To succeed and thrive in today’s ever-changing digital marketing world, there are thousands of things you can do but there are a few that you must do. This article explains a few key components that are necessary to make sure that your business reaches the right people. And, how to  continually improve that skill in order to grow your audience over time.

Are you doing these three things to grow your audience?

1. Know your audience inside and out.

The most crucial part of growing an engaged audience is getting to know them. For example, do you know whether your audience likes more, or less, frequent interaction or digital touches? Or do they prefer a day or two in between reach outs?

Does your audience respond more favorably to photos or videos? Do you know where your audience spends their time? What websites do they visit and what content best gets a response from them?

Knowledge of them through market research, surveys and audience observation is essential. Their preferences will drive your interaction and its success.

2. Provide value beyond the point of sale.

Once you understand who your audience is and what makes them tick, you must then build a strategy to meet their needs. This is the point where their needs and or desires meet your offerings and abilities which will result in their selecting you to meet those needs. Knowing what you have to offer is vital in understanding how it can benefit the audience.

To make a plan that meets their needs, ensure that you aren’t offering a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. Focus on the real issues and offer solutions through your strategy.

A trap many marketers fall into is focusing solely on their products and then selling those products as the only solution. Don’t do that! Instead, understand their needs first and you build trust with your audience.

One thing to note while building your strategy is the offering of a product sale versus providing them a lifestyle message. Rather than be all product focused all the time, try adding value to their lives – make your marketing campaign about a lifestyle vs a product.

How does the product that you are marketing match an aspirational lifestyle? Most audiences today see right through the “sales-y” approach. But if the product is shown to be relevant to their lifestyle, you’ve made a connection.

3.  Be ready to adapt.

Lastly, as you are growing your audience, you must stay relevant. The solutions of yesterday won’t work today and don’t assume they will! Take a step back – just because you have been marketing a certain way or offering a certain product for years, do not assume this means it remains valuable to your audience. Listen, Learn, Repeat and grow.

Test, test, then test again.

One way to do this is to stand out – be different and always adapt! One example of this is, if you are focused solely on digital and social marketing, be different…expand your message ‘to the street’ with experiential marketing. More and more, audiences want to be able to see a product or brand face to face, vs on their mobile device or computer screen. Experiential marketing gives marketers the extended opportunity to interact with their potential audience in a unique way, and to provide an experience to the audience they may not otherwise get.

And the best part about getting to know your audience and directly interacting with them either digitally or face to face is that they will tell you want they want, what they need, and what they’re interested in now and in the future. The key is listening more and hearing better.

So go out and meet the world with enthusiasm and remember: it is, always has been and always will be about the customer.

Need help with your audience?

Market research can be hard, especially for small business starting from scratch. Luckily, the Brainbox team is here to help. We offer everything from persona creation and customer value journey workshops to full reports on the people and markets you’re trying to reach. Give us a call at 859.225.4488 or contact us today.