The 4 Steps to Growing an Audience for Your Content Campaign
March 1, 2024
Okay, let’s be honest: Person to person, writer to writer—writer’s honor, we don’t judge! —as much as we like to say we write as a means to honor our drive to create content, we also write with the intention of the public consuming our content. There’s just nothing like sharing something that you’ve made and seeing your audience gobble it up.
Well, there’s nothing like it if you actually have an audience, that is.
As experienced writers, we know how challenging it can be to establish and grow an audience for your content. With so much content posted every hour of the day, it can be difficult to find and claim an audience for your content.
Fortunately, our experience has also revealed steps you can take and practices you can implement that will help you do just that. So, give yourself a writerly, ink-stained high five because you just found the guide that holds the key to calling DIBS on your audience.
Establish your audience.
Define
Before you can start to establish your audience, you first need to define exactly who those people are. This is done by determining you niche, target audience, and your unique value proposition.
Niche
Since this is the first step, it might feel overwhelming but try not to overthink it. Think about the content that you want to create (or already have been creating) and define what you write about.
Your niche is the specific segment of the market that shares common characteristics, interests, needs, or demographics.
Identifying your niche allows you to focus your efforts on a particular subset of consumers who are most likely to be interested in your content.
Rather than targeting a broad and diverse audience, targeting a niche allows for more precise and tailored marketing strategies.
Target Audience
Next, turn your attention to your audience. Think about whom you want your content to reach, whom it will interest, and with whom it will resonate.
Determining the target audience for your content is crucial for crafting relevant, engaging, and valuable content that resonates with your intended audience.
Unique Value Proposition
Set your modesty aside and let out that ego, amigo. What makes your content stand out?
Providing a different perspective or something of value will help you capture your audience’s attention and keep them coming back for more.
Invent
Alright, Writer, it’s your time to shine! Let your creativity run wild and invent high-quality, valuable content that serves a purpose and demonstrates your style and skills as a writer. For instance, invent content that informs the public, entertains readers, addresses current issues, or solves problems relevant to your audience.
Remember, it’s not just what your content campaign says, it’s also how it looks and how it’s structured. If you make your content visually appealing, easy to read through, and optimized for search engines, your audience will emerge.
Grow your audience.
Broadcast
Writers are often thought of as recluses, but many writers are masters of self-promotion. Look, over 6 million blogs are published daily—6 million!
So, if you want to build up your audience, you have to do your part to put your content in front of as many users as possible. In the digital realm, this involves two key factors:
Where You Post
Post your content across multiple social platforms but be sure to appropriately tailor it to each platform to maximize its reach. However, don’t forget to take advantage of the other channels available! Share your content in a newsletter, guest posts, paid ads, podcast mentions, forum posts, and so on.
Accordingly, be sure to take note of which platforms your content campaign is most successful on so you can use that knowledge to enhance your reach and further expand your audience.
When You Post
Remember back when people used to watch cable TV and didn’t stream everything on demand? Not only did we know what channel our show would be on, but we also knew the exact time it would air. There was something really satisfying about sitting down and knowing that in just a few minutes the newest episode of our favorite show was about to start.
The same concept applies to our content creators today.
A consistent posting schedule is advantageous, but it will only get you so far if it’s not done at the most opportune time.
So, experiment with when you post and see what times yield the best engagement with your audience.
Don’t forget that you can also broadcast your content offline (IRL if you will). Share your work via word of mouth, fliers on community bulletin boards, event shoutouts, and so forth.
And if there’s another content creator you know whose content complements your own, reach out to them about cross-promoting each other’s content.
Socialize
Have you ever commented on a post from a creator you really like, and they reply? It’s so exciting! But moreover, did you tell anyone about the interaction and recommend following the creator’s account?
You just helped them grow their audience!
Socializing with your audience is a great way to cultivate a sense of community and grow your audience. People love to feel like the content creators they follow are real, reachable people who listen.
Replying to comments, adapting to feedback, and sharing user-generated content helps make you relatable, broadens your reach, and ultimately grows your audience.
The DIBS Approach
So, let’s recap how to call DIBS on and expand your audience:
Call DIBS on Your Audience with The Writers For Hire
Growing your audience is an exciting part of your journey as a writer!
But if you want a little help, our professional team of experienced writers can help you plan, create, and run a content campaign that will help you build up your audience.
