Top 5 'Audience-First' Marketing Strategies to use for Entrepreneurs Building Hype Before Their Product Is Ready - Goh Ling Yong
You have a brilliant idea. The kind that keeps you up at night, sketching on napkins and coding until 3 AM. Your product is going to solve a real problem, and you can already picture the glowing testimonials. There’s just one tiny issue: right now, it’s just a collection of code, a prototype, and a very optimistic Trello board. You have nothing to sell, which means you have no one to sell it to.
The old mantra of "if you build it, they will come" is one of the most dangerous myths in entrepreneurship. In today's crowded market, a launch without an audience is like a concert with no one in the stands. The silence is deafening. So, how do you build that roaring crowd before you even have a stage to perform on? You stop thinking about your product and start thinking about your people.
This is the core of an 'audience-first' marketing strategy. It's a fundamental shift from "What can I sell?" to "Who can I serve?" It’s about building a tribe of engaged, eager followers who are not just waiting for your product, but feel like they are a part of its creation. By the time you launch, you're not selling to cold leads; you're offering a long-awaited solution to your biggest fans. Here are the top five audience-first strategies you can use to build unstoppable hype before your product is even ready.
1. Build a Community, Not Just an Email List
A "Coming Soon" page with an email capture form is standard practice. It's a good starting point, but it's fundamentally passive. You collect an email, and that person waits, often forgetting they even signed up. An audience-first approach takes this a step further: instead of building a waiting list, you build a living, breathing community.
A community is an active space where your future customers can connect with you and, more importantly, with each other. It’s where they can share their struggles related to the problem you're solving, offer each other advice, and begin to see you as the central figure in their solution space. This transforms them from passive subscribers into active participants. They feel a sense of belonging and co-ownership in your journey, making them infinitely more likely to champion your product on launch day.
This approach gives you a direct, unfiltered line to your target market. You can run polls on feature prioritization, ask for feedback on design mockups, and learn the exact language your customers use to describe their pain points. This isn't just marketing; it's priceless, real-time market research that ensures you're building a product people actually want.
Actionable Tips:
- Choose the Right Platform: Don't just pick what's popular; pick what fits your audience's habits. Is your audience full of tech-savvy gamers and developers? A Discord server might be perfect. Are they B2B professionals? A private Slack channel or a LinkedIn Group could be the ideal choice. A Facebook Group can work well for a broader consumer audience.
- Be a Facilitator, Not a Broadcaster: Your job is to spark conversation, not just to post updates. Ask open-ended questions like, "What's the most frustrating part of [the problem you solve]?" or "If you had a magic wand to fix [problem], what would you do?"
- Provide Exclusive Value: Make your community the place for "insider" information. Share early mockups, behind-the-scenes videos of your process, and be the first to announce milestones. This reinforces the feeling that they are part of a special, inner circle.
2. Become the Go-To Resource with Problem-Aware Content
Before anyone can be aware of your product, they must be aware of their problem. Your future customers aren't Googling your brand name yet, but they are absolutely searching for solutions to the frustrations they face every day. Your pre-launch content marketing strategy should focus entirely on this "problem-aware" stage.
Forget talking about your product's features. Instead, create high-value content that helps your audience solve a small piece of their problem right now, for free. This positions you not as a salesperson, but as a trusted expert and a helpful guide. You're building a relationship based on generosity and authority. When you do finally launch your product, it’s not a cold pitch; it's the next logical step in the journey of value you've already been providing.
This strategy builds an incredible asset: a targeted audience that trusts you. They've already received value from your blog posts, checklists, or videos. They see you as the go-to resource in your niche. When you present your paid solution, they're already warmed up and confident that you can deliver on your promises.
Actionable Tips:
- Map Your Customer's Pain Points: Brainstorm every single question, frustration, and obstacle your target customer faces related to their problem. Each one of these is a potential blog post, social media thread, or YouTube video.
- Create "Pillar" Content: Develop one or two comprehensive, high-value resources like "The Ultimate Guide to X" or a free email course on "Mastering Y." These cornerstone pieces can attract backlinks, build your email list, and establish your authority in a powerful way.
- Think Distribution First: Creating great content is only half the battle. Where does your audience hang out online? Be active on those platforms (like Reddit, LinkedIn, specific forums, or Twitter/X) by sharing your content and genuinely participating in conversations. Don't just drop links; add to the discussion.
3. Launch a Minimum Viable Audience (MVA) Project First
This strategy takes problem-aware content to the next level. Instead of just writing blog posts, you create a small, self-contained project or product that attracts your ideal customer profile. Think of it as a "lead magnet" on steroids. An MVA project is a low-risk way to validate that you actually understand your audience's needs while building a hyper-targeted list of potential customers.
The MVA isn't your main product. It's a stepping stone. It could be a highly curated weekly newsletter, a simple free software tool that solves one tiny part of the bigger problem, a podcast featuring experts in your industry, or a job board for a specific niche. The goal is to create something of standalone value that gets your target audience to raise their hand and say, "Yes, I am interested in this topic!"
