Leveraging The Right Audience

I went to Auburn University to become a civil engineer, but engineering wasn’t a good fit.

I wanted to run my own business so I started selling products on Amazon.

It was going well so I wanted to find other products to sell and that’s how Jungle Scout was born.

It’s a search tool for Amazon sellers that helps you find great products. When I first built the Jungle Scout tool, I didn’t have any digital marketing experience, but I wanted to find more people who could benefit from using it.

I tried a number of different marketing tactics – I was all over the place. I was confused.

Leverage the audience of others

What ended up moving the needle for me, especially in the beginning, was leveraging other people’s audiences.

When you don’t have an audience to market to it’s very hard to get that initial traction. However, if you can team up with someone who has command of a relevant audience it’s going to be a lot easier to get your first initial sales.

I didn’t have many customers, and someone in the space reached out to me and asked if I’d do a webinar to educate their audience about Jungle Scout.

I said “Sure! Why not!”, and I gave it a try. That first webinar literally doubled the number of customers I had and got me thinking I might have found my marketing tactic.

Essentially that’s what I’m doing now! Hello EHQ audience, nice to meet all of you!

https://youtu.be/DfQkx8omoL0

What do you have to offer?

The biggest question you need to answer when working with another entrepreneur is: What do I have to offer that’s going to provide value to their audience?

I knew I had to reach out to other business owners and that meant I would have to give each one a unique pitch on why I had a good offer for them.

People are protective of their audiences and that’s a good thing! Instead of outright asking for them to sell your business, walk them through how you’re going to be providing a massive benefit to what they’ve already built.

Typically, when I reach out to people with smaller audiences I send a cold email.

I tell them that I want to do a webinar with them and demo my project. These are the up and comers who also want to make a name for themselves in the industry.

How to connect with big influencers

Larger influencers are getting pitched all the time and if they’ve never heard of you it’s going to be harder to get through to them.

The approach I’ve taken to building my network over the years is to look at it like a staircase.

I think the ultimate connection I’d like to have is Gary Vaynerchuk.

There are lots of people who want his time and attention, and it’s going to take some work to meet him. But in the meantime, I can work backwards and think of who’s in Gary’s circle. If I don’t have any connections there I consider who I can connect with in those people’s circles.

I can do this all the way until I fit a group of connections who are immediately accessible to me. This is meant to be a natural process that you work on over time.

Action Steps

  1. Send a cold email to potential partners with smaller audiences and explain how you’d like to work with them.
  2. For larger influencers, build up industry connections and showcase your past results.
  3. Think of who you’d like to network with – don’t be scared to think BIG!
  4. Consider their circles and who you’re able to connect with until you find a group of contacts you can network with right away.

 

Result You Will Achieve

Expand your reach dramatically by leveraging partner audiences.

Mentor: Greg Mercer

Founder and CEO of Jungle Scout, a suite of tools that empowers freedom builders. As a successful entrepreneur, Greg leads a team of 35+ employees. He is also an influential educator, offering free and inspirational content that has helped thousands of people build their own businesses and freedom.

This article is based on an EHQ interview with the mentor.