OPA (other people’s audiences) is the fastest way to grow.
So, you have no audience. Well, that’s the way every brand has to start. Building an audience isn’t easy, and there are no guarantees of success.
However, there’s a way to grow your audience — fast.
And with little cost.
You piggyback on other people’s audiences.
Let’s dive right in:
OPA — Too Good To Be True?
Typically, you build an audience slow and steady. You struggle to reach new people, and then you work to establish enough trust for people to stick around.
It’s a mutual understanding — a Follower Contract.
But what if your inbound growth is too slow?
And your marketing budget is weak?
You could design a clever viral loop. Still, viral loops are typically development-heavy and keeping them “alive” is extremely difficult — if you can even get them to work in the first place.
But getting yourself and your brand in front of other people’s audiences is a surefire way to accelerate your growth. If you manage to collaborate wisely, your brand audience could grow exponentially.
It sounds almost too good to be true.
However, it’s true and tested. The only caveat is that you must have something of value to trade.
Incentive Mapping for OPA
These are my best tips to get yourself and your brand in front of OPA (other people’s audiences): 1I recommend Copyblogger’s excellent blog article, The Smart Way to Use Other People’s Audiences to Build Your Own.
1. Give OPAs Exclusivity
Your brand might have access to exclusive reports, content, news, launch details etc.
2. Give OPAs Traffic
Your brand might have at least some online traffic of interest for the platform owner to benefit from.
3. Give OPAs SEO Boosts
Your brand might offer do-follow links and social media mentions of value for the platform owner.
4. Give OPAs Well-Deserved Praise
Your brand might be able to honour the platform owner with a relevant reward, like an honorary title.
5. Give OPAs Extra Clout
Your brand might be positioned to elevate the platform owner (“kingmaker”) to a higher status.
6. Give OPAs Valuable Insight
Your brand might offer the platform owner’s audience expert knowledge of value.
7. Give OPAs Some Excitement
Your brand might offer exciting value experiences to the platform owner’s audience.
8. Give OPAs Lots of Entertainment
Your brand might be able to offer compelling stories or other types of entertaining content.
9. Give OPAs Useful Inspiration
Your brand might be in a position to offer inspiration.
10. Give OPAs Your Services
Your brand might be able to offer products or services for free.
The No. 1 Strategy for OPA
While the above Incentive Mapping is helpful, there’s one OPA strategy that outshines them all:
Become an influencer with an audience yourself.
Now, it’s a chicken-or-the-egg situation, of course, but it’ll be easier to piggyback on other people’s audiences the more your audience grows.
ANNOTATIONS
| 1 | I recommend Copyblogger’s excellent blog article, The Smart Way to Use Other People’s Audiences to Build Your Own. |
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