Moving from Target Audience to Customer

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Every business needs to understand its target customer. The best businesses invest time and energy into developing a deep, granular understanding of that target.

They move beyond “middle aged women” to “married women in their 50’s with no children living at home who live along the East Coast and have a strong interest in gardening, health, and leisure travel.” Etc. They get as detailed as possible.

Define the Groups Within Your Target Audience

With an understanding of the target customer in hand, it is time to start thinking about the many stages that these people can be at in their relationship with you:

  • Unaware
  • Newly aware
  • New customer
  • Seasonal customer
  • Active/engaged customer
  • Best customer
  • Inactive customer

There may be more or fewer categories that are relevant to the relationship you want to build with your target audience. The important thing is to define the various relationship stages that can exist. Then, you can develop targeted communication to engage with people at each stage.

Target Communication Based on the Current Relationship

For each stage, you will want to consider:

  • Are there any characteristics common to people at this stage?
  • What does this person want to know?
  • What motivates this person to move to a more active relationship with me?
  • What information or resources will help this person move to the next stage of a relationship with me?
  • Where does this person get information about me? (Website, social media, email, events, print material, networking, etc.)

After all this research, you are now well positioned to develop messaging for your target audience at every stage. You will know what key points to target, and where and how to share the information.

Give Your Brand a Personality

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People seek relationships with one another, and yes, with brands. Your brand’s personality is an important part of what will make people engage or ignore you. Spend time to define a personality for your brand that will resonate with your target audience and you will position yourself for social media engagement.

The most successful brands use a variety of ways to connect with their audience, just as there are many dimensions to person-to-person relationships. These brands also portray human personality traits within their communications.

Brand Personality Is Good for Business

Whether they realize it or not, a person’s connection to your brand is driven by how they feel about your brand.

Studies show that the attractiveness of a brand’s personality significantly affects word-of-mouth advocacy. The more attractive your brand personality is, the more customers will recommend your products/services to their friends, families, and associates.

There are other reasons why brand personality is good for business:

  • Builds sustained relationships with your audiences by forming an emotional connection to your brand
  • Communicates the positive traits of your brand in a relatable way
  • Differentiates your brand from your competitors

Bring Your Brand Personality to Your Social Presence

Now that you have taken time to define your brand personality, you need to let it shine in all your social media activities. Social media channels are designed to cultivate relationships, so it is the perfect venue to help people to get to know you.

Share Your Point of View

Tell people what you think and how you approach problems and opportunities. Let them know where you stand. Opinions and outlook are a central part of personality, so you need to let them shine. People won’t be able to decide if they like you, if they don’t know where you stand.

Tell Stories

Stories use simple words to present ideas, feelings, and concepts. Storytelling can capture your audience’s attention and strike an emotional chord, which is unparalleled when it comes to building strong customer relationships.

Any Topic that Showcases Your Personality Is Relevant

People have a wide range of interests. Embrace that. Don’t stay overly focused on core brand messaging. Be willing to comment on whatever you know is on the minds of the people you want to connect with.

Be funny for no other reason than to engage. Share your reaction to news events or historical milestones. All personalities are multi-faceted. Make sure your brand personality is not one-note.

How to Create a Website Users Will Love

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There’s a lot that goes into building a good website. It takes more than picking a design and adding content. You need to focus on who you want to reach and what you want to accomplish to get it right.

Want to create a website users will love? Consider these elements.

Set a Goal that Focuses on User Needs

Why should anyone come to your site and do business with you? You need to have a goal for your website and you need to understand your audience.

Know your audience. Uncover everything about them.

Your website content has to align with what people want and need. Understand all the different ways of how people can end up on your pages and tailor your content to answer their questions.

Get the Tech Right

Most people find website content via search engines, so showing up there is important to your success. Your website needs to be easily crawlable by search engines and follow technical requirements. Using a well-regarded content management system like WordPress and a reputable site host will ensure your site meets most technical requirements.

You need to have your security in order. A hacked site isn’t getting you anywhere! And a hacked site is easier to prevent than it is to fix. Use up-to-date software, have your SSL in place, and use strong passwords.

Provide a Visually Interesting Site

The design of your website needs to help fulfill the goals you set. Your message should come across loud and clear. The design should be on-brand and well thought out. But more importantly, your site should be clear and easy to use for everyone.

Take time to set up a great experience for site visitors so they will enjoy the experience and come back. Fast page loads, readable text, pleasing colors and ease of use on all screen sizes are all important factors.

Offer Content that Users Want

Create a website your audience will love by being centered on their needs, not company-centered. Good content helps your users get the information, products and services they need. Your content should be clear and easy to understand by using the language of your customer and presenting things in ways they understand. Leave out the corporate speak and don’t structure things according to your internal organization.