5 Ways to Reach Your Target Audience
If you’re a business owner, you want to advertise your products and services to the people who need them. But how do you determine who your target audience is, and more importantly, how do you reach them?
In order to reach your target audience, you must first define them. Buyer personas are the most effective way to accomplish this. To build out your buyer personas and dig into who you are targeting in marketing campaigns, start by sitting down with your sales and marketing team. Input from those who directly deal with prospects and customers can shed light on your target audience’s buying habits. Next, sit down with your customers. Understand how they feel about your company – why do they do business with you? The value proposition process helps to take a deep dive into the essence of your company to help you define why you are in business, besides making money, so you can build this into the fabric of your marketing strategy.
Once you have your target audience and buyer personas defined, how should you be channeling your energy to reach your audience? Here are 5 ways to get started.
1. Improve your search rankings
In today’s digital world, it’s all about where you rank on search engines, primarily Google. In most instances, the thought of this can be overwhelming — especially if you aren’t savvy with Google’s algorithms.
A strong SEO strategy that focuses on what your customers are searching for on Google will help get you started. The goal of SEO is to increase search visibility, so with a set strategy targeted to your audience, you’ll start to get higher rankings on search results, which will help drive traffic back to your website.
2. Set up an effective marketing automation strategy
Marketing automation refers to software that automates your marketing efforts. Simply put, it exists with the goal of executing marketing actions (i.e. sending out email campaigns, publishing social media posts, updating CRM systems with website engagement, etc.) without any in-the-moment manual action.
Essentially, marketing automation helps provide a journey that is targeted, automated, and efficient to reach your target audience. Marketing automation allows you to nurture your leads through the entire buying process, delivering highly-targeted, personalized messages that address their specific barriers to purchase and in turn, driving engagement and reaching a larger audience.
3. Utilize video
If you haven’t jumped on the video bandwagon in 2018, it’s time to. Short videos that share customer testimonials, stories, and promote your products and brand are an extremely effective way to get in front of your target audience. In fact, according to Cisco, by 2020 video marketing is expected to account for 79% of global internet traffic.
Video appeals to everyone and impacts every level of your marketing strategy; videos improve SEO, enhance email click-throughs, appeal to mobile users (90% of consumers watch videos on their mobile devices) and encourage social shares. By creating content that appeals to your audience, you’re only setting yourself up for success to reach a larger group.
4. Build your company’s presence on social media
Social media marketing offers marketers the ability to engage with their buyers across the entire customer lifecycle on the platforms they actively tune in to for information. According to eMarketer, in 2017, 2.46 billion individuals (or 1/3rd of the global population) and 71% of internet users will access social networks at least once a month, up 8.2% from 2016.
Because it’s universally used by consumers and brands, social media is one of the most effective (and cost-effective) channels to connect with your audience. The opportunities to showcase your business are endless – and it has become critical that your brand understands how to leverage social media to your advantage, so you can connect with the right audience at the right time.
5. Empower employees to become brand ambassadors
Your team is your number one asset. Chances are, the majority of your team has his or her own personal networks that are waiting to be tapped into. Setting up a referral program for your team, or simply encouraging them to become brand ambassadors on social media or at networking groups can go a long way to getting in front of your target audience.
