Imagine trying to sell your product or service when you have no idea who you’re selling to. When you don’t know your target audience, you leave your success to chance. Many small business owners don’t take the time to properly understand their target audience before they start selling, and this can lead to issues down the road, such as marketing efforts that don’t result in sales.
Before you do anything in your business, you need to know who you want to serve and why. This will help you grow a following of people that are willing and ready to buy from you.
This article will show you 10 ways you can get to know your audience so that you can create products, services, and marketing campaigns that will actually appeal to them.
1. Do Your Research
Every industry has its unique audience, language, and needs. You need to do a lot of research and get conversant with the industry that you have chosen. The knowledge you gain from your research will help you make goals and set standards in your own business.
2. Check Out Your Competition
Even if you don’t have an audience or any customer, you can get to understand your target audience by studying your competition. Join their forums and email lists, participate in their groups and network with their followers. This will give you more insights into how they operate and what works for them. You can then decide what to emulate in your own business.
3. Create Your Customer Profile
Customer avatars and buyer personas help you to narrow in on exactly who you’re targeting. This helps you to get really specific and personal when you’re addressing your audience. Specificity is key to connecting with the right buyer or client. You can also have different personas for different stages in your customer’s buyer journey. You can simplify the process of creating buyer personas for your business by hiring a specialist on Fiverr to do it for you.
4. Engage With Your Target Audience
A fun way to get to know your audience is to actively engage them on social media. Join their groups, participate in their discussions, respond to their comments and questions. This interaction helps you understand their fears, concerns, and pain points and how best you can present your solutions.
5. Ask Direct Questions
Once you know exactly who you want to sell to, you can simply ask them questions about their wants and needs. Even if you don’t have an audience to ask, check their responses to your competitors’ questions. You’ll get very detailed insight into what they need, and a clearer picture of what you have to do.
6. Find Out Their Pain Points
It is important to know the pain points of your target audience. This helps you tailor your products and services to solve specific issues. Using their pain points in your marketing communication also makes them more likely to buy from you, because they know you understand them.
7. Test Them With A Freebie
An easy way to check if you have the right audience is to test them. Create a freebie for a topic that you think they care about, offer it to them and see who takes it. You can easily find someone on Fiverr to create a lead magnet for you. If your target audience isn’t rushing to grab your freebie, they probably will not be interested in a paid product on the same topic. Or you may still have to finetune your marketing methods for that particular audience. You can also test them through surveys and quizzes.
8. Make Yourself a Go-To Resource
You may not always have a ready fix to your audience’s problems. You may not have a product or service to sell to them for a specific pain point, but you can still be a resource to them. You can provide information, or if it’s a problem that you’re also facing, you can tell your story, so that they know they’re not alone. This will make your audience to know, like and trust you more. When you eventually have something to sell, they’ll be more willing to buy.
9. Use Premium Tools and Software
Many times, good things cost money. Don’t skimp on software that helps your business. Sometimes good software helps you reach and understand your audience through targeting, analytics, etc. Use paid or premium versions of the software that you need. This could include software for your email marketing, landing pages, etc. Looking for free stuff all the time may cost you later in efficiency, reach, and security.
10. Form Relationships With Your Target Audience
As you plan and strategize, remember that your target audience is made up of real people. It is important to build relationships with them. Make them your community. It’s okay to be vulnerable with them. When you show up as your authentic self, you’re more relatable and more believable.
As you grow your audience and get your first customers, keep these tips in mind and apply them. You’ll be rewarded with an active and interested audience that is willing and able to buy from you again and again.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission, at no additional cost to you.