Do you know who you are marketing to? Are you producing content that you like but that your page visitors say “meh” to? Stop. Knowing your exact target audience is crucial to saving time, money and conversations!
“When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.” – Meredith Hill
Target audiences are your followers. They are your brand advocates, your influencers, your fan club. Making content that fits what they are looking for and need creates a win for everyone. You may close a deal faster, and they will be more empowered and listen to you for the answers! Knowing who they are, how they think and what they care about will help you two to connect better.
Here are four beginning steps to uncovering your target audience.
Perform some market research.
Execution of a target market research program doesn’t have to be overly expensive or time-consuming. Craft a simple questionnaire that seeks answers to some basic questions such as:
- How is your product/company perceived vs. other options in the marketplace?
- What are the most critical attributes your customers look for when considering a purchase?
- What keeps your customers/prospects up at night?
The key is to seek thoughtful answers from the research participants to gain real insight and increase your marketing knowledge of your customer base.
Who do they care about?
Who influences them? People are putting more stock in those they know, not ads.
It has become standard knowledge that people are not responding to traditional ads. A Nielsen study from 2015 showed that the top four most-trusted sources of advertising were: people you know, branded sites, editorial sites, and reviews. People you know. Who are the influencers for your brand?
Communicate as they communicate!
Our audiences expect that organizations will interact with them in the ways they like. Communicating like our audiences and where they like to communicate is so important for marketers to be aware of their customers’ communication preferences. Social media? Print? Emails? Phone calls? Figure it out. Ask questions. Save your time and money and invest where they want to be communicated.
Do you know you?
What is your core offering to your audiences? Who benefits from what you have to offer? If you are unsure about what makes you great, that will significantly impact your message and how yours will stick out in their inbox, web crawl or from their friend’s recommendations.
There are so many tips, tricks, and methods for understanding your target audience. The above four are a good start. If you need help, contact us! We have more advise, resources and the industry experience to help you hone in on your ideal audience.