How to Build An Audience for Your Expertise-Based Business (Updated for the AI era)

If there is a single “secret” to succeeding with selling courses online, consulting, coaching, or with any other business that involves marketing and selling your expertise, it’s finding and connecting with the audience for whatever you offer. You must learn how to build an audience.

Actually, that’s only part of the secret.

The other part is that quality generally matters a great deal more than quantity when it comes to audience.

That was true before AI. It’s even more true now.

AI has made it dramatically easier to create “expert-like” content at scale. It’s also changing how people discover information. Google’s AI Overviews (launched in 2024 and expanded widely since) summarize answers right on the results page. ChatGPT search has become a mainstream way people look things up, too. The net effect is that “being found” via traditional search can be harder than it used to be, and even when you’re found, you may get fewer clicks. Pew’s research, for example, found people were less likely to click traditional links when an AI summary appeared.

So yes, the bar is higher.

But the core reality hasn’t changed: if you want an expertise-based business that lasts, you need a group of people who are open to paying for what you offer. That doesn’t mean everyone in your audience will pay and become a customer, but it does mean you’re consistently putting yourself in front of enough of the right people that, if a reasonable percentage of them do pay, you’ll have a viable business.

Why audience building matters (even more now)

This isn’t the longest post here on Learning Revolution, but it’s one of the most important topics I cover on this site.

My sense is that most people who start an expertise-based business would, given the option, greatly prefer to grow into a sustainable business that will thrive. One that will enable them to help other people while doing work they love.

But you simply can’t do that without an audience.

Yes, you will run into “guru” types who will tell you that you can launch with no audience, no email list—however they want to put it. That’s true. You can launch. But you won’t survive and grow until you have an audience.

And here’s the 2026 twist: relying on “free traffic from search” is a much weaker foundation than it used to be. (Believe me, we’ve been hit hard by that shift at Learning Revolution.) You want search, sure. But you also want direct relationships (email subscribers, podcast subscribers, YouTube subscribers, people who type your URL, people who search your name). That’s the difference between a business and a dice roll.

With that in mind, here are the three main things I have done over the years to build an audience for my business—updated for the AI era, but intentionally grounded in the same fundamentals as my original post on this topic years ago.

Magnetize your value

I have created many free eBooks, reports, and other “lead magnets” over time. In many cases, particularly in the beginning, I gave these away entirely for free – no money and no e-mail required – simply to build my visibility and reputation in my field. I first did this many years ago with a free eBook called “Learning 2.0 for Associations,” which got thousands of downloads from prospects at trade and professional associations. I was shocked at the time, as I didn’t really know much about content marketing or “lead magnets” back then.

That approach still works. But the way you “magnetize value” can (and probably should) evolve.

What hasn’t changed is the underlying purpose: you need at least one substantial, genuinely useful piece of content that stands you out in your market and pulls the right people toward you. You’re trying to create an impression that says, “This person is the real deal, and their way of thinking is worth following.”

In 2026, good lead magnets tend to fall into three buckets:

First, a strong “starter kit.” A checklist, playbook, or short guide that helps someone get traction quickly. Not fluff. Something that cuts through confusion and makes the next step obvious.

Second, a self-assessment. A quiz, scorecard, or diagnostic that helps people see where they are and what they should do next. (This works well because it doesn’t just give information—it gives insight about the person.)

Third, a template or tool. A worksheet, prompt library, pricing calculator, onboarding sequence, course outline generator—anything that people can actually use. This category tends to be especially powerful now because generic “how-to” advice is everywhere, but a usable tool still feels like a gift.

These types of lead magnets are essential to pulling people into the bottom portion of your Value Ramp and starting to build momentum that can eventually lead them—willingly, even eagerly—up the Ramp to your higher-priced offerings.

They are also critical because they give prospective customers a reason to share their contact information with you. And I’m still biased toward collecting emails. Strongly. Because as valuable as other aspects of marketing can be, there is still nothing that works better for selling at scale than being able to email people who have shown interest in what you do.

Now, the AI-era complication: if AI summaries reduce clicks, you may have fewer “drive-by visitors” turning into subscribers. That means your lead magnet has to do more work. It needs to be specific enough and valuable enough that the right person thinks, “I want that, and I’m willing to give my email for it.”

A related point that mattered in my original post and matters even more now: don’t hold back. To attract people to your paid offerings, it’s critical to put some of your best stuff out there so prospective customers trust that they’ll get even more value if they pay.

AI makes this psychologically harder for some people. They worry, “If I share my best ideas, someone (or some AI) will copy them.” But the truth is: most ideas can be copied. What’s harder to copy is your judgment, your experience, your examples, your standards, and your ability to apply what you know in the messy real world. That’s what your lead magnet should quietly – but clearly – signal.

Pave the path

Over the years, I’ve created a body of valuable content through blogging, podcasting, videos, webinars, publishing—including the lead magnets discussed above. In the beginning, it was pretty random. I’d think up topics I knew something about and start writing or recording.

Occasionally I’d get lucky, but for the most part it meant a prospect might read a post or two, maybe download something, and then move on—usually before engaging with me or my offerings in any meaningful way.

Over time, I realized how critical it is to be intentional about this process. Not “post more.” Not “go viral.” Intentional.

I started to identify the major categories of knowledge that members of my audience need in order to succeed, and that covers those categories over time. Basically, I defined a body of knowledge that can serve as a roadmap for the people I’m trying to help.

This does a few things at once:

It gives prospects a reason to return again and again, because they can see there’s more to learn (and that you’re taking them somewhere, not just publishing random thoughts). It gives you a way to decide what to publish next without staring at a blank screen.

