How to Get to Know Your Audience: A Masterclass for Marketers

You have to get to know your audience. It's a no-brainer. Your audience isn't just a group of potential customers; they are your people. Understanding them unlocks numerous advantages. Once you’ve gotten to know them you will know what products to bring to them. You can easily build a community and tailor your content towards them. You can shape your brand to be the ‘same’ as them, growing an audience with intention, making sure they are always engaging with what you show them. 

Dive deep, the bottom of the funnel

The bottom of the funnel is where your most valuable audience resides, those who purchase from you - your people. Your followers are important but the most important people for your brand are the ones who purchase from you. To truly understand these core customers, 3 things to focus on:

• Feelings

• Emotions

• Events

Data drilling - where to look

• Shopify Data

• Google Analytics

• Sales Data

• Customer Reviews (A goldmine of insights)

• Competitors' Websites and Reviews

Capturing their attention

You have to get your audience's attention. Engage with your audience through:

• Surveys with Incentives

• Live Chat

• Direct Conversations - speak to them in the comments, DMs, emails

• Customer Interviews - get on the phone

• Observation - get to know them

• Loyalty Schemes

• Trade Shows and Face-to-Face Meetings

Key questions to ask your audience

I could go on forever here but the main thing is to understand them as individuals and their context when making a purchase. You are aiming to discover thing about them as PEOPLE but also their SITUATION when they’re buying. Consider: 

Demographics:

• Where do they live?

• Marital status

• Any children?

• Job

Behavioural Insights:

• Where do they get their news?

• Preferred social channels

• Reading habits

• Travel preferences and aspirations. Where do they holiday?Where would they love to go?

• Shopping habits - where do they shop for food?

• Free time activities

• Car preferences

• Dislikes

• Favourite radio stations

Contextual and Emotional Insights:

You can dig a little deeper and find out about their feelings/emotions/events.

• Previous products used and other similar products they have used

• Purchase state of mind

• Purchase timing and location - were they sat on the sofa or at their desk on a lunch break when they purchased? Were they on their phone waiting for their kid to finish their swimming lesson? What day of the week was it?

• Product usage - where will they use the product?

• Ideal product characteristics - What does a really good one look like to them?

• Similar brands they avoid and why - Have they used something similar before? Where did they get it from? What similar brands would they buy from and why?

Remember the power of multiple choice. Thi can work really well. It enables you to group them easier but be careful to make sure you give the right options. 

Extracting insights

Your aim is to glean:

• Feelings about the products you are selling

• Objections to any of your products

• Personal motivations and reactions - understanding what makes them tick/what they react to

• Common emotions and feelings they have 

• Life stages and personal narratives - understanding their own narrative in why they purchase. No one needs your product but they will justify their purchase by creating a story. 

So… What to do with all that information?

You now need to transform these insights into actionable strategies:

• Product Feedback: Info is 2 fold. General and specific feelings about your products, not just the ones you sell. 

• Brand Messaging: Highlight what your brand is not (ads, copy, social content)

• Language Mirroring: Use the language of your customers to build rapport. Mimic the language used by them - we automatically feel connected to people who ‘speak’ like us

• Customer Avatars: Create detailed personas (with names).

• Visual Storytelling: Use images that reflect their journey with your product. Adapt your images to tell the story of why they are buying/what they're doing with your product

• Story Reflection: Repeat their stories back to them to build connection.

Building a community

Cultivate a tight-knit as this can be invaluable in continuing the journey of getting to know the customer. 

• Observation: Monitor their conversations.

• Participation: Involve them in product development.

• Leadership: Let your community guie you. Be led by your people. 

Now REMEMBER your key takeaways

• Niche Focus: Accept that you won’t be for everyone, and that’s okay. 

• Targeted Listening: Focus on your core audience. Find who you are for, and when you find them LISTEN to them. 

• Continuous Learning: Revisit and refine your understanding regularly. Repeat the exercise. 

• Stay at the bottom of the funnel!

• Emotional Insights: Go beyond demographics. Demographics can never give you what you need on their own. 

• Power of Reviews/UGC: Leverage user-generated content and reviews.

By implementing these strategies, you'll not only understand your audience better but also create a brand that truly resonates with them, driving loyalty and growth.

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Bonus Question List

Where do you like to go on holiday?

Where would you holiday if money was no object?

If you’ve purchased from us before, was it for a certain event in your life?

Where do you most frequently purchase your clothes from?

What is your supermarket of choice and why?

What is the most important thing for you when buying xxx?

Remember a time when you purchased (your product) and it was disappointing - what was disappointing about it?

What 3 things couldn’t you live without?

What radio station do you listen to?

Do you enjoy spending money?

If you wouldn't have purchased from us where would you have gone for (insert product)?

Do you value price over quality or vice versa?

Do you have aspirations for the next 10 years?

What job do you do?

Where do you live?

What is your marital status?

Do you have children?

What is your occupation?

How old are you?

How do you prefer to shop (online, in-store, etc.)?

How often do you shop for [specific product category]?

Where do you typically shop for [specific product category]?

What factors influence your purchasing decisions (price, quality, brand reputation, etc.)?

What do you like most about our products?

What do you dislike about our products?

What features do you wish our products had?

How do our products compare to similar products you’ve used?

What motivated you to make your last purchase?

What problems or needs does our product solve for you?

What goals or aspirations do you have that our product helps you achieve?

What major life events are you currently experiencing (e.g., new job, moving, having a baby)?

How do these events influence your purchasing decisions?

How has your shopping behaviour changed over the past few years?

What time of day do you usually make purchases?

Where were you when you made your last purchase from us?

How do you usually find our products (website, social media, physical store, etc.)?Do you prefer to buy products spontaneously or after careful consideration?