Understanding Your Audience

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You have a great product or service, and you want people to know about it. You might have had an idea of who you want your customers to be, but do they match who your “target audience” should be? As a small business owner, you probably know how important customer interactions are to the growth of your company, but the issue is getting started. It can be so hard finding the right people to engage with your business, but with social media, and web data analytics, you can easily find out who is interested in your products or services. However, it can be difficult using these platforms and websites if you don’t have a basic understanding of your target audience and their needs and wants. In this article, we talk about what it means to know your audience and how you can better your small business to get the customer interactions you want.

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What it Means to Know Your Audience

Understanding your audience is a continuous journey, not a goal. It involves a constant process of learning about your customers and making necessary improvements throughout the life of your business. Customer engagement is the core of business growth. It is what drives effective marketing strategies and your brand equity. If people don’t know about your business, then it won’t gain traction and popularity. Because the growth of your business relies on customer engagement, your focus should be on your audience. Instead of asking yourself who you want your customers to be, you should instead ask yourself who would want to engage with my business. If you focus too much on people you want to engage with your product or service, you’ll end up neglecting those who actually need or want the things your business offers. Instead, ask yourself who would want your products or services and how you can reach them.

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Researching Your Target Audience

Your target audience includes people who would want or need your products or services. When planning out who your target audience is, make sure you pay attention to specifics. There will be groups of people who won’t be interested in what your small business offers, so be careful not to consider them when thinking about your target audience and when making changes to your business. You should be considering factors such as age, gender, location, and nationality when figuring out who your target audience is. One great way to figure out these factors is to look at past customer engagement. Do you notice that women in their late 20’s are buying your products or services, engaging with your social media accounts, or leaving online reviews? Then they might be your target audience. One great way of doing your own research is to monitor audience feedback, comments, and engagement. You’ll learn your customers likes and dislikes, their buying habits, and popular trends among that group.

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Questions to Ask Yourself

When figuring out your target audience, you should be asking yourself a few important questions:

Who are my customers and what platforms are they using so I can reach them?

What products or services do my customers want?

How would my customers benefit from my products or services?

What is the price point my customers would want?

Who are my competitors that my customers are likely to consider?

These questions provide a stepping stone towards making necessary changes to your business that will encourage growth and popularity. If you’re adhering to the needs and wants of your target audience, more people of that group will engage with your business.

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How to Better Understand Your Audience

It’s important to get customer feedback whenever you can. Whenever your customers leave their thoughts about your products and services, you get a chance to make necessary adjustments to improve your business. Make sure to regularly update your social media page to encourage engagement on your accounts and stay updated on reviews your customers leave you. You can also leave surveys and forms for your buyers to fill out. You’re not only listening to your customer’s suggestions, but you’re also helping your business grow and develop.

Another great way to better understand your audience is to experiment with content and updates to your products and services. Some smaller changes you can make are updating your social media pages or websites. Whenever your business makes changes, you’ll experience either positive or negative responses. No matter which response you get, you’ll have a better understanding of what your customers want to see from your business.

Lastly, try creating a buyer persona. Buyer personas let you fully understand who is in the market for your product or service .You can discover how your customers are finding your content, what your customer’s common characteristics are, and who benefits the most from what your business offers. By “becoming your customer,” you can better make adjustments to best fit your target audience.

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Effects of Understanding Your Target Audience

Your small business relies on customer interaction. By better understanding who your target audience is, you can create a more efficient marketing strategy to improve your business. By listening to customer feedback, you’ll be able to enhance certain aspects of your company such as brand personality. Customer feedback also allows you to develop your product or service. If they are unhappy about one aspect of your product, you can make necessary changes to improve it. Your customers want to tell you about their experiences with your business, and you’re the only one who can effectively respond to them.

As you begin your journey as a small business owner, it might be difficult getting people to know about your product or service. However, understanding your target audience not only gives you the traction you deserve, but it also allows you to improve your business as a whole. Remember, your business relies on your customers. Give them chances to tell you about their experiences and respond to them. Your customers (and your business) will thank you.

If you want to learn more about Barbie’s experiences as a small business owner, check out the rest of her page at barbiepatel.com. Stop by her website cinderellabridez.com if you want to learn more about her bridal services.

Leanne Kim