And it helps you build trust over time—which is the real goal. Because it’s hard to build an audience through transactions. Your aim is to build relationships over time.

If you look at Learning Revolution, you’ll see this roadmap idea reflected in the site structure: major categories like monetization, and then the major models within that, like online courses, consulting, coaching, and so on.

In the original post, I used online courses as an example and listed a few posts (how to create a course, how to sell, how to price, best platforms). That basic pattern still works: create a handful of “big” pieces that cover the essential question create supporting content that answers the smaller questions people inevitably have once they start taking action.

What changes in the AI era is that you can’t assume people will browse your site the way they used to. Many will encounter you through an AI-generated summary first, or through a snippet of your content quoted somewhere else.

So, when you “pave the path,” you’re doing it for two audiences at once:

• humans who want to learn and decide whether they trust you
• machines that are trying to understand what your page is about and whether it’s worth citing

“You don’t need to turn into an SEO robot to do this. The basics are mostly common sense, and they line up with what Google publicly says it wants: helpful, reliable, people-first content.”

Practical ways to make your content easier to discover (without turning it into jargon soup):

Write with a clear question in mind and answer it early. Not because people are impatient (they are), but because AI systems tend to extract and summarize. Help them extract the right thing.

Use examples. Real ones. Specific ones. This is one of the clearest signals that your content isn’t just AI-generated mush.

Make your points falsifiable. In other words, don’t just say “this works.” Say when it works, when it doesn’t, and what trade-offs are involved. That kind of writing is both more trustworthy and more distinctive.

Update your best posts. You don’t have to keep everything current, but you should keep your most important “pillar” content fresh and clearly marked as updated. Google’s AI Overviews are now broad and persistent in search experiences, so your evergreen content is often what gets surfaced.

And yes, you can use AI here. AI can help you outline, generate a first draft, summarize your own older posts, and even suggest missing sections. But if you let AI be the “author,” what’s unique about you can quickly get diluted or lost. Your job is to use AI as a power tool while you stay responsible for the thinking.

Lock in leverage

This is arguably the key to successful audience building and it’s what you’re aiming for with the efforts already covered above: leverage.

When you create a lead magnet, you create a proxy for yourself. Hundreds or thousands of people can access a piece of what you offer without you having to show up personally.

When you build a body of content along a roadmap, you give prospects a way to self-direct their learning while staying connected to you.

But you can (and should) go further by leaning into one-to-many opportunities—especially ones that let you borrow other people’s audiences.

Speaking is still one of the biggest opportunities, in all of its forms: conferences, virtual events, association webinars, company webinars, livestreams. Many organizations are eager for good content, and speaking opportunities are often more accessible than people assume.

Podcasting has also remained a major opportunity. Being shows can be a steady source of high-quality leads—because it transfers trust faster than a blog post.

Guest blogging still works too, even if it’s not the SEO slam dunk it once was. What matters is that it puts your thinking in front of the right people, and it gives you “third-party credibility” that’s hard to manufacture on your own.

In my original post, I referenced “other people’s networks,” and that framing is still exactly right. In 2026, I’d add one more reason this matters: the more your work shows up in reputable places, the more likely it is to be referenced and surfaced—by humans and by AI signals of trust and clarity. Google’s quality rater guidelines emphasize experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

So: leverage isn’t just “get in front of more people.” It’s also “get associated with trustworthy contexts.”

One AI-specific overlay: make it easy to recognize and cite you

This is where I want to be blunt. If discovery is increasingly mediated by AI summaries and chat-based search, you have to make yourself easy to identify as the source of a useful idea. Otherwise, you get “helpful but invisible.”

A few practical moves (none of which require you to become a technical marketer):

Make authorship unmistakable. Have a real author bio, an about page, and a consistent name attached to your work. If you use article structured data, Google explicitly recommends including author information and linking to a page that identifies the author.

Make your content easy to extract. Use clear headings, plain language, and clean structure. Think: “If someone only reads 20% of this, will they still get something valuable?”

Make your best ideas quotable. Not in a fake social-media way. In a “that’s a clear, useful statement someone would repeat” way.

Put some original material in the mix. A simple framework, a checklist, a before/after example, a small dataset, even a thoughtful comparison table. AI can summarize what everyone else already said. Original material is what gets remembered (and referenced).

And keep the long game in mind: Google explicitly says its ranking systems aim to reward helpful, reliable, people-first content. AI doesn’t change that incentive. It just changes the packaging.

Now is the time to build an audience

A lot of people write to ask how to get started with whatever version of an expertise-based business they are pursuing. My answer is still some version of the points above.

Particularly if you aim to sell courses or some other digital product, don’t stress so much about getting your course built right out of the gate. You aren’t going to be able to do much with a product anyway without an audience ready to buy it.

If you are selling services like consulting or coaching, you have less to lose because you essentially already have your offering ready. But either way, the main thing is to start now.

Get a simple but attractive home base website set up.

Create one useful lead magnet that you’d actually be happy to put your name on.

Set up email capture so you can build a direct relationship with people who raise their hand (I still like Kit and ActiveCampaign for this, depending on your needs).

Start publishing in-depth posts that align with a simple roadmap of what your audience needs to learn.

Find opportunities to borrow other people’s audiences—webinars, podcasts, guest posts, talks—anything that puts you in front of the right people in a one-to-many way.

Bottom line: start your audience-building efforts from day one—even before you are totally clear on what products or services you will offer.

Related: How Many Views Is Viral? 9 Tips To Go Viral With Examples