I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
Struggling to get noticed?
Hey Reader,
Do you feel like you’re having trouble getting noticed?
There’s a reason you may not be reaching as many people as you’d like.
Even though you’re putting quality work into the world, you aren’t getting any traction. Growth has stalled out completely, and you feel like you can’t seem to break through to the next level.
Something’s off.
Your first thought might be to start looking around for other markets you can tap into. Maybe if you wrote about a broader set of topics… or maybe if you added more features to your software to attract new customers…
Stop.
Getting traction involves doing the opposite of what comes natural.
Have you ever asked someone to describe what it is that you do? Try asking them, “If you were to describe to someone else what I do, what would you say?”
If they have a hard time answering, or struggle to describe you, chances are, so does everyone else.
When you try to be everything for everyone, people feel like you’re for no one.
So how do you get clear on your messaging?
Focus on fewer people.
This is a separate idea from what market you should choose. I’m not saying you can’t—or shouldn’t—choose a big market. Pick a large market if you’d like! But you’ll have an easier time getting traction in the beginning if you focus on a subset of potential readers or customers.
You hear it all the time: narrow your focus. “Niche down.” It’s the easiest advice in the world to give but the hardest to take.
Kieran Drew could have positioned himself as someone who can help anyone make a living online (which might be true). But he knows that’s too broad. So instead, he focuses on helping non-fiction writers succeed by nailing their positioning, honing their copywriting skills, and using Twitter as an audience growth platform.
This laser focus has resulted in his audience skyrocketing to over 160k followers in just the past couple years. And he can always broaden his focus later (not that he needs to).
In the early days of building ConvertKit, I was also struggling to find traction. Growth had plateaued, and getting people to switch providers was difficult. We were trying to be email marketing for everyone.
But when we narrowed our focus to positioning ConvertKit as “email marketing for professional bloggers”, we saw a breakthrough. Suddenly, people felt like we were for them. Because they identified as professional bloggers, and ConvertKit was “email marketing for professional bloggers”, they believed we were the better choice.
In addition, getting more specific with our messaging also supercharged word of mouth. Instead of people struggling to describe who ConvertKit was for, they could now easily make a recommendation. More and more bloggers switched to ConvertKit because bloggers they knew were switching to ConvertKit.
Today, ConvertKit is much more established, so we have the luxury of being able to say we’re the go-to marketing hub for authors, musicians, podcasters, etc. But we wouldn’t have gotten traction if we hadn’t focused on fewer people in the beginning.
So if you’re struggling to get noticed, try speaking to fewer people and focusing on a more specific niche.
PODCAST
Content Creator Secrets
At Creator Economy expo last month, I did a little podcast tour and went on a few different shows that recorded live, in-person episodes. One of them was Content Inc with Joe Pulizzi.
In this episode, Joe and I did a deep dive into what it takes to be a successful content entrepreneur.
LIVESTREAM
Special Livestream: What's next at ConvertKit
We have some exciting new features launching at ConvertKit, and I'm announcing them in a livestream on Friday.
When: Friday, June 9th at 10:15am MT
If you're not attending Craft + Commerce in person, you can watch me announce our newest product feature updates and roadmap here:
Register to view livestream »
TWITTER THREAD
10 writing secrets to stop sucking at writing
I mentioned Kieran earlier in the newsletter. He's a great follow if you're a writer.
This memorable tip on avoiding passive voice is just 1 of 10 he has in this epic thread for writers:
Hope to see you in a couple days at Craft + Commerce!
—Nathan
Nathan Barry
I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.