“Our audience is mid-sized manufacturing companies.”
“We target IT decision-makers in healthcare.”
There’s a difference between knowing your audience and naming your audience. And above are examples of naming your audience. The difference between the two is as stark as getting a meeting with a prospect and winning that prospect’s business.
Yet, I hear audience “definitions” like these more often than I can believe. Sometimes it’s understandable: having just met someone at a networking event, you might not dive into a deep explanation of your audience, at least not at first. But I hear these definitions during conversations about marketing, when the deep dive is the point of the conversation.
The problem with these definitions isn’t so much that they’re far too broad – though they often are – but that they don’t include enough pertinent information. You have to drill down at least deeply enough to know the issues they’re facing and the outcomes they need to achieve.
Without that, exactly what is your marketing going to focus on?
In all likelihood, it’s going to focus on you, which is why it’s being ignored. Which is why you need to understand what motivates your prospects.
For starters, why they would even consider engaging with your content? It’s tough to create effective marketing content if you don’t know what your prospect is trying to learn.
What problem are they trying to solve?
What pressures are they under?
What does success look like to them – and what is keeping them from getting there?
There’s no need to overcomplicate this part of your marketing. It’s as simple as going beyond empty, generic claims and instead meeting your prospects where they are, speaking to them in their language, reflecting their priorities back to them, and (at the risk of getting a little woo woo), making them feel seen.
In other words, know your prospects well enough to understand what part of your experience and expertise matters to them and highlighting that in marketing content that’s focused on providing them with useful information. With that, they’ll be able to figure out if you’re the right fit for their needs.
How do you do this? Get out there, listen, and use what you hear to go beyond.
Beyond basic definitions of your audience. Beyond your own assumptions and observations.
Who should you listen to? Your prospects, current and former clients, and any member of your team who interacts with them.
If your ideal customer can’t immediately recognize themselves in your marketing, you’re not there yet. Take a step back and, before you look for issues with your channels or topics or formats, check with prospects to make sure what you’re talking about in your marketing helps them understand how you can help them.
Occasional large-scale changes can re-invigorate a marketing plan that’s beginning to falter and can provide a blast of inspiration that ripples out through the rest of your marketing. By the way, if you’re interested in hearing some of my podcast and radio appearances, you’ll find a few of them listed on the Andigo website.
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplashs
