Small Biz Fuel

I am sure you’ve heard it said that you need to know your audience. This is important because you’re able to communicate better to an audience you really know. But what does it really mean to know your audience and what can you do to learn about your audience?  Whether simply networking or building a complex advertising campaign, knowing your audience well is fundamental to success.

From a small business marketing point of view, knowing you audience has a lot to do with knowing their pains. What problems do they have in their life? Problems create needs. Needs your customers might not know they have. And when you know a person’s pains or needs and you can speak to that hurt by offering a solution to the pain. People will pay good money to have you solve their problems.

An easy exercise to gain some perspective on your audience is to create profiles of your customers. For example, if you’re in lawn care, your ideal customer is a homeowner who lives in a neighborhood where a high lawn standard has been set. But this is a person who does not enjoy yard work and also has the income level to pay a lawn service to do the work for them. Through a little forethought and research this type of customer profiling can be very effective in defining and knowing your audience.

Ask a lot of questions of those who are buying from you. Your current customers are an amazing source of information and knowledge into you audience. Ask them about why they use your product or service. Offer discounts for filling out surveys. Large corporations do this constantly. That is why your receipt is so long when you go to a large box store. Consider rewarding those who take time to provide feedback.

Last, be sure to test your knowledge. I am sure many of you think you know your audience and how to communicate to them. Have you tested that? No matter what form of communication you are using, always ask for feedback from someone who is in your ideal audience. Have them look at an ad and verbalize what the ad is saying to them. The same can be done with websites, brochures, and sales pitches.

It is key to put as much time, if not more, learning about your audience as you put into learning about your product or service.

Keep Chargin’ -PS