Guide
How to build an audience: start before you need it
Updated
Referrals and followers can disappear overnight. Build an email list and a face people recognise now, with one post a week on one platform.
In short
- You build an audience by posting once a week on one platform and pointing everyone to an email list you own.
- An audience takes months to grow, which is why you start before you need the work.
- Your email list and the fact that people know your face are the two things you keep.
- Pick the one platform your future buyer already uses, and leave the rest alone.
- Expect weeks of silence and then sudden jumps. Most people quit during a flat stretch.
- Yearly growth in LinkedIn video watch time (LinkedIn, 2024)
- +36%
- People who watch video with the sound off in public (Verizon Media, 2019)
- 69%
- Cost to start: a phone, daylight and the platform's own captions
- $0
- Lite on Cutroom a month, if you post talking videos
- $19.99
Why start before you need it
Most coaches, advisors, recruiters and consultants get their work through referrals, an employer's name or a platform's reach. None of those three is yours to keep, and when one stops the enquiries stop with it.
- You do not have to drop referrals or platforms. Keep all of them.
- Just add the two things nobody can take away: an email list, and a face people recognise.
Borrowed reach, and why it can vanish
| Borrowed reach | Why it can vanish |
|---|---|
| Referrals | They depend on other people's memory and timing |
| Your employer's name | It opened doors, but it stays with the employer |
| Platform followers | An algorithm change can halve your reach overnight |
| Conference stages | Someone else decides who gets booked |
Borrowed reach: Referrals
- Why it can vanish
- They depend on other people's memory and timing
Borrowed reach: Your employer's name
- Why it can vanish
- It opened doors, but it stays with the employer
Borrowed reach: Platform followers
- Why it can vanish
- An algorithm change can halve your reach overnight
Borrowed reach: Conference stages
- Why it can vanish
- Someone else decides who gets booked
The two things you can own
Only two audience assets stay yours through every platform change and every job change.
- Every hour you spend on marketing should grow one of those two things.
- A post that never points to your list grows something the platform owns, not you.
- Kit, Beehiiv and Mailchimp all have a free tier, so the list costs nothing while it is small.
Your two assets
| Asset | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Email list | Yours to keep. It reaches every subscriber directly, and it moves with you if you change firm or platform |
| Your face and voice | People who have watched you talk already know you at the first call, whichever platform they saw you on |
Asset: Email list
- Why it matters
- Yours to keep. It reaches every subscriber directly, and it moves with you if you change firm or platform
Asset: Your face and voice
- Why it matters
- People who have watched you talk already know you at the first call, whichever platform they saw you on
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
Step 1: Pick one platform
Choose the platform your future buyer already uses. Every extra platform splits the weekly energy that keeps you posting.
- From day one, point everything at your list with a pinned link, a free download or one plain line.
- A plain line is enough, such as 'I write one useful email a month. Sign up here.'
Which platform for which buyer
| Your buyer | Platform |
|---|---|
| Executives and professional buyers | |
| Consumers | Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, depending on the niche |
| Deep specialists | A newsletter, fed by one social channel |
Your buyer: Executives and professional buyers
- Platform
Your buyer: Consumers
- Platform
- Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, depending on the niche
Your buyer: Deep specialists
- Platform
- A newsletter, fed by one social channel
Step 2: Post once a week, every week
Pick the smallest routine you can keep in a bad week: one idea, posted once a week.
- Posting once a week for a year leaves fifty-two posts for a new visitor to scroll through. Three weeks of daily posting leaves twenty-one and then a gap.
- Pick a routine you can keep in a bad week, because most people who stop for a month never start again.
- Write if writing comes easily. Talk to a camera if talking comes easily.
- Whichever of the two you dread is the one you will skip, so do not pick it.
What to post
The material is already in your week. These four questions cover a year of posts.
- The question a client asked you twice this month.
- The mistake you keep watching people make.
- The thing you changed your mind about, and why.
- The story behind one win, with the numbers you can share.
Why growth goes flat for months
Most weeks nothing moves. Then one post reaches more people than the previous two months put together.
- Nobody can predict which post takes off. You only find it by posting.
- Most people quit during a flat stretch, just before a jump.
- Expect months before strangers arrive and longer before buyers do. Nobody can promise you dates.
- What does grow every week is the library of posts a new visitor scrolls through.
Where video fits, and what it costs
For coaches, advisors and consultants, your face saying useful things each week is the fastest way to be recognised.
- A phone, daylight and the platform's own captions cost nothing and are enough to start.
- Filming takes ten minutes. Editing takes the evening, and that is the step that breaks the weekly habit.
- With Cutroom, one clip of yourself talking, up to 3 minutes, comes back as a finished 9:16 MP4.
- You make changes by editing the words, not by dragging clips on a timeline.
- If you do not want to film, Basic adds an avatar. Then people recognise the avatar, not you.
Cutroom prices
| What | Cost |
|---|---|
| Your first video | Free. 600 credits, no card, 7 days, with a Cutroom mark |
| Editing one clip | 100 credits |
| Export | 20 credits per finished minute |
| One 30-second video | About 110 credits |
| Lite plan | $19.99 a month for 1,250 credits, about 11 videos, no mark |
| Basic plan | $39.99 a month for 2,500 credits, avatars at 350 credits a minute |
What: Your first video
- Cost
- Free. 600 credits, no card, 7 days, with a Cutroom mark
What: Editing one clip
- Cost
- 100 credits
What: Export
- Cost
- 20 credits per finished minute
What: One 30-second video
- Cost
- About 110 credits
What: Lite plan
- Cost
- $19.99 a month for 1,250 credits, about 11 videos, no mark
What: Basic plan
- Cost
- $39.99 a month for 2,500 credits, avatars at 350 credits a minute
Questions people ask
- How long does it take to build an audience?
- Months before strangers arrive in numbers, often a year or more before buyers do. Anyone promising exact timelines is selling something. Growth comes in steps, so the one thing you control is posting every week.
- Which platform should I build an audience on?
- The one your future buyer already uses, and only that one, plus an email list you own. Splitting a weekly habit across three platforms is the easiest way to be inconsistent everywhere.
- Should I build an email list or a social following first?
- Both, and the list is the one to protect. Followers live on someone else's platform, and the list is yours. Point your platform at it from week one, even if it starts with nine people.
- What if I have nothing to say?
- You already answer questions all day. Post the one a client asked you twice this month, the mistake you keep seeing people make, or the view you changed and why.
- Is it too late to start building an audience?
- No. Most people who start stop within a few months, so anyone still posting a year from now stands out, whenever they began.
- What does a weekly video habit cost?
- Nothing at the free level: a phone and the platform's captions. With Cutroom doing the editing, about 110 credits per finished 30-second video. Your first video is free, and Lite is $19.99 a month for 1,250 credits, about 11 videos.
Own the list, show your face and post once a week. Your first video is free.