Discover and Define the Audience You Really Have
Posted by admin on May 2, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments
Remember: Mark’s Communication Rule #1: Define Your Audience
Never take your audience for granted. Do you really know who they are or do you think you know who they are?
Recently, I wrote a proposal for an upcoming campaign on a well-defined and successful radio network. I thought I knew their audience, but was interested in how much it had grown. I pulled an Arbitron report and marveled at the numbers.
Then, something caught my eye.
The gender and age statistics were as different as a Mustang differs from a Lotus. Over the last few years, the audience has aged by a decade and morphed from 50/50 male/female to 70/30. Instead of speaking to a 35 year old woman, we needed to direct our campaign to a 45 year old man.
Who is your audience? How do you know? Before beginning any communication endeavor, expend some energy finding out.
DISCOVER
Research is the key to discovering your audience. I mentioned how we used Arbitron to measure and define the audience for the radio network. There are as many tools to use for research as there are industries. Every project requires in-depth and targeted research. I’ll give you an example from my radio work and some ideas for other applications.
Case study: Sell Out Registrations for a Men’s Event in Spartanburg, SC
I first talk to the organizers. Who is your target audience? Tell me about response to other events in other cities? Age breakdown? Marital status? (I will spend 20-30 minutes on the phone drawing this information out of the organizer.)
Here’s what they told me
- mid-twenties through fifties
- dads, but not yet grandfathers
- majority are married, employed, middle class or better
- organizer guesses that most live in suburbs, not in urban areas
Next, I write out my assumptions based on experience and my conversation with the organizers. This draws a line in the sand and helps me research.
Men who meet these characteristics:
- heavy mobile users: probably smartphone users
- technologically savvy
- listen to sports talk or news talk radio
- own a DVR
- many entrepreneurs in the mix
Where are these men? How many are there in the market? How can we best reach them?
Using Arbitron, I discovered the following:
- When you look at ALL men ages 25-64 in the metro area, Rock and Country make up the top four spots. News is 6th and Sports is 9th.
- When you look at men who meet the characteristics we’re looking for (education, income, employment), the Rock station is still #1, but news and sports move to #2 and #3.
These three stations are the ones to target.
Planning a financial/fundraising appeal: You have two audiences. You have your core audience and you have the likely giver. Your “ask” needs to target the likely giver. Use your research tools to uncover the differences between your core and the likely giver.
Hosting a seminar or conference: Make a short survey part of the registration process. Your marketing efforts were successful so you have a good idea who your audience is. Refine that knowledge by asking them specific questions that will help you laser-focus your content.
Giving a speech: Interact with the person who invited you. He or she will know who normally attends the meeting
Writing a blog post: Google Analytics is invaluable to you and give such rich data. If you don’t have it enabled on your blog, do so today. Learn how to read it and interpret the results.
Marketing a book: Don’t assume you know who the target is. Talk with the author. He or she had an audience in mind. You’ll have much more success targeting the same audience.
Don’t forget, one of your best allies will be the 2010 Census data.
DEFINE
Once you have all of your raw data, you don’t know your audience yet. You just have statistics.Your audience is real made up of men, women, boys, and girls. Since my Communication Rule #3 is Speak as if you are speaking to one person and one person only, I believe personification is the best tool to define your audience.
For each project and message, personify your audience based on your research
- Give him a name, an occupation, hobbies, and dislikes.
- Think through how he interprets the world through his five senses and write out those details.
- Look through online photo services, magazines, or catalogs and find a photo.
- Always double-check your thoughts against your research.
Then, before you write, blog, turn on the mic, or speak behind a lectern, go over this information again. Doing so will calibrate your mind and creativity for the task at hand.
Note: If you serve the same audience again and again, be sure to keep refining this personification. Allow it to grow and mature.
Yes, I know, you have more than one target audience. Personify each target. Just remember, you can’t talk to both audiences at the same time. Speak to one this time and to another next.
How do you discover and define your audience?
Share your ideas in the comments below.