Identifying and understanding your audience

One of the most important pieces of a company’s digital marketing strategy is their audience. Without understanding your core demographic of customers, it’s nearly impossible to properly identify the direction of your marketing strategy. This can apply to any facet of marketing — from social media to print, email marketing and SEO, among others.

So how do you properly identify your audience to be sure you’re catering your content and tone to the right crowd?

Identify (or create) customer profiles

One of the most critical pieces to your business, even outside of just the digital marketing space, is understanding who your target demographic is. If your business already has buyer/customer profiles, you can use these. Otherwise, it’s time to create these. This includes everything from the age and income of your target demographic to their interests, and how you can help solve their problems.

Find out where your customers are most active

Understanding where your customers are interacting on a daily basis is an incredibly important piece of your day-to-day marketing. Are your customers primarily interacting in Facebook groups? Are they a younger demographic shifting toward TikTok? Are they more active in email vs. social media?

Related: Creating relevant content for your social media channels »

By answering these questions, you can make more educated decisions in where to be spending your time, effort and money when it comes to reaching your ideal demographics.

Keep an eye on your competition

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Now, we’re not telling you to copy what your competition is doing … unless it’s working, of course. However, keeping an eye on how your competitors are marketing to their demographic can give you plenty of insight — both good and bad — in how you should shape your content marketing plans. If customers are responding and engaging (from what you can tell), it may be time to model your content after their’s … and if their content is underperforming, you’ll be able to identify what you shouldn’t be doing.

Survey your customers

Sometimes, the most simple way to understand what your customers want is to ask them directly. Utilizing surveys is a great way to discover the needs and pain points of your customers, help understand what type of marketing they may be looking for, and where they are most active in their daily lives.

Also Read: The importance of email marketing »

There are plenty of great services that allow you to create free surveys and deploy them via email, or you can use a service or agency (such as SmartSolutions) to create and deploy these surveys for you.

 


At SmartSolutions, our team can help assess your company’s marketing strategies and efforts and help you create a plan a comprehensive marketing plan for your business today.

Contact our team today to get your free consultation!

Creating relevant content for social media

The importance of a company’s social media marketing has skyrocketed in importance in recent years. From sharing the latest and greatest products or services, to interacting with followers and sharing your company’s story, social media has evolved into a channel that help connect brands of all sizes with their target audiences.

Allowing your company to interact directly with your target audience and build a loyal consumer base is just one of the many benefits of having a properly planned and executed social media strategy. But connecting with them starts with one of the most simple, yet complex pieces of your strategy — content.

Keep it high-quality

There is nothing worse than following a company on Facebook or Instagram that shares blurry, non-engaging content that’s irrelevant to your interests. The quality of your content should be the forefront of all of your strategic planning — from the image or video, down to the text copy.

Use “smart structuring”

It’s no secret that attention spans continue to get shorter. Internet users read at a very quick pace, meaning the first sentence or two of your post is as vital as any other piece of your content.

Related: Writing captions that work for social media posts »

Nothing intimidates and turns off a social media user more than a giant “wall of text.” By taking the time to write short, engaging posts — with plenty of use of emojis, bullet points and headers to help break up the text — you are writing user-focused content, and, in turn, helping your posts and your pages/profiles.

Repurpose user-generated content (UGC)

The absolute easiest way to create content for your company’s social media pages is by simply repurposing “user-generated content,” or UGC. User-generated content can consist of guests posts, re-posted or shared images/videos, sharing of reviews, or even customer testimonials.

By sharing UGC on your pages, you are benefitting in two ways — first, it helps engage your audience, and shows how your product or services are being utilized by everyday social media users. Second, it helps create a greater brand awareness and, hopefully, inspires more users to share their experiences. These posts can help your audience really connect with not only your company, but with other customers, and help create a sense of “community” around your brand.

Prioritize video

Video is quickly becoming the most dominant form of online content — with more than 85% of all internet users in the United States watching some form of online video content on their devices monthly. As a result, it’s time for your company to finally take the steps needed toward investing in the proper video resources.

Also Read: Increasing your social media reach »

Whether you’re creating educational how-to videos, demonstrating your products or services, sharing video-based client testimonials, or creating funny (yet appropriate) short videos to keep your audience engaged, focusing on your video content (and keeping high-quality in mind) is a great step toward engaging with your audience.

 


At SmartSolutions, our team can help assess your company’s marketing strategies and efforts and help you create a plan a comprehensive marketing plan for your business today.

Contact our team today to get your free consultation!