If you have read any literature on becoming a content creator or starting a business, it probably talked extensively about “adding value.” In essence, money is literally the exchange of value.
Thus, to have someone exchange their hard-earned money for your content, service, or product, you’ll need to add value to their life. Today, I want to focus on adding value to your audience.
Welcome back to the Building an Audience 101 series (101), where I walk through the slow process of building an audience for your content, service, product, or business.
Life in the Metaverse
What is value? The most important question you ask yourself is, “What is value?” Surprisingly most people’s answers will be similar. Value is anything someone else will exchange for their time, energy, money, and attention.
As a business owner, how do you get someone to exchange their resources for what you are offering? First, you need to understand that you have to build a relationship with your customer or member.
You cannot expect to retain your audience the first time they interact with your content. I want to dive into the two different styles of content: search and unique.
Content for search. Most of the YouTube videos you will watch will be about starting a business or content platform related to search engine optimization (SEO).
Content Creation in the Metaverse
The goal of these businesses is to find keywords and create content around these search phrases. They then tell you to aim to be the number one search result.
In these scenarios, your business or content is just a commodity. Users come into your space (channel, blog, business), obtain the information, and leave. There is no connection. Yes, you will make much more money in the short term.
Unique content. Creating a unique content platform or business is incredibly challenging. That is because you are treading in waters no one has dived into before. Yes, you are similar to others, but your voice is different.
Think about your favorite local restaurants; what do they do differently? My wife and I go to a Sushi place religiously because of the hospitality. Their winning formula is happy hour and excellent service with a smile. We feel like valued customers.
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These relationships are tough to build; however, they will be vastly more lucrative in the long term.
Value & uniqueness. So how do you build a unique platform and add value at the same time? It takes time to find your voice, product, or niche service.
That’s why I am a fan of the content-first approach. I read about this method in “Superfans,” “Jab, Jab, Jab, Hook,” and “Content, Inc.”
With the content-first approach, you let your content do everything upfront. Instead of instantly trying to build a business around a product, you add valuable content to the world first.
Fitness in the Metaverse
I read an article about a business lady who started a shoe business in Australia. She got an idea, went to China to find manufacturers, bought a ton of inventory, and then started advertising. She paid $50,000 for a website that also cost $5,000/month to maintain during the process.
A better way. The best way to add value is to do it for free. First, keep your day job. It’s tough to find your voice if you need to make money today. Allow yourself 1-2 years to start your content and entrepreneurial journey.
In the example above, this person could have begun by explaining the difference between cheap, expensive, and designer shoes. They could give examples of different brands, how they fit, when to buy, and where to shop.
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There are many blogs and videos on these topics, but your voice is unique. No one on Earth has your voice because no one has your experiences.
By building a body of work on shoes, fits, styles, and prices, she would now have tons of information to leverage. Plus, her audience will give her ideas on what content to produce over time.
This audience-driven content is where you begin to add value. You are creating content that your audience will love. Not all content will be tailor-made for your audience because sometimes you have to lay the groundwork.
Friendships in the Metaverse
Laying the groundwork. After creating content for a while, you’ll learn what your audience prefers. However, you’ll still need to create content that may not be as popular because you’ll be laying the groundwork for future successes. You have to take the long-term approach.
On a side note, the best book on creating a never-ending stream of content is “How to Take Smart Notes.” Read this book now if you want to become truly great and add tons of awesome content to the world.
In my shoe example, my entrepreneur gets a ton of views and engagement when she talks about Italian shoes. She will still need to make content regarding Australian shoes. The attention given to Australian shoes will be low at first.
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However, she can create content on “Italian shoes vs. Australian Shoes.” Now, she is bringing her Italian shoe audience over to Australian shoes. She may convert some members if she can offer a significant value proportion for Australian shoes.
And perhaps, this is when she can perform a soft launch of her own personal Australian shoes. If she added enough value to her audience, a percentage of them would buy her shoes. They will spread her goodwill through word of mouth.
Word of mouth. If you add value, you will earn the most challenging form of advertising—word of mouth. Again, you’ll have to add massive value for free to your audience.
One of my favorite entrepreneurs, Gary Vee, says it best “If you want to start a multi-million dollar business, give your content away for free for 14 years.”
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This quote has always stuck with me because I see the value of giving away your content for free. How will you build an audience if there is a barrier to entry? Understand that you only need 1-3% of your audience to become paying customers for you to survive and excel.
The book “Superfans” tells us that we only need 1,000 hardcore fans to live an extraordinary life and dedicate our resources to building a solid community. You have to focus on growing your community, producing great content, and adding unique products and services that they will utilize.
Conclusion. There is so much more to adding value to your audience, but I’ll keep it short. You have to put your mission ahead of money.
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The money will come if you add terrific value to your audience. You can give your content away for free and have a “higher tier” of resources that your 1% can purchase.
For example, I give all my books away for free on Amazon and my website. However, I offer paperbacks for the few people that want to purchase them. It’s an excellent way to keep a physical copy of a book that adds value to their lives.
Being an entrepreneur is not about making money; it’s about adding value. Once you add value, the money will follow. Look at companies like Apple. Steve Jobs always wanted to add value to his customers, and they became diehard Apple fans as a result.
You will have to create, listen, and constantly adjust to add value consistently. Your audience will tell you what they want, and you will have to navigate to feed them on their terms. Be a voice of the people, maintain your uniqueness, and create daily, and you will become great. Good Luck!
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