You have set up your social media pages for your online marketing and you need to drive your target audience to your social pages.
Finding your target audience requires you to put yourself in their shoes, understand what it is they need and be the solution provider. People want a solution, not a product.
We will give you 7 key pointers on how to do this.
Table of Contents
1. Understand your target audience
Develop a persona for the customers you are targeting, In fact, personalize this person. Look the following example:-
- Name – Elizabeth
- Age – 35 years
- Marital status – Married for 10 years
- Children – 2school going children
- Where does she live – in a townhouse on the outskirts of the city
- Where does she shop – Walmart, Amazon and convenience stores.
- Occupation – stay at home mom
- Key concerns – her children and husband
- What are her needs – convenience and functionality
- Possible social media use – Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter;which is great for people who look for deals, reviews, and coupons.
Once you have a clear understanding of your target audience it makes it easier to find the appropriate channel to use and to tailor messaging that reaches them. You will need to develop at least 3 personas because you cannot target one person in your marketing campaign and see the common trend that you can capitalize on.
If you are targeting businesses you will need to do the same but take into account information like type of company, the number of employees, revenue, who the decision makers are and what channels they use to get their information.
Simply put, a great persona profile answers the 5 W’s – Who, What, When, Where and Why.
2. Start with your network and do your research
You have friends on social media, your friends have friends who also have friends…. reach out to your networks and ask them to invite their friends to like your page. You can also buy automatic Instagram likes from igAutoLike or run campaigns to grow your online community. Facebook page insights, Twitter and Google analytics will give you great insight into the networks you have, see how you can extract the information and use it for your own good.
You may also need to get a little sneaky and find out what your competitors are up to, who do they talk to, how do they talk to them and what can you do differently.
3. How can you make a difference in their lives?
Be clear on what you are bringing to the table. Why would a customer come to you as opposed to going to your competitor? Is it superior quality products and services, is there a niche you have discovered, do you have additional things you are offering that your competitors don’t?
If you saw a gap in the market, be the person who will address it and tailor your messaging to shout this fact. Don’t fall into the trap of not having anything new or unique because you won’t be able to compete with the more established businesses on price.
4. Content
Make your content relevant to the customer. Let it answer their questions instead of providing generic information that adds no value. For example, Elizabeth would want to know how she can reduce the time she spends on housework or where she can get the best deals when she wants to do her shopping. Knowing your educational and professional background, while good to know, won’t help make her life easier.
Monitor what you post to see what people like and what they don’t like. There are many online tools you can use to do this including Google analytics. Once you know what people like to read or see, you can tailor your future posts appropriately.
5. Do surveys
Do not assume you know what people want. Learn from them, involve them in the process, generate conversations that will lead to great insights that you will use to make your online presence stronger and more relevant.
You can also use tools like MailChimp for regular communication, you can schedule emails to be sent to your subscribers every two months or quarterly asking direct questions like what they would like to get more information on or areas they would like addressed.
6. Engage with your followers.
One thing that makes people unsubscribe is lack of engagement with the owner of the social media page. Make sure you closely monitor your pages and respond to queries or comments. Yes, even the hurtful or mean comments.
Participate in relevant groups; you can pick a lot by engaging with the different audiences,it will give you a better understanding of what they really want.
Do mini polls on interesting things even if unrelated to your business. The whole idea is to keep people engaged with your pages. Even you can start engaging audience using podcast.
7. Do not assume anything
Assumptions can hurt a business. People are different. Yes, you could share certain similarities but each individual is unique. Their range of knowledge could be different from yours;they may not care about you or your brand and may not know half the things you are talking about. Let data guide you on what you tell your audience, provide as much relevant content as you can without being a know-it-all bore.
Use engaging language and welcome their input.
Conclusion.
You have taken the time to know your audience and are ready to create good content that will make people engage with your social media pages.
Remember to create content that focuses on their needs and interests. Put together a list of commonly asked questions that you have generated from the social media pages and emails. Tell them how your brand will help them take care of whatever is troubling them; they want to be told how the product will make their lives easier not how great the product features are.
Finally, guide them to a ‘call to action’ for instance subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on Instagram. This way you will be able to build your social media community and have more people engaging with your pages.
About Carson Derrow
