Having many qualifications and a ton of experience does not guarantee that you’ll attract clients. So what can you do to build a strong community that supports your brand and business growth?
In this episode, Influence By Design listener Bronja Batorijs asks what the best ways to grow a tribe. I cover these questions and highlight the importance of having a community or a group of people who know, like, and trust you.
Building relationships whether online or in real life gives you visibility and an opportunity for your ideal prospects to get to know you. This helps you stand out from the crowd and be seen as the authority in your niche.
No matter how many accolades you have, if people don’t know who you are, you’ll never be able to drive business growth. By having a community, you allow people to understand the value you can deliver and how your business can help them solve their problems.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL DISCOVER:
- The three areas to assess to know who your ideal clients are (02:43)
- How to increase your visibility (06:22)
- The most important type of content to publish to establish your brand (07:47)
- The relevance of engaging with your list (09:49)
- Initiating sales conversations through “The Triple Love Process” (11:39)
- The importance of building relationships in real life (14:58)
QUOTES
- “Building a community or network of people who know, like, and trust you is an essential part of growing your business.”-Samantha Riley
- “Sales are made in conversations. If you don’t begin or continue the conversations, you won’t build the rapport needed to make sales.” -Samantha Riley
- “Building your community takes time and effort.” -Samantha Riley
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TRANSCRIPTION
Samantha Riley 00:00
Building your community takes time and effort. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it, but they’re not. Building community is something that will have you standing out from the crowd. So stay focused, be consistent, and always provide value come from a place of service. And you’ll soon have a community of people who know you, like you trust you, and promote and recommend you.
Samantha Riley 00:30
My name is Samantha Riley, and this is the podcast for experts who want to be the unapologetic leader in their industry. We’re going to share the latest business growth, marketing, and leadership strategies, as well as discussing how you can use your human design to create success in business and life. Inside and out. It’s time to take your influence, income, and impact to the level you know you’re capable of. Are you ready to make a bigger difference and scale up? This is the Influence By Design podcast.
Samantha Riley 01:01
Welcome to today’s episode of Influence By Design, I’m really looking forward to diving into this question today. And thank you, Bronja so much for asking this question.
01:11
Hi, my name is Bronja, and my business is The New Winning. And I help women break the cycle of choosing Mr. Wrong and learn to attract Mr. Right. My question is all about how to build my tribe. Because I have a lot of experience. But I don’t have a big community on Facebook. And that’s what I’d like help with.
Samantha Riley 01:39
I love it so much because I meet so many coaches and consultants that think that their ideal clients will find them just because they have an in depth expertise. But this just isn’t the case. If no one knows you exist, you won’t be able to find you won’t be able to attract new clients. Even though you have a host of qualifications and you have a lot of experience in your field. People need to know who you are. So building a community or a network of people that know you like you and trust you is an essential part of growing your business.
Samantha Riley 02:20
So I’ve come up with a few different areas that you can focus in to really to begin building that community. So the first part of this equation is really important, as they all are. But I find this is the most overlooked piece of the puzzle for coaches who want to grow their brand.
