Five Tips To Grow Your Audience For Your Digital Business Audience growth is essential in any digital business in 2018, because having a larger number of potential clients looking at your content will massively increase your revenue potential.

"It's about quality, not quantity!"

If you've been part of the business world for a while, you've probably heard this once, twice, or a thousand times. When we dive deeper into it, though, we're able to see it's not really the most logical statement in the world.

After all, if you don't also focus on quantity when you're building your audience, where would your sales come from? Audience growth is essential in any digital business in 2018, because having a larger number of potential clients looking at your content will massively increase your revenue potential.

When I started my business, I spent months heavily focusing on finding the right people to connect to, ensuring they'll keep seeing my content consistently. What I did next has enabled me to create a loyal audience of brand ambassadors, who, apart from opting into my offers, help me market them because they believe in my brand. Here are five essential aspects of growing that many entrepreneurs neglect:

1. Building a proper social media strategy One of the biggest reasons your audience growth is slower than a sloth climbing up a tree is because you're probably splitting your focus between too many platforms. An essential aspect of your social media strategy is to identify your core and secondary platforms. Your core platforms are the social media channels where you need to be present daily, because your ideal clients hang out there all the time as well. These are also the platforms where they're used to spending money. The secondary platforms are the channels you'll be building in the background, but not really focusing on until you master the core ones.

2. Take advantage of live streaming Ever since it became mainstream, live streaming quickly grew to be the favorite tool of many entrepreneurs to share stories, provide value and even sell products. However, even though it often seems like everyone around us is using live video, the truth is, it's still your best shot at putting your business on the map organically. Considering the fact that live streaming is going to be a US$70.5 billion industry by 2021, if you haven't boarded the live video train yet- it may be the right time. When you go live, the algorithm on most platforms will prioritize your content and when your audience starts joining, they'll be able to invite their connections, which helps you grow fast. You can give a "behind the scenes" look of how your business processes look like, give a tour of your office, interview other industry leaders– the opportunities are endless.

3. Ask for the "share" One of the biggest mistakes we tend to make with our content is not having a proper CTA (call-to-action)– especially when we want our audience to share it. Even when we do implement a call-to-action, we often use language that doesn't drive people to take action– because we ask, instead of telling. The key to getting shares and reaching thousands of people with a piece of content is to tell your audience to share it– and give them a reason. Any reason, says social psychologist Ellen Langer from Harvard in her 1989 study. What she found was that the word "because" is so effective that even when we use a weak reasoning after it, it still maintains its persuasive nature. Simply including the word "because" in your content when telling your audience to share it means you'll increase the shares and, therefore, your audience by reaching more people.

4. Make use of cross-promotion One of the fastest and easiest ways to expand your audience is to find three people who are connected to many of your potential clients, and reach out to them about collaborating. As long as your products or services complement each other, they'll usually say "yes" to being interviewed by you, or collaborating on a project. The key is to find people with a similarly-sized or bigger audience than yours. Some areas you can collaborate in are email newsletters, webinars, events, and live streaming videos. A great way to introduce each other to both of your audiences is to publicly announce your combined support of a charity organization.

5. Create polarizing content When we're spending time with our friends, it's easy to be bold when voicing our opinions– so why does a block suddenly appear when we try to do it online? The truth is, creating polarizing content can only strengthen your brand if done right. What usually happens is that potential clients from your current audience spread the word by sharing, liking and commenting, while some people hit the unfollow, unsubscribe or unfriend button. This is good news, because those people were never going to become brand ambassadors anyway– and now, they've left an open space for another potential client to come into your circle. As long as you create high-value polarizing content instead of being controversial just for the sake of it, you'll see your audience grow fast. A great way to do this is to destroy certain myths about your industry that have been floating around for a long time. This way, you'll position yourself as a leader and people will keep coming back to your content to learn more.

Growing your audience with the right individuals who eventually become brand ambassadors isn't difficult– but it's a continuous process that does take some effort. Your audience doesn't have to be huge– but if you're implementing the right content strategies, and leading them to the right offers, all of your effort will pay off.

Related: Crowdsourcing Customer Acquisition: A Cost-Effective Way To Gain Customers For Your Startup