Why build an audience first instead of selling your business directly?

"People cannot grasp the concept of build an audience that doesn't have to do with your business. They choose to read your product because it provides value to them, having nothing to do with you."

Now you have their eyeballs. You monetize later by putting your own business in front of them.

Does this work at a big scale?

Yes. HubSpot bought podcasts people choose to listen to, then runs HubSpot ads inside them. Same concept: get the attention people are choosing to give you, then monetize.

Why don't more businesses do it?

It's indirect. Most real estate people can't grasp "don't hard sell, don't sell at all." Someone I know at a big real estate company's home office told me nobody there will do it, precisely because it's indirect.

"Just give people value and you're able to sell later because you've earned their interest and trust."

What does the audience-first version look like?

• A local newsletter with events, news and humor.
• The owner's offer placed in it like any other ad.

The old local newspaper worked the same way. It had lots of ads, and people happily read it for 20 years because there was enough value.

Should the audience and the buyer be the same people?

Not always. For a media brand I sketched for business owners shopping for commercial insurance, the audience isn't the payer. Coverage guides, claims data and wild claim stories build the audience. The money comes from carriers or agencies.

If you're building media, it has to look like media. When an early design came back looking like any other insurance page with more data, I pushed back: if it's a media brand, the homepage should read like one.

Who is this best for?

Professionals who need people to know, like and trust them: insurance agents, financial planners, realtors, mortgage brokers. For more on running it as a local brand, see how a local business can use a media brand.