Samantha Riley 02:40
So number one, is you need to identify your ideal client. And I know you’ve probably heard this before, but I really want you to stick with me here, you need to know who your ideal client is, and identify them, it’s really critical to developing an effective marketing strategy. And that’s what we need a marketing strategy to be able to build your community. So your ideal client is the person or the organization that’s most likely to benefit from your products or your services, and becoming a loyal customer. So you need to know who this person is. And you need to know where they’re most likely hanging out. So you can tailor your marketing messages in a way that makes them really stop and take notice of your content. I’m sure you already know that it’s very, very noisy out there in the online world. And we need to be able to have your ideal client like stopping the scroll. If they’re on their phone and they’re scrolling through, we need to make sure that the content that you’re putting out there has them stop and take notice of what you’re posting. So to identify your ideal client, you need to consider a few things, you need to consider the demographics, you need to consider the psychographics and you need to consider their behavioral characteristics. So their demographics are things like age and gender, income, education, location. These are the really logical things. Then the psychographics are factors such as values and beliefs and attitudes and personality traits. And then finally, the behavioral characteristics include things such as their purchasing habits, their media consumption, their online behavior, so what is it that they’re they’re doing on a daily or a weekly basis. So when you know who this person is, then you’re able to speak directly to this person or your ideal prospect or your ideal clients, pain points and their desires, and really highlight how your product or service can solve their specific problems. You can focus on what makes you different. You can focus on The marketing channels that you’re most likely to reach your ideal client. So which social media platforms are you going to hang out on? Or which industry specific publications are you going to write for or advertising. So by identifying your ideal client and tailoring your marketing efforts to meet the needs of these prospects, and to really meet the needs of their preferences, you can increase your chances of building that loyal customer base, and increase your chances of success. It’s worth noting that your ideal client may evolve over time as your business grows and changes. Because you’re in the early stages of business, you will start to distill and get clarity over time, in a deeper way. So it’s really important to regularly revisit and update your understanding of your target market, and ensure that the content that you’re creating and the marketing efforts that you’re engaging in do remain effective. So don’t think just because you have done the research at the beginning, that it can’t change. So yeah, number one, just be really clear on who that that target market is. Number two, you need to be visible, you need to be visible and create content that showcases your expertise, you need to really get yourself out there. You can do this by blogging by podcasting, creating videos by posting on social media. But whatever you do, make a decision of where you’re going to focus your efforts. And don’t try to do it all at once. Choose the medium that comes easiest to you and then go all in on that. So if writing comes to you the easiest, then blog and write social media posts, spend your time on actually writing. If your target market is on LinkedIn, post daily, publish a LinkedIn newsletter. So choose whatever the platform is, and then match your daily habits or your daily content creation to what fits you well. If you prefer to speak, podcast guesting is a really great strategy, go all in on that and maybe set a goal to secure something like four interviews a month, whatever platform you decide on, consistency is key. So make sure you’re regularly putting out content to build that audience. And to keep that audience as well. To establish yourself as the leader in your niche, you need to really think to the next level though, not only is it important to focus on the quantity of content that you’re putting out, but also focus on quality. So your content shouldn’t only be informative and engaging and provide value to your target audience. But also should clearly show or portray or explain what makes you different to other people that are currently in your space. Do this by creating and speaking about your own frameworks, your own methodologies, your own keynote talks. And this way you won’t sound like and I’ll put this in air quotes, you won’t sound like everyone else, you’ll sound just like you and in a way that no one else can emulate. And once you’ve created this content, don’t forget to promote it. This is a piece that also a lot of people forget. So creating great content is only half the job, you also need to get it in front of the right people. So don’t take the time to get yourself booked on podcast and then do nothing with it. That’s only like one tiny piece of the equation. Remember to share it on your social media platforms and share it wherever you are. You know, if you’re on Instagram, make sure you share it. As a post, create another piece of content as a real, make sure you post it on stories. You want to create visibility to this piece of content you’ve created in the most maximum way. Share it on your website. Also share it to your email list because the people that are already on your email list or people that are already your biggest supporters, they want to hear about the content that you’re creating. They want to be immersed in it. And remember to include calls to action in your content to encourage people to connect with you. You’re not just creating the community, but you’re also asking people to connect with you and to engage with you.
