Are you struggling to get your messages seen?

If engagement is low and sales aren’t eventuating, you might not be getting noticed by your target audience. This may mean it’s time to take a closer look at your customer audiences and who you’re trying to get your messages in front of.

Your customer audiences (sometimes referred to as target customers or customer segments) are the customers you’re targeting in order to get sales. But in order to get sales, firstly you must understand what those customer audiences' needs are; the messaging and tone that speaks to them; as well as the marketing channels they frequent.

The following 5 techniques will help ensure you know your target audience inside out so you can be seen and get sales:

#1 - Get to understand your target customers

Many businesses don't do the leg work required to understand their customers. They have an idea but haven't done the research to uncover the detail. A business needs to determine which target customers want to buy your product or service. What are their demographics? Are you targeting females aged 25 - 45 or 65+ year old males? You need to understand their behaviours,  interests and pain points. Consider the problem they have and how you will solve it. What will your product or service do to make their life easier? e.g. A haircare product that promises to reduce frizz for up to 36 hours. This product is doing the job of helping people smooth out frizzy hair for an extended period of time.  

Getting a clear idea of your target customers requires:

• Research

• Creating customer profiles and segments 

• Being clear about how your product or service will benefit them

If you don't know your customers, you risk creating content and advertising on channels where you won't get seen. By doing the work to understand your customers, you'll be better positioned to target them.

# 2 - Create customer personas

This might sound like a no brainer, but many businesses don’t do it or don’t feel it’s necessary to create specific buyer personas. By creating buyer personas you can begin to put yourself in the customers' shoes. What is it they do on a day-to-day basis? What is their work situation? What’s their family and personal life look like? When you understand these you can start to understand what problems they may face and how your product can help. 

Think about Brad for a moment. He’s married, in his mid 40’s, with two kids, in a management role and is time-poor.  If you’re targeting a customer like Brad, you’ll need to ensure your ‘hook’ and Call To Action are visible right away. He doesn’t have time to scroll and research and is likely to make a decision based on how easily accessible something is. Based on his age, you’d more likely use Facebook as your social channel of choice over Instagram.  If you can appreciate and understand Brad’s position, you’re more likely to provide the solution to the problem he has.

# 3 - Content creation and keywords

The keywords used in your content will ensure the audiences you are targeting see you. You'll need this too when creating content for your website, social media channels, email marketing and other marketing collateral. When considering keywords, you must first identify the problem your target customer has. From there, you'll better understand the messaging and tone you'll use to speak to them. What is it that your target customers need help with? What problem are you going to solve?

An example could be a customer who has a dust allergy and needs their carpets cleaned to help avoid an allergic reaction. Think about keywords relating to that problem, e.g. dust allergies, getting rid of carpet dust, deep cleaning carpets. Their problem is allergies, so how will you make those allergies go away? It could be the following message: 'We'll seamlessly deep clean your carpets, removing harmful dust mites so you can breathe better again. Firstly identify the problem, then work on curating the right keywords in your content. 

# 4 - Identify the proper channels to advertise on

When you understand who your target customers are, you can determine the best marketing channels to advertise on. Before creating content, messaging needs to consider who the target audience is. The tone you use will be determined by who you are targeting. Once this is in place, you'll be able to select the best marketing channels for your target audience confidently.

Let's take an example where the target audience is the Gen Z era. This target audience is most likely to frequent social media channels like YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram. These platforms are highly engaging, so imagery and video must be visually appealing. Content needs to be short, punchy, to the point, and in a tone Gen Zers understand. 

Other marketing channels such as SEO, blogs, email marketing and podcasts may not suit this target audience but would work better for Millenials. The key is to understand your target audience before deciding which marketing channels to use.

# 5 - The buyer cycle and buyer behaviour

Customers are at different points in their buyer journey, which needs consideration when creating content and marketing activities. Some buyers will only be at the beginning of the buyer journey, the awareness stage. At this stage, the customer may not even understand their pain point. Here you'll start to provide information on your product or service and what it does to help them.

Take repairing the heel on your boots as an example. They may not need the heels on their boots replaced this winter, but by next winter, they might. If they've seen 3-4 messages about shoe repair services already, they'll be in a better position to seek your business out for further information in the next stage; consideration. When customers arrive at the final decision-making stage, they have your business in mind to purchase from because of the initial work done at the awareness stage.