Brands that don’t fully understand their audience will never be able to make meaningful connections.
And whilst some brands may well have known and understood their audience in the past, the reality is that their audience has shifted and evolved as they consume products and media in different ways. Altered working patterns and changing demographics mean that audiences have changed, whether brands realise it or not.
Getting to know your audience needs to be a constant, iterative process, not a one-time exercise. In today’s marketplace, consumer trends and preferences continually evolve and brands must understand this in order to stay aligned with their audience. The prize for maintaining this connection is that it will transform your brand from just another choice to the trusted go-to name to which customers consistently return.
The gap between perception and reality
Many brands, especially ones that have been in the market for a while, assume they know their target market, that their approach to audience engagement is still relevant. The reality is that customer behaviours, trends and preferences evolve.
If you’re relying on historic audience data, really need to refresh your consumer insights: customer motivations, interests and behaviours will have changed. You need to know what the audience data is telling you now and use it as well as current trend data, to predict what your prospective customers will be needing or wanting in the future.
A common pitfall when it comes to audience research is the desire for brands to speak to as many people as possible – to cast their target audience net too wide. The risk here is that in attempting to speak to everyone, they fail to connect with anyone. By identifying the optimum audience profile for a product or service and target audience research with a laser focus, a marketing agency partner ensures your brand is speaking to the people that matter: addressing their needs and, ultimately, creating a heightened brand connection which converts them into long-term customers.
How to get to know your audience
We believe that understanding your audience means constantly learning and adapting. And that requires something far more than superficial research. At Made, our approach is to deep dive into the motivations, preferences and behaviours of your target audience. Through quantitative and qualitative target audience research and analysis, through understanding real-time insights and changing trends and through the latest AI and data tools, we’ll build detailed pictures of your prospective audience: their needs, desires and fears. Through these methods and the customer insights they uncover, we’ll make sure your marketing messages land with the punch you need.
Even within a target audience, there will be segmentation. Sometimes there will be the need for messages to be refined to better address different audience subgroups. We help you develop your messaging for each segment so it feels personal and relevant to each of them.
For brands to remain successful they must stay curious. As consumer behaviour and trends continually change, new competitors come on the market and new technologies develop. If brands are not continually monitoring these changes, understanding these changing behaviours and adapting as necessary, they’ll lose ground to the competition.
Invest time to know your audience – it builds your brand’s future success.
Better understanding of your audience means that your targeted messaging resonates more effectively, resulting in stronger audience engagement. Whether it’s email responses or social media engagement you are looking for, audience research leads to more meaningful interactions that create deeper connections between your brand and your customers. This level of understanding also means that you can also craft tailored offers and promotions specifically for their needs or that address their fears. And because they feel you are offering the product or service that they are looking for, your conversion rates will skyrocket.
Better understanding your audience and their needs also saves time and money as your marketing campaigns will be more focused, efficient and effective.
Getting to know your audience is essential for building your brand success.
Every audience has a problem they want resolved. Knowing what keeps them up at night helps you to understand their pain points. This puts your brand in a position of offering a real solution to their needs, strengthening their brand connection and them seeing you as a trusted partner.
Understanding audience behaviour is the art of blending data collected from various sources and turning it into customer insights. At Made, our marketing specialists understand what motivates and drives people and we stand ready to help you understand your audience better and make your campaigns resonate like never before.
If you are looking to understand your audience better, contact one of our specialists in touch today.
