The Importance of Finding Your "Minimum Viable Audience"

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The Importance of Finding Your "Minimum Viable Audience"

It's not as hard as you think!

"IRON" Mike Steadman

Aug 17, 2021

Dear subscribers,

I know how overwhelming it can be an entrepreneur, especially when you’re in the early-stages and in dire need of revenue. That’s why I won’t you to focus your sales and marketing effort around your Minimum Viable Audience.

What the heck is a Minimum Viable Audience.

This is an audience you already have a relationship with and have some form of unfair advantage, i.e. they already like you, know you, and trust you. In simpler terms, it’s like wanting to organize a baseball game and recruiting kids from your local neighborhood. (Think Sandlot)

Sometimes we have to start small to go big.

By starting with a small audience, it’s a lot easier to focus, and it allows you to maximize engagement with your customers, getting real time feedback on your products or services. Even if everyone in your audience doesn’t become your customer, the goal is to get them to become brand evangelist, and empower them with the knowledge to provide you a stream of constant warm referrals. It’s a win-win eitherway!

The key to building your initial audience is to lean into your unfair advantages.

For example, as a boxing coach and veteran entrepreneur, I have several unfair advantages, including my 15 years of experience in the amateur boxing community, and well as my background in the Marines, at the Naval Academy, and in the veteran entrepreneur ecosystem. That’s why when I started my podcast agency, IRONBOUND Media, I focused on growth stage veteran owned businesses. The idea behind an unfair advantage is that you want to build a moat around your business and your market, that makes it hard for anyone else to compete in.

We all have Unfair Advantages.

You just have to know where to look. Think about what makes you special, lets you stand out from the crowd, and positions you in a light that makes you uniquely qualified to deliver value to your audience. If you’re a veteran or military spouse entrepreneur, I’d argue that you’re unfair advantage is your background, combined with the expertise you bring to your industry. So start building an audience there.

Remember, you only need a few clients when you’re starting out, so building your minimum viable audience, and get to profitability as soon as possible.

Don’t just take my word for it, listen to Seth Godin.

You can also check out Chapter 4 of his book “This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See,” where he discusses the Smallest Viable Audience.