Know Your Audience

Here at Brandner, one of our guiding principles is, “know your audience.” This could be as simple as knowing what birthday treats to send to a customer who doesn’t eat sweets, or as involved as understanding how to motivate a client’s target audience to click on a digital banner ad.

Whatever your goal, the more you know about your customer base, the more your message will resonate with your audience. As marketers and advertisers, we can put all our efforts into launching a highly polished marketing campaign. But, if we don’t first identify our target audience and listen to their needs, we may find it didn’t move the dial. So, how do you get to know your customer base and find out what they really want? Consider the following tactics.

Break it Down

Invest resources upfront to determine who your audience is, paying special attention to market segments with commonalities (such as those with similar demographics, geography or preferences). This will not only help you learn more about your customer base and identify trends, but it will also bring to light markets that require a tailored approach. This is critical as not everyone responds to the same message.

For example, one of our clients has multiple market segments, including design professionals, building owners, code officials and installers. Because these customers have different preferences and job functions, we are careful to target our messaging and purchase-decision tools to their specific needs (i.e., product installers do not necessarily respond to a highly design-focused ad that promotes design resources).

Listen to your Audience

Once you have identified your target market segments, take the time to listen to and understand each group’s point of view. Determine what needs your company can fill for them, whether it is an industry-leading product solution, expert service, or a new tool or resource. Then, identify how to best communicate with each group, pinpointing their likes and dislikes. Take this pulse often. It will help ensure your company evolves alongside them as technology does. For example, will email marketing or a social media ad resonate more with your audience?

Make the Connection

Once you know who you’re talking to, what they care about and how to best engage with them, you can begin to tailor specific messaging for each group and develop an effective marketing plan that hits the target. As you do, keep in mind the following strategies to help catch attention, build respect and ultimately generate loyalty among your target groups.

  1. Provide real value – Promoting top-notch customer service, expertise or solutions that matter the most to your audience will get your company noticed.
  2. Speak their language – Show your audience that you “get it” with a website, ads, collateral and messaging that they understand.
  3. Know their challenges and provide solutions – Demonstrate that your company can provide tools to help your target audience do their job better, quicker or easier.
  4. Become a thought-leader in your space – Whether your product is niche or common, provide easily accessible customer education so your customers come to regard you as the go-to industry experts.
  5. Invest in innovation – Customers want to align themselves with the leaders in the industry, and continued innovation keeps them coming back to see what’s new.

Remember, there is no substitute for knowledge. The best way to foster relationships with your audience is to meet with them and learn from them. By doing so, you’ll find yourself surrounded by new and innovative ideas that will keep your campaign from falling flat.