The only way you or any business owner can truly be successful in attracting their target audience is by understanding who they are. Many small business owners, especially people who start their business alone from home, often skip a few steps in the process, causing issues with finding an audience for your product.
Instead, focus on who you want to serve before you do anything in your business—knowing who you want to serve and why will help you fill your email list with people who are ready to buy from you. These ten ways to get to know your audience better will inform products, services, and even the words you use to communicate to them the value you offer.
- Research Your Industry – When you first start, you need to know what industry you are in. Those industry metrics will help you know where you can start making goals and setting standards in your own business. Look at business organizations, associations, and nonprofits to help you do the research both online and offline.
- Study Your Competition – Even if you don’t have the first customer, you can get to know your audience by studying your competition. Participate in their groups, join their email lists, and network with their customers for the most traction into getting the right information about them. When you become part of the community, you’ll get so much more inside information.
- Create Customer Personas – As you get to know your audience, create customer personas that match the person you’re directing the information to. You may have many client avatars or personas based on the customer’s buying journey.
- Monitor Engagement – An enjoyable way to get to know your audience is to participate in their social media engagement and discussions. Social media should be a two-way conversation that helps you get insight into their deepest fears so that you can help them.
- Ask Them – Once you’ve identified precisely who you want to market to, you can simply ask them questions about what they want and need when you’ve incorporated yourself into their communities. You’re going to get far more insight when you participate and network with your audience.
- Do a Test to Determine Interest – Another way to check if you have the right audience is to generate a test of some kind. Create a checklist for a topic that you think they care about, offer it as a freebie to see who takes it. Then ask for feedback.
- Identify Their Pain Points – When it comes to knowing your audience’s pain point, you’ll need first to understand your expertise and the niche you want to be of assistance to your audience. In other words, choose pain points you can solve.
- Be a Resource – Sometimes, you may not be able to fix a problem on your own due to a miss-match with the audience. When this happens, don’t force it. Focus on being a resource to your audience, and it’ll be a win-win.
- Use the Tools of The Trade – Don’t skimp on software that helps you get to know your audience and network with them. Use paid versions of the software that you want to help you get more done, such as email marketing software, landing page software, and others.
- Build Relationships – As you get to know your audience, make the focus relationship building. When you build a close relationship with your audience due to your honesty, transparency, and ability to stay on the topic, you’re going to build strong relationships.
As you work on getting your first 1000 subscribers, you’ll want to keep each of these tips in mind. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Instead, do what works repeatedly, and you’ll soon find that you’re building your list with an active and interested audience who needs what you offer.