Before people were connected easily through the internet or even with mass transit, most people were involved only in their local economy. Their only option was to tailor their goods and services to the local town they lived in. Each craftsman or shopkeeper carried the goods customers wanted and focused on serving the customer as best as possible.
Even with the technology available today, each person must cater to a specific audience. It is essential to continue to receive feedback from your audience and put that into practice. We will give you some tips on focusing your efforts on your audience.
Connect with Humans
All of your channels you use to publish your valuable content are intended for humans. Their feedback will give you ways to further connect with your audience.
- Calls to Action. The goal is to attract your customers with these buttons. The design should be clean, yet stand out from the rest of your site, so they are easily noticeable. The copy should tell users what they will get once clicking on the button; avoid a generic "submit" or "register to learn more" because that is not as engaging as "find a roofing quote" or "get a free eBook".
- Engagement. Whether through blog comments or your email list responding to what your audience says provides more value to them. They look to you for advice and help, so by making yourself easily available to engage with your audience, you improve clout more than any search engine can.
- Content. If you use one marketing channel or five hundred (a bit overkill if you ask me), make sure the content going through each channel is relevant and consistent. Your audience is everywhere and expects valuable content out of each channel. Newsletters, blogs, and social media are valuable tools, but all should reflect your central idea.
- Value. While content should be relevant, the format should too. Some people prefer a podcast or a video as a way to get your content. A new workout probably won't work as a blog post, but rather in as a video form demonstration. Always consider how your audience would use the content.
Nathan Berry took a unique approach. He wanted his audience to subscribe (for free) to his class. He provided this class daily through email because he wanted his users to learn about it in-depth. A few blog posts wouldn't cut it. This is an example of catering your content to your users in the way most beneficial for them. The design stands out with a pop of green on white, and he lets the user know that they can opt-out at any time.
Making Changes
New ideas are great, but remember to check their effect before discarding the old ones. AB testing and referring back to what you know as fact regarding your audience is good in finding the best solution. There are a few key facts to remember about testing:
- Use audience feedback when making new choices because this is market research directly from applicable.
"We’re supposed to see where visitors most like to go on our sites — by using analytics and keywords — and help them get to those destinations without interruption."
- Don't worry if your new ideas didn't work out because that just means you were on the right track in the first place.
- Trying to do all changes at once won't multiply your success. Too many changes can overwhelm users and actually drive them away.
Summary
All of these ways to cater to your audience create trust. Your audience should be the pivotal point of any decision because they are the ones affected. If you add a marketing channel or a new form of content, make sure it helps your users. Grabbing hold of the latest marketing tool because it is shiny and popular is self-serving. By thinking of your users in every step, you ensure what they are getting is valuable, which can only help you.
Photo by Kheel Center