How Well Do You Understand Your Audience?

Posted on 05/08/2020 by the Promote This Team.

Nelson Mandela once said: 

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”

Are you failing to get to the core of your audience’s wants and needs? Do you want to ensure people stop scrolling past your posts, or only giving it an absent-minded like? Here’s how to finetune your understanding of your audience, so you can start speaking their language.

Analyse your existing customers

Tap into your current customer base to understand what kind of person is using your product or service. You can try compiling a database which will allow you to track averages, or research what job titles those who make buying decisions are likely to have in a B2B setting. 

Dive into your social media analytics 

Your social media allows you to see who is interested in your products or services, not just who has purchased from you. In this way, plenty of potential can be tapped into. The engagement you achieve on various posts will also reveal what content your audience is interested in consuming.

Create buyer personas 

The data you’ve gathered above will now allow you to create a detailed buyer persona. This is a fictional representation of your target customers, and will help you really visualise what each particular persona is after. Buyer personas also aid with market segmentation efforts, allowing you to customise messaging for each type of buyer. When creating these buyer personas, you’ll want to consider demographic information like age, location, gender, profession, income, education level and family status, as well as psychographic information, like the customer’s goals, desires, challenges, personality, values, interests and lifestyle. 

Once you’ve got your buyer personas, you’ll have a deeper understanding of why people might be interested in your product or service, and how you can start speaking their language. 

Build relationships 

Of course, what better way to understand someone than building a relationship with them? Effective marketing often has less to do with marketing strategies, and more to do with building relationships. There should be a focus on building trust with your customers and developing an understanding with them, rather than taking a hard selling approach. 

This won’t yield overnight results – it’s instead a long-term effort, which is why it might be a good idea to consider strategic partnerships. Focus on what you can give, not just what you can take from others. 

If you feel like there is a breakdown in communication between your brand and your customers, try adopting the above strategies to build understanding and develop the right messaging for your audience.