Growing an online business can quickly get overwhelming and frustrating.
When you start thinking about ALL the steps to get off the ground and running, it can make your head spin with doubt and insecurity.
It’s like looking at your garage that needs a good cleaning.
Surveying the unorganized and downright messy damage you’ve done over the years with old cars, engine parts, yard equipment, piles upon piles of storage containers, old tools, boxes of wires, and everything else you’ve collected…
Where do you even start?
Your instinct is to turn around, go back in the house, and save it until “next weekend.”
Thinking about all the things to start your home business can feel much the same way.
Luckily, there’s a simple way to break these steps down into just three categories that can almost instantly ease your overwhelm and give you a clear path to follow.
BUILD, ENGAGE, SELL!
See! You’re feeling better already aren’t you?
We’ve just broken down what EVERY successful business owner does to grow even the biggest online empires you know of. (And frankly offline as well.)
Let’s dig into each one of these three magic words, what they mean, and the steps to make each one of them happen.
HOW TO BUILD YOUR AUDIENCE
For any chance of success, your business needs LEADS!
Where do leads come from? Your AUDIENCE!
Therefore if you want to grow a six-figure business, your first step is to grow your audience… and then (or simultaneously) your lead list.
There are various ways to do this but all begins with creating your customer Avatar.
Once you know exactly who the person is who’s most likely to buy from you, and what they want and need…
The key is to go where your potential audience is already hanging out.
Which is very likely social media. So you guessed it…
- TikTok
- YouTube
- Etc.
But again, it all starts with knowing the niche market that you’ll be selling to.
Which you likely already do. Maybe it’s a coaching offer, a network marketing product or opportunity, or your own info products, physical products, or services, doesn’t matter.
Whoever your audience is will almost certainly be hanging out at one of the social media platforms above.
NOTE: You don’t want to go and try to use all these platforms at once. Your best bet is to PICK ONE and start building.
You can move on later, but you may not even have to.
Okay, let’s keep moving.
What are you selling?
The good news is it doesn’t matter. The truth is you don’t need to have an exact product to sell at this stage. Starting there can help, but don’t worry if you don’t know exactly what you’ll be selling just yet.
Because your audience and leads will eventually tell you what they want and need.
How cool is that? Because then you can create an offer that you already know they’re hungry for.
That should take some pressure off you if you haven’t figured it out already.
The more you narrow your niche, the faster you’ll move forward.
Let’s say you’re a holistic health coach specializing in helping Type 2 diabetics.
You can surely find groups of people on Facebook looking for more information to control their diabetes before (or once) they start developing side effects.
That’s the audience you’ll want to start building. But as you’ve probably already figured out…
Nobody wants to go around chasing leads and customers.
The better way is to ATTRACT YOUR AUDIENCE to YOU!
There are two simple ways to do this…
FIRST: Start Creating Valuable Content That Serves Your Audience
If you know your audience (which you should) then you know the questions they have, the problems they’re having, or the problems they’re trying to avoid.
When you start creating the content that helps them solve their problems, they’ll come to you.
You can do this with FB posts (or ads), Twitter (X) posts, YouTube videos, TikTok vids, reels, you name it.
Just choose your favorite one and go with it.
When you give them the value they want and need, they’ll begin to KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST you more!
Which is key to growing your brand.
SECOND: Share Value in Comment Sections of Other People’s Posts
The reason people go to groups is to get answers to their questions. Which means many people will ask questions inside the group.
When you answer these questions with tons of value, you’ll not only attract the person who asked the question, but the people reading who have the same question.
By the way, this works anywhere there are comment sections. YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
But keeping with FB, you’ll begin to get ‘Likes’, Friend Requests, and even Likes on your ‘business/fan page’ if you have one. (not necessary though)
Now you’re cooking with 🔥 and building your audience.
BONUS: Start Building Your Email LEAD List Right Away!
So here’s something that far too many people get wrong.
Your friends and followers are your audience. You now have people to engage with on your social media platform. (We’ll get to that in a second.)
However, your friends and followers on social media are not truly YOUR leads.
Read that again, and stamp it on your forehead.
If you really want to turn up the dial right away, you’ll start building your email leads list.
You don’t own your audience on any platform.
