Becoming acquainted with every aspect of the people who make up your audience is 100% essential if you’d like to connect with them. Once you know what makes all the people in your audience’s categories tick, you can learn to reach them when and how it’s best for them. This means that you’ll provide them with what they want, when, and how they want it. Identifying all of the segments that comprise your audience also helps to ensure the longevity of your connection.

Learn the Demographic Deets

Exactly who are the people who buy your product or service? How old are they? Where do they live? What is their occupation and industry? What are their hobbies? You can conduct some simple surveys to obtain this information. Just remember that shorter and simpler surveys yield more participants, whereas longer and more complex surveys yield meatier information.

After you compile some detailed (and valuable) demographic information, you may choose to separate your audiences into categories and consider implementing slightly different marketing campaigns tailored to each one. The key is forming personalized connections with each segment of your audience to build brand trust and to continue to position your brand favorably in your industry. 

Pinpoint Why People Buy from You

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Why do they buy from you? Are they facing any sort of challenges in their lives? Identifying their various, specific emotional headspaces will help you understand the philosophy behind their purchase intent. The more you know about the people who buy your product, the more you can directly address them where they are in their lives.

Additionally, do the people buying from you have any special interests? This may give you an inkling as to what influences their buying behaviors. 

Take a Deeper Dive

Ready to do an even deeper dive into your audience? Great. This will only help your marketing efforts more in the long run. Now, you can start examining every aspect of your customers’ purchase patterns. What social media platforms do they use? When do they use them? Do they buy your products online or in person? When during the week/month/year do they make the bulk of those purchases? Do they watch particular shows? What motivates them?

Once you have generated some profiles about your customers, you can create multiple “buyer personas” for them. After compiling and considering your different buyer personas, they’ll start to feel more familiar, and you’ll be able to get colorful insight into how to target your marketing initiatives to these personas. There may be some trial and error involved, but ideally, you can channel these personas into campaigns that help you build meaningful connections with your customers.

Keep An Eye on the Competition

What are your competitors up to? What do their marketing campaigns look like? What kind of brand messages are they using, and how are they connecting with their customers? What are they doing that’s working, and what are they doing that isn’t working? This is all valuable information that you can use to your advantage.

Conversely, you may also wish to research complementary businesses which share a similar audience as you but offer a non-competitive product or service. There may be ways for you and certain complementary companies to collaborate and compare demographic notes.

Tap Into the Treasure Trove of Social Media

Social media platforms are an excellent way to connect with and learn more about your audience categories. Examine which of your posts has the highest amount of engagement. Monitor and respond to comments, feedback, shares, and surveys. The more content you post, the more opportunities you have to research what sticks and why. 

The goal is to give your audience categories what they want, right? See what posts are working, and build on them. Keeping track of – and capitalizing on — positive social media traction will help your strategies stay relevant and focused. Don’t be afraid to test out some concepts because with social media, you can accrue so much data just by doing, and you have so many analytics tools at your fingertips.