I spoke with someone today who is considering starting a coworking space for personal care workers.

First of all, I love the fact that she had a clear target market in mind.

It makes it so much easier to connect with a specific type of person and I immediately thought of several places she could go to find them.

That is the power of a focused target market.

She asked me how to promote her space before she launched, and to me the answer is simple:

When you’re in the pre-launch phase of your first location, start by building an email list of potential members and people who support you. 

We can break it into two steps.

Step 1: Invite people you know.

Invite your family, friends, and people who support you to your email list. Explain your vision to them and start practicing your sales pitch.

These people will likely never become members, and the point isn’t to sell them on it, but they may know others who would.

You just want their support to help spread the word.

Step 2: Invite your target market.

Once you have a healthy number of friends and family on your list, it’s all about speaking to people in your ideal target market and inviting them to your email list too.

Again, you sell them on the vision, see how interested they are (validate), get feedback on your idea, and then keep them updated on progress along the way.

It’s a simple idea in concept and a lot of work in practice, but it’s the best way to pre-sell your first location.

Yes, it requires a ton of one-on-one conversations and manual list building. But it’s essential to actually pre-selling memberships in your first location and you’ll learn a lot in the process.

And yes, social media is also valuable and you should use it to your fullest abilities. I’m not discounting other efforts and you should use everything at your disposal.

But an email list gives you direct access to people most likely to become members or refer you to those who will.

Nothing beats it.