Understanding your audience, without spending a cent
In business, knowing your audience is crucial. It affects everything, from what you sell to how you sell, from how you promote to where you promote.
Understanding your customers is foundational to your success. And something so key to your livelihood is worth investing in. But the investment doesn’t have to be huge, it doesn’t even have to be actual dollars.
Invest some of your time and use the resources you already have, to reap the benefits of knowing your audience. Let’s talk about WHAT info you need to know and then find out HOW to get it.
WHAT you need to know can be broken down into two categories:
Demographics
Defining customer demographics doesn’t require a detailed report from the Bureau of Statistics. With demographics you are only just beginning to define your audience. Your categories should be as broad as possible. At minimum you should be able to determine the following for your audience; age range, location and maybe gender. But if you have more detail, absolutely use it!
Psychographics
Using psychological traits, your aim is to hone in on your target audience, to better understand their motivations and decision-making processes. Categories could include:
Personality
Lifestyle
Socio-economic status
Habits
Interests
Your knowledge of your own product or service is a useful guide to nailing down which categories your target audience falls into.
Now let’s delve into HOW you can gather this information without spending a cent.
Google Analytics
If you don’t have Google Analytics already. Get it. I don’t get paid to say that, but it is an invaluable tool and it is free (as are the many YouTube tutorials on how to use it). Google Analytics will provide an overview on who your customers are at a demographic level and what they are doing when they come to your website. It’s important to understand what they are looking for and how long they are willing to spend looking for it. It can also tell you what stage of the buying process they are in. Possibly directing you to restructure your website or add content depending on what trends you see. Remember, the longer a customer stays on your site the better.
Reviews
Your customers are talking to you, are you listening? Of course, reviews are fantastic for improving your performance and your credibility, but they also provide insight into the mind of your customer. Read your reviews closely; if they are happy:
What were they happiest with?
Are they talking about features or benefits?
Did you solve a problem for them? Was it the problem you have been focusing on?
If they are unhappy:
Is it a service or distribution problem?
Did you underdeliver on a promise?
Was there a lack of information about the product or service?
You can also use reviews to mimic the language of your audience, build it in to your communications and content. Speak to your audience in a way that they will respond to.
Surveys
Surveys are a proven way to build up your understanding of your target customers by going straight to the source. There are two big “howevers” though:
However # 1:
You will need to tailor your survey to get the best response. You could email all your subscribers a 20-question survey or you could ask a yes/no question at checkout or you could ask for a 1-1 interview with your top customer. There are so many options, take some time and think about what will work best for you and your customers and what exactly do you want to know.
However # 2:
You may need to incentivise your survey (sorry, a small cost!). You can ask customers to do surveys for free, but it may limit the response you get. The incentive could be a real dollar amount or could be in exchange for a product or service.
Competitors
Knowing your competitors can give you the edge in business. Knowing what their customers are saying can help you steal them. The customers, that is. Take a look at their socials. Ask yourself:
What are customers responding to?
Is it the content, the language, the competitors responsiveness?
Now take a look at their reviews:
What do their customers love about them?
What do they hate?
These questions can help you understand where customers are interacting with a brand, how loyal they are, what language they use, their spending habits and much more. Use these insights to strengthen your communications with you audience.
Content
When is content more than just content? When you can analyse it to gain insights into your audience. Review what you have, take note of:
Which pieces of content are the most popular?
What content gets the most comments?
What content keeps someone on your page?
Which content gets skimmed?
Look for these trends with all your content pieces, they can tell you what your audience is thinking, how they are feeling and where they are in their decision-making process. They can also tell you where you can improve your content. All key to building your relationship with an understanding of the target market.
As you can see, some of the best customer insights will come from using and understanding what you already have, not necessarily spending your hard-earned cash. Your customers are showing you who they are, make sure you are looking.
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Shoot me an email. I am a writer with a background in marketing and a passion for small business. I specialise in website copy, content creation, and communications strategies.