What do we mean when we say "monetization?"
In the context of online marketing, monetization is the point where you transition from "just building your audience" to "building and selling to your audience."
This is a bit of a flip if you own a "traditional" business—isn't the point of business to sell things to your audience?
Yes, but... in the online marketing game, you need to capture sustained attention before you can start selling directly.
Why? Marketing has always been about reach and frequency.
When it comes to an online audience, your potential reach is tremendous because everyone is online.
But, since everyone is online, it's challenging to break through. It's hard to get a wide reach unless you're creating incredibly compelling content. And even then, you won't be able to reach the same people consistently—you won't get "frequency" without buying ads.
Whether you're an offline business looking to be more "online," or an online business looking to grow, you should be asking yourself this big question:
"How and when should I monetize?"
The short answer: if you're going to market with a new online presence, expect to spend 1 year building an audience before you monetize.
If you have a very established offline business, or an online business in an adjacent market, or a very big budget... you might be able to go faster. And if you're starting from scratch without an ad budget, you can expect it will take longer to monetize.
The bigger point here is that online marketing requires a big upfront investment in content and audience building.
In year one, you can make some small bets to test monetization. But you should focus 80% or more of your resources on audience building.
Once you have a real, engaged, and warm audience you can monetize quickly and in many different ways. But if you don't have that audience, you can waste a *lot* of time and resources trying to force monetization before you're ready.
Remember... even if you have a successful offline business, online customer behavior is different than offline. Especially when it comes to attracting new customers.
So if your goal is monetization, don't make any big assumptions. Build your audience, keep them warm and engaged—then research and test offers in your market to find what works.
