Establishing Your Audience

Imagine: the stage is set. You’re walking up the steps, presentation in hand. You walk up the stairs, taking a deep breath as you straighten your shirt. You can feel the warmth of the lights as you walk on the stage. A gentle rumble from your stomach reminds you to pace your speech, despite the extra strong medium coffee you chugged that morning. Last night was full of nerves and last-minute changes, but you made it.

As you approach the podium, you look up, and panic immediately sets in.

You are in the wrong auditorium!

Flashbacks to awful public speaking experiences aside, finding and developing your audience is a process that if not done correctly, will have you feeling like the unlucky person at the beginning of this article. You may be prepared to speak, and you may even have useful information. However, if you’re in front of the wrong people who lack interest in your offer, lack purchase power, or lack problems you can solve, you’ll be speaking to deaf ears that can’t be called to action.

find your audience

- Know where they are

- Know who they listen to

- Know what problems they need solved

Establishing your audience establishes your value to your target market.

Finding your audience is not a one time process. A healthy brand or business will always be paying attention to the changing ways their consumers are interacting with their products and services. To begin, there are four major elements to consider when defining your target audience. These are a great place to begin, as target demographics are an extensively data-driven area of marketing. However, by making these considerations, you’ll find yourself creating valuable connections with repeat customers that depend on and trust your expertise. Why? Because you’ll know where to find them, and more importantly, they’ll learn where to find you.

1.) Find out what their problem is.

Finding out what problem you solve for your audience can be a lengthy or simple process. This is why it helps to keep this at the front of your mind when considering the viability of your business. Your target audience will become loyal customers to whoever consistently answers a recurring question, or solves a recurring problem they have. Here are some other questions to consider when you make your initial pitch:

• What can you help or offer that they want or need?

• How easy is it for them to use?

• How fast can they receive it?

  All of these factors are important when communicating with potential new leads. This piques their interest, and helps you stand out from your competitors, while easing a pain point of your consumer.

2.) Find out where your audience spends their time.

If I find myself spending most of my time at a bowling alley, I’ll find that I’ll listen to others I frequently see there for shoe recommendations, or tips on how to get that trademark alley spin. Location influences how audiences tap in, so find out where they spend their time. This allows you to be smart with your marketing dollars, placing your messages where you know your ideal customer spends most of their time.

Essien’s Theory of Expected Audience Conversion:

Let me be a nerd for two seconds.

Well Placed +Well Crafted Messages + Consistent and Credible Location + Good Offer (Price) / Competitors Market Share = Expected Conversion Rate

In other words, If you have a solid message placed in a high-traffic, highly relevant area frequented by your ideal customer, and you combine that with a quality product or service at a competitive price, and adjust for how much of the market is dominated by your competition, you can approximate how many people you will convert on any given campaign.

Essien’s Theory In practice: You’re opening a gym in a busy metro area. You craft an enticing offer of no money down, plus three months at 50% off since its summertime, and school just let out. The other four gyms in the area cater mainly to older adults and single people, so you’ve created an environment more suitable for teens and young adults. You place your offer on school campuses, libraries, and in mailers so that the youth’s parents know, and can register their kids for sessions. There are essentially three outcomes: lower conversion than market share, conversions at market share, or conversions higher than market share. You can expect a higher conversion rate with this model, based on the example here.

3.) Find out how they get their information, and find out who makes decisions or influences them.

spend your time communicating here and building valuable connections, eventually ad campaigns and launches, who do they default to when unsure about new things

4.) Understand where they are in the product life cycle, and their biological life cycle.

Younger audiences respond differently than people of age, and young adults buy things more readily than older folks, etc. Since your gym is tailored towards younger crowds, social media visibility and consistency is a must. Establishing reliable communication streams on these channels would build trust, visibility, and increase your market share; and with time, your profitability. Understanding what works best for your industry and your business is vital to establishing your audience, and establishing yourself as an industry expert!