE to hey at yfdp.show or sign up in the show notes to get bimonthly emails about how you can create, launch, and market your first digital product. Can’t wait to see you there.