The platform owns it. Or to put it more clearly, Zuck and Musk own your audience. And that means one false move and it can be taken away from you in the blink of an eye.
You combat that by building your leads list right away.
That's a whole discussion in itself if you want to get it right. Too much to go into here.
But the gist is that you’ll want to move people from social media to your own list.
Click HERE to find out how to start growing your email lead list!
WAYS TO ENGAGE WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
Engaging with your audience can come in a few different forms.
We’ve already talked about how to engage with other people’s posts to build your audience.
Once you start consistently creating posts, people will begin to engage with YOU in comment sections, with likes, and friend requests.
Which means you now have the opportunity to engage directly with those people.
Most people pass this off by just feeling proud that you’re getting engagement.
And you should be proud.
However, if you’re not engaging back, and even messaging these people, you’re missing a huge opportunity.
Not to mention, social media platforms love it when you engage. And they’ll reward you for it by showing your content more often. So now your reach is forever increasing.
Here are a couple of ways to make this happen.
* Respond to comments on your posts (this is your chance to add even more value to your original valuable post.)
* Comment with value on your friends and followers posts. (This will expose you to the people in their audience who aren’t yet friends with or following you!)
* Respond to mentions from others. Again, this puts you in view of their friends and followers.
* Direct message the people who like and comment on your posts to build a deeper personal connection.
* Create a free offer (lead magnet) to get them from your chosen social media platform to your own email list. (now they’ve given you direct permission to email them over and over again to build a deeper connection and sell to them.)
HOW TO SELL TO YOUR AUDIENCE
So here’s the part that is the most exciting. The part where the money is made.
Yet believe it or not, many people skip it altogether.
Here’s the thing.
If you’re not earning money from your audience and leads, then you don’t have a business. You just have a bunch of friends online.
Selling means you have to make offers. Exchange YOUR value for THEIR money.
And since you’ve built a targeted audience, engaged, and built know like and trust, a portion of your audience and leads will buy from you.
All depending of course on the strength of your offer, and your strategy to sell it.
YOUR OFFER
Your offer is always key.
The right offer to the right people can crush even if your copywriting sucks.
The key is to give people what they want, make it more valuable than what you’re charging…
And present your offer in a way that clearly lets them see that they will benefit in a big way by using your product or service.
To demonstrate…
Let’s go back to the holistic health coach helping Type 2 diabetics.
Your offer could be something as simple as a meal plan to help them lower their A1C score by 2 points over 90 days.
Or an even faster win, which could be to get 30 days of perfect blood sugar levels.
This offer could be the front end of a marketing funnel that eventually sells a long term coaching service.
Just give them what they want, with so much value that they feel almost bad not paying you more… and you can quickly begin to start building a solid six-figure online business from home.
By now, much of your overwhelm should be gone.
Just start at the beginning, and start growing your audience, and then move onto the next steps one at a time as you gain traction.
Very soon, you’ll start to see money flowing in freely and easily as you grow your business.
Did you get value from this post? Want to add to something I didn't cover here? If so, let me know in the comments below. Also, did you grab my 14 conversation starters PDF? If not click the button below.
Additional Resources
✅ Learn, Launch, Lead Challenge – Learn More Here HIGH VALUE CONTENT
If you really want to learn what it takes to build a thriving online business then I highly recommend this 5 day Challenge from Legendary Marketer. Get a million dollar education for only $5!
✅ Magnetic Sponsoring Book - Learn More Here
This book changed my perspective on how to market online. I will NEVER market any other way online because of Magnetic Sponsoring. If you're in Network Marketing/Direct Sales, this book should be required reading.
✅ OptimizePress Funnel Builder – Learn More Here
By far the best WordPress theme and funnel builder on the market. It's meant for marketers because it's created by marketers. It gets my highest recommendation and I use it on all my personal sites.
✅ Aweber Autoresponder - Learn More Here
Building an email list is ESSENTIAL to the longevity of your online business. If you are not sure where to start in the online marketing game, this is for sure the first tool you should invest in for your business. Aweber is considered the industry standard.
You rock,
PS: If you don't have a step by step blueprint for success then check this out (Unless you currently have to many leads and sales then you can handle) - Click Here