Building an audience is hard. Most weeks it feels like standing on a stage in front of a dark room with no way of knowing if the microphone is on. Is anyone there? If they are, can they hear me?
Doing outreach is hard. If audience building is talking in front of a dark room, outreach is slipping something under the closed door.
With that in mind, I decided to send a batch of handwritten cards out to a few friends and colleagues a couple of weeks ago. These weren’t pitches. Most of them were more of the “hey, it’s been a while how are you?” variety.
I have no way of knowing if the card stood out more than just another email in the inbox, but one of them landed me a spot on a panel at the end of the month. I do know the call started with “I got your card,” so I’m using that as proof of concept.
If you’re trying to build an audience or awareness of your brand or offering, a borrowed audience like being a guest on a panel or podcast is a great way to do it. Think of it as someone else filling the room for you, turning on the lights, and making sure the mic is on.
When's the last time something arrived in your mailbox that made you want to pick up the phone?