Thought Bubble - How Big Does Your Audience Need to Be?
VIDEO: 4:51 mins
AUTHOR: Robert Craven
What is the actual number of people that you need in your audience? It's probably less than you think... listen to Robert explaining why.
Transcription:
Robert Craven 00:08
So, today I want to talk to you about minimum viable audience, the actual number of people you need to have in your audience. I think what's happened is we've been totally bamboozled by social media, by our own speak in our own stick, we don't need 1000s and millions, people who are following us, we don't need that many followers and that many likes and so on. So we don't even on LinkedIn chased by that many people. Let's just think about you know, who you want to be engaged with. For a start, we want to be engaged with not strangers, there's no point to which to strangers, they don't know who you are, your product, you don't know your customers, they don't know what's good about you. But you do want to be engaged with friends, people who know you, they may not have bought from you, but they know you they know what you do. They understand what you do, and how you do and who you do it for. And we certainly need to be engaged with our lovers, our ambassadors, probably clients and ex clients who love it.
Robert Craven 01:02
So we've got strangers, friends, lovers, we don't need to be talking to the lovers because they don't know who you are, they're not going to take your calls. A just don't know who you are partly because your marketing pitch, but that's another story. So just friends and lovers, that's first. Second thing is what is that number of people you need to be engaging with to be getting hold of a binding. Now, if you just do some simple math, if you have a target of 10 new customers, each month 120, if you win, in 50 of your pitches. And if just for the sake of keeping the number simple. After people you actually bought a new one a proposal from you. So now we've got the math ticking in place. So to get the 10 new clients month, you need to do 20 proposals, you need to have 40 conversations, people where you're getting to know them before you actually put the puzzle together. So now that matters, you need 40 proper level one conversations with people, or you can actually do the proposal. But so the real question is, how many people do you need in your audience to get 40 those people to want to talk to you to be interested in your product have a hurt need want it scratched? Want to pick up the phone to talk to you? My argument would be that maybe that number is near 1000 or 2000. Rather than that 10,000, 20,000. What is the minimum viable audience as a quote from Seth Godin, what is the minimum viable audience, I would suspect that if you're after that, and new you contracts per month, that number might actually only be 1000 in your audience that you're talking to. And I get hold of that, of course, remember, there's a qualitative thing rather than quantitative. If you're being focused on a specific niche, then things get even easier, because you're going to be more well known. And you can understand what their product their hurts and needs and niches, scratches and once off, you're going to be able to really relate to them, well, they're going to fall out, they know who you are, because you're in a smaller marketplace, there may be that minimum viable audience actually become a smaller, whereas if you're not focused on just one of these, we do digital marketing for small businesses, large businesses, government organisations, charities, and anything in between. Then when we're that undifferentiated proposition like that, then you may need to have a much bigger verbal audience because you don't differentiate yourself, you can't cross all your competing last piece. So there's a bit of a fader going on, which says in a niche, minimum viable audience smaller, outside of a niche, minimum viable audience larger. There's not that big number that you think it is. It's not that massive number that you keep chasing up. It's a community. It's a group of people. It's probably in the hundreds, not in the 10,000 and 1000s. Nobody knows who you are. Nobody knows what you do. Nobody knows your products. So the question I leave with what is your minimum viable alternative postcard?