This is a powerful move that many successful entrepreneurs, including forward-thinkers like Goh Ling Yong, advocate for because it builds a tangible asset before you've even written the first line of code for your main product. You're not just building a list; you're building a brand and a distribution channel you own. By the time your main product is ready, you have a pre-qualified, engaged audience ready to listen.
Actionable Tips:
- The Newsletter: Start a weekly newsletter curating the best articles, tools, and insights for your specific niche. This positions you as a tastemaker and expert. Example: Femke van Schoonhoven's design newsletter was a huge asset before she launched her online courses.
- The Free Tool: Can you build a simple calculator, template generator, or checklist tool that solves a sliver of your customer's problem? Example: HubSpot's free "Website Grader" tool has generated millions of leads for their core marketing software.
- The Curated Resource: Create the best, most comprehensive list of resources on a specific topic. This could be a website, a Notion database, or an Airtable base. Example: "Nomad List" started as a simple spreadsheet of the best cities for digital nomads before becoming a massive paid community.
4. Embrace Radical Transparency with the "Build in Public" Method
The "Build in Public" movement is about tearing down the wall between founder and follower. Instead of working in a secret "stealth mode" only to emerge with a big, flashy launch, you share the entire journey—the good, the bad, and the ugly. You document your wins, your failures, your feature decisions, your revenue numbers (if you're comfortable), and the feedback you receive along the way.
This approach does something magical: it turns your startup story into a compelling narrative that people want to follow. It builds trust through radical transparency and makes your audience feel like they're on the inside, rooting for you. They become emotionally invested in your success. When you share a struggle and then post about how you overcame it, your audience celebrates with you. They feel like they're part of the team.
This constant stream of updates also serves as a powerful, organic marketing engine. Each tweet, blog post, or update about your progress is a breadcrumb that keeps your future product top-of-mind. It demonstrates momentum and proves that you are dedicated to building something great. By the time you launch, your audience doesn't just know what you've built; they know why and how you built it, and they've been cheering you on from day one.
Actionable Tips:
- Choose Your Channel: Twitter/X is the classic home for the "build in public" movement due to its conversational nature. LinkedIn works well for B2B, and a dedicated blog can allow for more in-depth storytelling.
- Share More Than Just Wins: The real connection comes from vulnerability. Share the bugs you can't figure out, the tough feedback you received, or the time you had to pivot your strategy. This makes you relatable and human.
- Tag and Engage: When you get advice from someone or use a tool that helps you, mention them in your updates. This expands your reach and builds relationships within your industry. People are more likely to support those who support them.
5. Co-Create with a Strategic Insider/Beta Program
This is the ultimate audience-first strategy. You hand-pick a small, dedicated group of people from the community you've been building and invite them into an exclusive "insider" or beta program. This is far more than just bug testing. You are inviting them to be co-creators of your product.
In this program, you give these early adopters unprecedented access—to early builds of the product, to a private chat channel with you and your team, and to influence the product roadmap. You treat their feedback not as a suggestion box, but as gospel. This deep level of involvement fosters an incredible sense of ownership and loyalty. These are the people who will become your most powerful evangelists.
In exchange for their time and insights, you reward them handsomely. This could be a significant lifetime discount, free access for a year, or special "Founder Member" status. When you launch publicly, you won't just have a polished product; you'll have a mountain of social proof. You'll have authentic testimonials, detailed case studies, and a small army of passionate users ready to spread the word on your behalf.
Actionable Tips:
- Recruit from Your Warmest Audience: Your first beta testers should come from your community, your email list, or your most engaged social media followers. These are the people who are already invested in your success.
- Make it High-Touch: Don't just send them a link and a survey. Onboard them personally via a video call if you can. The onboarding process for the email app Superhuman is a legendary example of this, making users feel valued and understood from the very first minute.
- Create a Tight Feedback Loop: Set up a dedicated Slack channel or Discord server just for your beta group. Respond to feedback quickly and visibly. When you implement a suggestion from a beta user, give them a public shout-out. This shows you're listening and makes them feel heard.
Your First Product is Your Audience
Building hype before your product is ready isn't about smoke and mirrors. It's not about promising features you can't deliver. It's about a genuine, deliberate effort to serve your audience and provide value long before you ever ask for a single dollar.
Each of these five strategies—building a community, creating problem-aware content, launching an MVA, building in public, and running an insider program—shares a common thread: they put the customer at the center of the story from day one. They de-risk your launch by ensuring you're building something people desperately need, and they create an unstoppable wave of momentum that will carry you through launch day and beyond.
Stop staring at your code. Stop perfecting that landing page. Go out and find your people. Serve them. Listen to them. Build with them. Because in the end, your audience isn't just the people you sell to; they are the greatest product you will ever build.
What's the first step you're going to take to build your audience? Share your plan in the comments below—I'd love to see what you're working on!
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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