How Can I Learn About My Online Audience?

Every business has an audience, but understanding this audience can be tricky. And yet, you don’t want to assume you know who your audience is because if you’re wrong, it could make your marketing efforts less effective.

If you’re still trying to understand the scope of your audience, it’s easy to feel frustrated. When running any type of advertisement, marketing campaign, social media blast, etc., it’s pointed out that you should speak to your audience. So what are some of the ways that you can better learn about them?

Discover who the people are

First, who are the people in your audience? You can’t assume that your target audience is pretty much anybody or anyone interested in your services. This is too broad of an audience and it will lead to generic branding. One of the easiest and most direct ways to learn about the people in your audience is by asking them. Request basic information like their age and location.

How do they describe your product/service?

You know what your product has to offer, but do your customers know? Many companies find that their audience actually knows very little about the potential of their products and services. You’ve probably seen similar situations where frustrated customers lash out online, and it turns out they were just missing how to do something in the first place.

How do they choose and compare products?

When your customers shop for products, how do they compare them? Do they compare products online or do they narrow down their search and then view the products in store? What types of factors are most important to your audience? For the majority of consumers, their biggest deciding factor is finding the best value for their money.

What do they want?

Your website should be relevant to your audience, so it’s important to find out what they want. Again, the best way to find this out is by doing an online survey. Ask customers what types of things are important to them. Ask them what isn’t important. This way, you can cut out the content that has little to no value for your audience. Analytics is also helpful here because you can identify the best performing content, keywords, messaging, etc.

How have you made their life better?

People choose to buy products to improve their lives in some way. It’s not about what your customers can do for you but what you can do for them. You may be surprised to learn that you are helping out your customers in ways that you’re not aware of and falling short on needs you think you have taken care of. As you learn, from the customer’s point of view, the true benefits of your product, you can better market yourself.

Learning about your audience involves making educated guesses, talking to customers, launching surveys and running analytics. It’s a multi-tiered approach that will give you better insight as to who the typical customer is for your brand.