Back in 2015, we had built a “successful” business at just 25 years old.
We ran a marketing agency with 30+ employees and a large office in the heart of Budapest. From the outside, we seemed very successful.
But I have to be honest: our company wasn’t very profitable.
Although we appeared successful, we were often in the red at the end of the month because we couldn’t create reliable demand for our services.
The biggest problem was that no one had heard of us. To get clients and cover our costs, we spent countless hours making sales calls and sending emails. This extra outreach work left us barely making ends meet and feeling exhausted.
Eventually, we sold the business for just enough money to get by for a couple of years and figure out our next steps.
We knew we couldn’t endure that stress again — our next attempt at building a business would have to be drastically different. We needed a new paradigm for finding and connecting with customers.
This was when we started building businesses based on the concept of Authority Marketing — the most successful of which was Authority Hacker.
Authority Hacker had a simple start. We created content to help our target audience and monetized it through a small $39 video course with five videos.
In just a few weeks, we had a steady sales flow that didn’t require us to talk to anyone. Our organic content engine did the work for us.
After a few years of scaling this model, Authority Hacker grew into an 8-figure revenue company, helping millions of people with our free content and serving over 12,000 paid customers.
The stress was gone, and we had time to focus on what we loved.
Since then, we’ve helped many customers build their own thriving businesses using the Authority Marketing model.
But what is Authority Marketing? And how can you implement it in your business?
Authority Marketing: Overview and Framework
Authority Marketing is a profitable, sustainable way to create and scale organic demand for your products and services.
It’s about becoming a trusted expert in your field so people naturally turn to you for advice and solutions.
The Authority Marketing model can be broken down into a “4C” framework, which helps you build a strong brand that attracts customers and creates lasting relationships.
Let’s break down each step and see how it works.
#1: Create & Connect Loop
The first step is the Create & Connect loop. These 2 phases are closely related, so we’ve grouped them together.
You use a feedback loop of creation and outreach to continually learn what works best. The goal of this step is to get as many relevant eyeballs on your content as possible.
Create
Objective: Get discovered
Focus: The primary goal at this stage is to create content that gets you discovered by your target audience. This involves leveraging the platforms where your audience spends their time.
Strategy: Since the focus is on discovery, the content should be optimized for visibility and engagement based on the platform’s current algorithms. This means adapting content formats as trends change, such as shifting from text to video if a platform starts favoring videos.
Platforms: YouTube, blogs (SEO), short-form videos (TikTok, Instagram), text posts (LinkedIn, Facebook, X), or podcasts. These platforms and the types of content that do well there constantly change. It’s your job to identify what works now and surf the wave (but we can help you 😉).
Connect
Objective: Engage & grow your audience
Focus: Once discovered, the goal is to deepen audience engagement by encouraging them to consume and interact with more of your content.
Metrics: Time on site, watch time, returning visitors, comments, likes, and overall engagement rates.
Strategy: Create engaging content that encourages interaction. High engagement signals to platforms that your content is valuable, leading to more organic discovery and a stronger relationship with your followers.
Outcome: Establish a stronger connection with your audience, making them more likely to follow your calls to action in future stages.
Every platform gives you the opportunity to send some traffic back to call to actions. We are going to use these to send people to the next phase: Capture.
#2 Capture
Objective: Segment and de-risk
Focus: The aim here is to segment your audience and move them from algorithm-driven platforms to a more controlled environment, such as an email list or a retargeting audience.
Tactics: Lead magnets (e.g., free templates, eBooks, mini-courses), tripwire offers (low-cost products), and giveaways.
Strategy: Use subtle calls to action in your content to guide your audience to opt-in pages or tripwire offers. You can use description links, pinned posts, pop ups, ads, auto DMs, or bio links to funnel people down.
Outcome: Build a segmented email list and retargeting audience that you can reach directly, reducing dependency on platform algorithms and allowing you to pitch your offering without a decline in organic reach.
#3 Convert
Objective: Monetize the audience
Focus: This stage is about deepening engagement and monetizing the audience through various offers.
Methods:
- Evergreen Launches: Automated campaigns that offer a special deal for a limited time.
- Live Launches: Time-sensitive offers that are promoted to your entire email list.
- Slow Burn: Regular emails that provide value and subtly promote products or affiliate offers.
Strategy: Present offers through email marketing and retargeting ads. Ensure the offers are relevant and segmented based on the audience’s interests and needs.
Outcome: Generate revenue through product sales, memberships, services, or high-paying affiliate offers.
Real-Life Examples of Authority Marketing
Here are some examples of companies leveraging Authority Marketing to significantly boost their sales.
How To Get Started
Want to get started with Authority Marketing? Here are the next steps:
- Sign up for our newsletter as we constantly share our findings with our subscribers.
- Join our free training, where we share proven tips on how to get started with SEO and increase traffic.
- Download one of our free resources.
- Subscribe to our Podcast YouTube channel.