An awesome thing about creating a community with your target market is that you can grow, evolve, and change with them. Think above Dove soap for a minute and how they market to their audience. They have the same product and the same audience, but they’ve changed their voice, tone, and vocabulary to match audience changes throughout the years. You need to be willing to do the same.
Target Markets Change
It’s a fact—your target market with change over time. As they learn from you, you’ll need to become more advanced if you want to keep growing with them. Some choose to stick with beginners, but even if you do, those beginners might change their values as society changes. You’ll need to evolve with them with the language you use.
It Depends on Your Niche
What if your target is parents with infants? Then, as they grow, you can focus on toddlers and older kids to keep that audience in your marketing funnel. Their lives have changed, so you change with them.
Change with Them or Lose Them
When you create a community around your target market, they may change, which means you must change, or you risk losing part of your audience. They’ll drop out since your offers don’t apply to them anymore. The option to grow with them is there, though. You just have to pay attention to their evolution. This is a great way to grow your influence and authority.
For example, if your audience wants to learn about marketing, you can start with teaching them the basics, but you might want to get into more specifics as they learn. You can still offer the beginner information to get your audience into your funnel, but then increase the level of info to move your audience through more specific marketing details. You might want to teach them about copywriting, sales pages, developing funnels, or running Facebook ads.
As you move on with your audience, its normal that your language and tone may change to follow your readers’ transformation. It depends on your audience, which is why it’s so important to stay involved with them so you can grow and change side by side.
Caution — Don’t Overwhelm Them with Professional Terms
If you’re not careful about the language you use with your audience, it’s very, very easy to overwhelm them with information. Bring them along and teach them the professional terms, but explain them as you go. Just because you know what the acronym SEO means doesn’t mean your audience does.
That’s why you’ll want to spell out the acronym—search engine optimization—the first time you talk about it. Explain what it is each time you bring it up. This lets those newbies get a grasp on what you’re teaching so they don’t run away feeling out of place and overwhelmed.
It’s only natural that you’ll use niche-specific terms because you’re passionate about your field, but using too many terms in a webinar, blog post, or article can be both boring and just too much information. Plus, search engines might see the repetitive use as keyword stuffing. You want to make sure your audience understands.
- Define Terms. Defining terms is a great way to help your audience understand. It might seem unnecessary at first, but if you’re writing about copywriting, explain what that means. A lot of people think copywriting is merely writing articles online, but that’s not the case. There’s a big difference between blog writing and copywriting for a sales page.
- Poll Your Audience. Ask questions when you address a new concept. What do they think about what you just spoke about in your blog post? During a webinar, ask them if something made sense. Or whether they have questions. This way you can be sure everyone is on the same page.
- Verbally on Video. No matter if you’re making a video, Facebook Live, or hosting a webinar, try to avoid technical jargon and using too many niche-specific keywords unless you explain them. It’s great to teach, but don’t talk over your readers’ heads. Try not to overdo it so they understand everything.
- Keep Checking In. Whenever you have the chance, check in with your audience to make sure they understand you. Ask them to reply to emails to answer a question and you’ll be able to see if they have a grasp on a concept.
The more you talk with your audience, the better. Having conversations with them means you’ll get more feedback. You don’t want one-way communication. Two-way communication helps you see how your audience is thinking and feeling. You’ll more likely be able to know if you’re getting through to your audience. (Or not.) Also, tracking conversion rates will tell you if the words you use are persuasive enough to make a difference.
Listen to Feedback from Your Customers and Subscribers
Regardless of what you share with your audience, you need to test everything and listen for any issues, confusion, or problems they encounter. You don’t want your audience to feel like you’re talking down to them, but you also don’t want them to feel like you’re talking over their heads.
- Answer Emails Quickly. Encourage replies to your email marketing messages. Don’t use any type of “no-reply” email address. Ask your customers and subscribers to reply, ask questions, and communicate with you. If you don’t ask, they might not realize they can hit reply and ask a question.
- Provide Forms for Feedback. Another way to ensure that you get feedback is to use a form and ask for feedback. You can add them right to the end of your blog posts and articles. WordPress plugins like Ultimate Form Builder (and others) can help you automate this process.
- Ask for Comments on Discussions. When you post anywhere online—whether a forum, blog post, or Facebook Group—ask for comments. An easy question at the end of any post is “Do you agree? Disagree? Why?” You’re giving them permission to disagree with you plus they can expand on the why.
- Send a Poll to Your Users. You can easily send polls via email and on social media. Use something like surveymonkey.com or native solutions such as what comes standard with Facebook. Keep polls simple and to the point with few questions. This way you’ll get more participation.
- Look at Blog Post Comments. When you post on a blog, promote it, and start getting readers, you’ll likely get comments. You’ll also be more likely to get comments if you ask for them. Always end posts with a question that can be answered in the comments. Or add a call to action to make a purchase or download a freebie.
You shouldn’t take negative feedback personally. Look for the points you can fix and change to make your content better for your audience. You are there for your audience, not the other way around. Your job is to give them information in a way they can digest, understand, and use. The only way to make sure you’re meeting their needs is to get feedback, listen to it, and use it to improve.
Want to know even more about your target market? Want to figure out what makes them tick and–more importantly–buy? Make sure you grab your copy of Find Rabid Readers: How to Identify Your Target Market today!
