Marketing Matters: Audience Identification
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When you have a new business, product or idea, it’s exciting to think about your brand. In fact, personal branding and brand voice are buzzwords today across social media and online forums. However, being a great communicator and sharing your story starts with identifying who your audience is. Each content or marketing message you craft should be written with a specific individual or group in mind. Doing research into what's trending in your field, geographic area or on your current channels will help you get to know your tribe better from an analytical standpoint.
Where to Begin?
Remember, in all you do, you are trying to provide value to your audience. A great place to start is asking yourself these five questions:
Why did I create this brand/product/service?
What value am I providing and how am I improving lives? What need am I meeting?
What do I know about the people this product would benefit and how do they communicate? Where do they spend their time online?
Why is my product/service different or unique? How will I communicate that authentically?
What attitudes, opinions and lifestyle characteristics exist in my audience and consumer base?
Too Niche or Not Too Niche
It might sound elementary, but also be sure that you are targeting people who really exist. Niche markets are great, but if you’re only serving your five eccentric best friends and your product only makes sense if the audience knows you, you have some work to do. This might include identifying a new audience or better articulating your brand. Especially as you get going, assess whether there is a more substantial need you are meeting and don't leave people out. Over time and as your offerings expand, ask yourself these questions and repeat this analysis. If your core consumer is changing, why is that? Have you adapted your messaging to connect with new perspectives?
At the same time and while it may sound contradictory, do not target everyone - quality marketing is about finding the balance. Your product and service is not for everyone, and that is awesome because with that knowledge you can provide targeted value.
Defining the Conscious Consumer
Since you’re here – at The Good Camp – odds are you’re looking to communicate with a conscious consumer. Lucky for you, this is a group our team understands both from marketer and consumer sides. Conscious means different things to different people - socially conscious, environmentally conscious, mindful - but there are some key things these consumers have in common. Likely, they are educated and informed, reading beyond the label. They care about the social, environmental and human impacts a brand or company is making. Giving back should be woven into every aspect of your business from production to customer service to the end of your product’s life. These consumers put their money where their mouths are and are ready to pay more (if necessary) for ethical sourcing, to be animal-kind and to improve the condition of the world.
Within this group, you’ll likely find outdoor enthusiasts, everyday athletes and people seeking self-actualization and enlightenment. Odds are many belong to Millennial and younger generations, but it is important to think about these people based on their activities rather than strictly demographic traits. Interests and attitudes will most impact how you communicate with these consumers and how they respond. Brainstorm with your team about this, identifying your target audience is a qualitative and quantitative process. The best way to learn about people? Talk to and ask others about themselves! Find out what makes your potential audience members tick, ask someone why they consider themself a conscious consumer, consider tools like Survey Monkey, Qualtrics or social media polling, and certainly use your network.
Source: William Iven on Unsplash
Research Tools
To get into the numbers side, here are several wonderful tools to help with your research. Listen to your consumers with analytics, follow thought leaders and explore trends and hashtags.
1) Claritas 360 Zip Code Lookup
This resource is great for learning about a specific community. If you’re serving one geographic area or notice your business is missing the mark with a certain group of people, Claritas provides lifestyle segments to help you create more effective campaigns. Search a zip code, select the PRIZM group you want to understand, and read about their demographic and lifestyle traits. You can also use the Segment Details tab to explore where your ideal consumers cluster. For conscious consumers, check out The Cosmopolitans, the Connected Bohemians and the Urban Elders to start.
2) Google Trends
If you are interested in how a blog topic, keyword or other digital content might trend, this Google site will provide analysis on the top search queries across languages and geography. From the main page, see trends with the latest searches and stay on beat with what’s popular. You can even compare topics side by side. If you’re having a tough time deciding whether to write about peas or carrots, maybe it’s time to check what’s in the news! Look at interest over time, geographic breakdowns and related topic queries. Searching conscious consumption is also a great place to start, and you can even set up Google Alerts to receive updates on when particular keywords are in the news.
3) Facebook Audience Insights
Whether you’re on Facebook, Instagram or another social media site, built-in analytics provide an excellent window into who is engaging with your content and when. This is another way to tailor your pitches around your consumers. With Facebook for Business’ Audience Insights, you can get aggregate information on people connected to your page and people on Facebook in general to find more people to join your party. See breakdowns of interests, hobbies, relationships, education, ages, genders and more. If you’re just launching your page, pay attention to this as you start sharing posts.
Create Your Customer Persona
With a thorough understanding of your core consumer, it’s time to bring them to life. Create a customer/buyer persona! You can do this for as many customer segments as are meaningful to your business. We recommend Hubspot’s Make My Persona tool as it will walk you through assembly of all your character factors.
Your New Perspective
Voila! Before you post anything, get ready to take on this persona from now on. Write your content, revisit this description and think about how they would respond to the message or business decision you’re sharing. Remember relationships are a two-way street and require management and will require careful consideration. Happy audience development and we hope to see you next week where we will offer advice on selecting channels to reach your newfound audience!