Samantha Riley 09:46
So number three is build your email list. The old saying the money is in the list is still as relevant today as it was back in the early days of the internet. Your email list is the most valuable asset, because you actually own it, unlike your social media platforms, which are not owned by you, and could disappear at any moment. So create a free resource that you can offer in exchange for people’s email addresses could be something like a little mini workbook, or a PDF or a webinar, whatever you want to create to encourage people to sign up. So essentially, you’re giving them something of value, so they can give you their email address in return. Now, once you’ve created that resource, share it everywhere, share it on your social media posts, in your videos, in your podcast interviews, anytime you’re creating content that could be in front of your ideal people, your ideal audience, share that resource to encourage people to, to sign up to your event or to download your resource. But also remember that growing your list is only one part of the puzzle. Once you have people on your list, only if it’s like two people, you need to email them regularly. So you need to do that to continue to grow that relationship, you know, you build that initial connection. But now you need to create that rapport and that know like and trust. And you need to do that. So that when you have an offer, for your ideal prospects, that they have an opportunity to put up their hand and say they’re ready to work with you. So number one, grow your email list or build your email list. And number two, engage with that list. So number four is along that similar sort of line, but it’s engaged with your audience. So it’s like I just mentioned, it’s really essential to engage with your audience so that you build relationships, sales are made in conversations. And if you don’t begin or continue the conversation, you won’t have build the rapport that you need to have to begin the sales conversation. So respond to engagement on your social media, if people engage on your posts, they’ve gifted you their most valuable resource. And that’s time, don’t ignore or just give something a like, keep the triple love process in mind. So the triple love process is number one, give a reaction to their reply. So you know, like or give them a love heart or some sort of reaction number to tag them by using their name that notifies them that there is a notification on their social media profile to look at. But also people love to hear their own name, it gives them a dopamine response that makes them feel seen and everyone likes to feel seen.
Samantha Riley 12:49
And number three, reply with a comment. So every time someone comments on your posts, keep that triple love process in mind. Now, what we’ve just talked about here is in relation to people that are already in your world, because they’ve engaged on your post. But you also need to be connecting with new people. So you’re constantly growing your network. So I suggest setting a target of connecting with a certain number of people every day, somewhere between 10 and 50 is a really good goal and set as a goal so that you’re creating a habit or a strategy around this. So connect with people and then open up the conversation with them. It’s not just about clicking a connect button, and then forgetting who they are. Introduce yourself and say hi, definitely don’t go straight in with a buy my stuff kind of conversation. Go into this with a long term strategy of building your network of building that community. And if you do this, right, there will be people who are looking for what you offer, and will put their hand up straightaway and say they want to work with you. But keep your focus on building that know like and trust and positioning your expertise. Now one of the most valuable ways to engage with your audience is to host events, think webinars or challenges or summits. Essentially, these are events that position you as the leading authority in your niche. Not only is this a great way to showcase your expertise and your knowledge, and your frameworks and your your facilitation skills, but it’s also a great way for partners to find you and to open up that that relationship where eventually they may promote you. So when your network sees you hosting events, they’ll know that you’re a leader in your niche and they’ll invite you to do things like speak on their stages, invite you to guest on their podcasts, and open up conversations to cross promote. And these are all really great ways to leverage your growth and exponentially grow your audience or your community. So I’ve talked a lot today about creating your network online. which we definitely need to do. But there’s also something really special about building relationships in real life. So attend events where your ideal clients and your potential promotion partners hang out. Now, it could be networking events, which is where people’s minds automatically go when we talk about meeting people in person. But it could be things like industry conferences, or just hosting lunches or, or some sort of coffee or breakfast for people that are in your industry, a way that you can meet people in in real life. Because I feel that when you meet people in real life, it speeds up the relationship building. But finally, I want you to remember that building your community takes time and effort. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it, but they’re not.
Samantha Riley 15:52
Building community is something that will have you standing out from the crowd. So stay focused, with all of the things that I’ve talked about today. Be consistent, and always provide value come from a place of service. And you’ll soon have a community of people who know you, like you, trust you, and promote and recommend you. So thank you, Bronja, for asking this question today. And for everyone that’s listening. I hope that you’ve taken something out of this episode that will help you to build your community, something that set that little spark off in your in your brain that thinks, Oh, I could go and do that, or I could be doing that better. And if you’d like to have your question answered in an upcoming episode, head over to Samantha Riley dot global forward slash question that will open up a page where you’ll see a big green button, and all you need to do is tap that button. It says start recording, and leave your name your website and ask you a question and you could be featured in an upcoming episode of Influence By Design. Thanks so much for listening today, and I look forward to hanging out with you in the next episode.
Samantha Riley 17:05
Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Influence By Design podcast. If you want more head over to influencebydesignpodcast.com for the show notes and links to today’s gifts and sponsors. And if you’re looking to connect with other experts who are growing and scaling their business to join us in the coaches, thought leaders, and changemakers community on Facebook, the links are waiting for you over at influencebydesignpodcast.com
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