Top 5 Ways to Find Out What Your Target Audience WANTS

You know your target audience wants what you’re selling. You know you can make them happier, healthier, and all-around more productive citizens. So how do you get that message to them? You have to figure out what they want and show them that you can provide it.

Try these five strategies for finding out directly from the source what your target audience wants.

Ask Them Via Social Media

Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites offer a powerful tool for getting a pulse on what your target audience wants. Ask followers how they’d like a new product or service you’re considering and see what feedback you get. Or post a status update encouraging your friends to “like” or comment if they’re interested in what you have to say.

Many people use social media merely to express their own thoughts or opinions, so users often see a request for outside feedback as a refreshing change.

Give a Survey

If you already have an email base, take advantage of it by sending your clients a survey. Don’t go into this willy-nilly, though. Take time to make sure your questions are clear enough to answer easily and that the answers you get will point you in a definite direction.

And before you hit “send,” take some time to craft a subject line that will communicate what your email is offering and entice your clients to open it.

Ask for a Show of Hands

We spend a lot of time discussing online marketing copy these days, but person-to-person contact is still an effective way to learn about your target audience. And in some cases, you can learn more from real life contact—which includes facial expressions, tones of voice, and body language—than from digital communications.

To learn more about your target audience, attend conferences where they’re likely to be. Set up a booth or simply talk with people you meet, pay attention to the questions they ask, and take notes.

Ahead of time, prepare questions you want to ask and / or topics you want to learn about so you can guide conversations, if necessary. Remember, too, that you can learn plenty from casual chats, if you’re paying close attention.

Send Regular Emails

If you don’t already send a newsletter, you might want to start. Even if you don’t craft a newsletter, sending regular emails to clients is a great way to see what interests your target audience—and what goes straight to the trash bin.

Tracking email open percentages, click-throughs, and conversions gives you a realistic idea of what actually sets your target audience’s hearts a-thumping—even if they aren’t aware of it.

Use Your Blog

One way to encourage feedback is to end blog posts with a question. Blogs are unique in their structure, which provides a sort of digital discussion forum for a topic of the writer’s choice.

So—what strategies have you found effective for getting a read on your target audience?

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2. How to Find Your Authentic Voice (And Use it to Win Over Clients!)
3. 5 Ways to Generate So Many Referrals That You’ll Be Turning People Away
4. 14 Out-of-the-Box Ways to Market Your Business
5. Prime Your Audience to Hear Your Message