Digital Marketing Audience | How to Know The Right Audience

May 15, 2019

Digital Marketing Audience | How to Know The Right Audience

Knowing your Digital Marketing Audience is extremely important. Throughout our previous articles, we’ve written numerous times that you need to know your Digital Marketing Audience.

Countless blog posts across the web preach the same idea.

No matter what you are trying to do in digital marketing, you need to know your Digital Marketing Audience.

But what does it actually mean to know your Digital Marketing Audience?

You’ll often read about buyer personas, demographics, psychographics, or various analytics.

While each of these is valid and certainly bring something to the table, you can still be left with an abstract or vague idea of your Digital Marketing Audience.

In order to optimize your marketing campaigns, you need to know the wants, needs, and desires of your target audience.

What their problems are, and the solutions they’re looking for.

Even better, you want to know the exact, detailed language they use to describe these things.

When meeting someone new at a cocktail party, more socially adept individuals have a tendency to repeat words or phrases that the other person has said.

This is a simple way of connecting and creating a sense of understanding and familiarity.

The same concept applies to the world of digital marketing.

Not only should your product or service check all the boxes of what your customer is looking for, but you also need to communicate that in a way that makes them feel understood.

The more your messaging reflects everyday conversation, the more you will connect with your audience.

So how do you know your audience in a way that you can speak their language?

Let’s get into it.

Digital Marketing Audience: Talk to Real People

I know, it might seem crazy in today’s world, but actually speaking to real people in-person or on the phone is an invaluable way of getting to know how people think and speak about different things.

Ask your friend what they like or don’t like about their gym. What was the sign-up process like and how did the salesperson make them feel? Why did they pick that gym?

When your brother buys a new car, ask him about it. What was he looking for in a car? What does he like about it? Why did he pick that one over another option? How did he research the car? What was the buying experience like and how could it have been better?

Listen closely when people vent or describe their problems to you. Pay attention to how they frame the problem and key phrases they use.

Of course, if you can find people to talk to specifically about products or services related to your business you should do that.

However, it’s still great to talk to friends and family to get to know what they have to say in a general sense.

Listen, pay attention, and ask questions.

If you don’t have any friends, don’t worry! There are other ways of gaining insight into your audience.

Read Customer Reviews

You can find a review for almost anything these days.

Reviews are great because customers will tell you exactly what they like or don’t like about a product or service.

Amazon, in particular, is a goldmine of customer insight. For example, let’s take a look at this real-life fanny pack review from Amazon.

“Frustrating!

Provided me with an awful experience. I purchased this product brand new for a trip to a local theme park; I needed to be able to carry my essentials (phone, money, chapstick) & the waterproof aspect was a plus. While packing the bag prior to the trip, I noticed that the big pocket’s zipper was a bit “sticky”, but chalked it up to the fact that it was brand new. I didn’t over pack the bag & left plenty of room in case we purchased small souvenirs.

However, while at the park, the zipper would not open while attempting to pay for our lunch. WOULD NOT BUDGE. So there we sat, at the cash register, wrestling with this stupid bag while holding up the line. We spent about 10 minutes trying different angles, trying different people, & then trying to rip the actual zipper apart. Nothing. Eventually, we had to ask the cashier for scissors & simply cut the thing open to obtain the contents. Incredibly frustrating.

It’s disappointing that this bag was brand new & used for not even 2 hours before becoming completely useless. It would have been perfect for the numerous family trips, fishing excursions, festivals, & summer adventures that my family participates in.”

The glaring issue here is that zipper reliability is of primary importance when it comes to fanny packs.

If you were trying to sell your own fanny packs, what could you take away from this to inspire your messaging?

Here are some points that stick out to me:

“Frustrating!”
“I needed to be able to carry my essentials (phone, money, chapstick) & the waterproof aspect was a plus.”
“However, while at the park, the zipper would not open while attempting to pay for our lunch. WOULD NOT BUDGE. So there we sat, at the cash register, wrestling with this stupid bag while holding up the line. We spent about 10 minutes trying different angles, trying different people, & then trying to rip the actual zipper apart. Nothing. Eventually, we had to ask the cashier for scissors & simply cut the thing open to obtain the contents. Incredibly frustrating.”
“It would have been perfect for the numerous family trips, fishing excursions, festivals, & summer adventures that my family participates in.”

Take that information, and flip it into marketing copy:

Convenient!
Carry all of your essentials (phone, money, chapstick)
Waterproof
Industrial grade zipper for reliable and easy access
Perfect for all your family trips – fishing excursions, festivals, and summer adventures!

Now this is just one review and perhaps more effort could be put into the copy, but you get the idea.

This particular fanny pack has over 1800 reviews, and there are numerous other fanny packs each with their own reviews.

Spend some time reading over many different reviews for a variety of different products and you’ll have a solid idea of what people are saying. Their pain points, what they’re looking for, why they need it, etc.

Incorporate this into your messaging on your website, Facebook Ads, emails – and you’ll connect with your customers in a real-world, tangible way.

While Amazon is just one place to find customer reviews if you’re going to use Google to find reviews, make sure you’re looking at reviews written by customers. Remember, we want everyday language from real customers, not what some pretentious blogger has to say (unless that’s your market).

Online Discussions

Online reviews are ideal and a hyper-relevant and direct source of customer insight. However, anywhere your audience is talking can provide valuable information.

Here are a few more resources to add to your toolbelt:

Facebook Groups– There are countless Facebook groups covering a wide range of topics. Find those relevant to your business and join the conversation.

Instagram Comments– Instagram more visually oriented, and less geared towards discussion so you might not have as much luck here. Still, there are an endless sea of comments and there is bound to be some gold. You’re probably spending too much time on Instagram already, so make it productive and see what people are saying in the comments under relevant competitors, brands, and influencers.

Twitter– Admittedly I haven’t spent much time using Twitter so I don’t have much to say about it. With over 300 million active users, however, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to find some valuable insights there. Similar to Instagram, look to relevant competitors, brands, and influencers and see what people are talking about around them.

Reddit– Though the interface is unappealing to some, the way Reddit is structured can make it a great place to gain valuable insight into your audience. With an endless amount of subreddits (smaller communities focused on a given topic), you can find people grouping together to discuss just about anything. Seek out the relevant subreddits and see what people have to say.

Quora– Quora is specifically meant for people to ask questions on basically any topic, often times about problems that people are having. See how people are describing their problems, and how others provide solutions.

Forums – Although newer social media platforms have made forums less popular than they once were, they are still a great resource to learn about your audience.

Conclusion: Know Your Digital Marketing Audience!

To be clear, previously mentioned work on demographics, psychographics, analytics, and the buyer persona is important. There are already a ton of articles out there on those topics, and it often doesn’t provide much practical insight into your audience.

Rather than marketing based on some abstract concepts of who your audience is, roll your sleeves up and get your hands dirty. With the resources, we’ve gone over, and many others, there is no excuse to not have a deep understanding of your audience.

By Affix Advertising