The single most important thing you need to know to successfully market your brand is who your audience is.
As legendary marketer Seth Godin is known for saying, “Find your tribe.”
Who wants to buy? Who is willing to listen? How many are there? Where do they congregate? The answers to all of these stem back to one principle: know your customer.
How to Know Your Customer
There are four major ways to learn who your customer is.
Me-search
In some cases, you’re part of your own audience. One of the most famous examples of this is Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard, who started making his own gear for rock climbing and surfing after frustration with commercially-available alternatives.
If, like Chouinard, you’re creating something to solve your own needs, you understand what your customer is looking for. Chances are other people like you are facing the same problem. That’s your target audience.
Community
Almost everything has a community around it today. From basketweaving to kayaking to selling insurance, there are people talking about the hobby or profession you want to sell to. Your audience is there.
Find where people talk about your market niche and hang out there. What are their concerns, their issues, their opportunities? Listen and find a way to serve them.
Competition
When you’re first looking at selling your product or service, take a survey of your competitors. Who’s in the space? Who do they sell to? And are their customers the same as yours?
Make sure your competition is actually your competition. Take an aquarium store, for example. The competition for low price points and beginners in the hobby is probably Walmart, Amazon and Petco. But are those actually competitors? Kids looking for goldfish or beginner hobbyists might start there, but the bulk of the audience is looking for knowledge, selection and specific types of aquatic life. In this case, the competition is actually other aquarium stores, not the big box variety retailers.
Understand your competition; your audience shops with them.
Research
What are the gaps in the market that aren’t being addressed, or being addressed inadequately?
Many services companies start this way — Uber and PayPal spring to mind. Uber bet that ridesharing would be much more widespread if it were easier; PayPal realized that there was no good ecosystem for trusted payments online. Both did the research and found an untapped audience.
Finding that audience can be as simple as realizing “there’s no one doing this in my geographical area, my hobby or my professional space.” Your small town may not have a plumber — but people still have pipes to fix. That’s an audience ready and waiting for you.
Produce a Persona
Once you’ve figured out who your audience is, write down the information you know about your ideal customer:
- Socio-demographic information
- Location
- Interests beyond your brand
- What platforms they use
- The kind of content they consume
- Their problems and opportunities
Name your persona — Bob, Jennifer, Lavar, Antonia. Then build your messaging, products and strategy to appeal to that persona.
This is the single most important thing you need to successfully market your product. Know who your audience is, and everything else starts to fall into place. Use these tips to get started. And if you need a hand, don’t hesitate to reach out … just drop us a line, anytime.
Best Regards,
David Brandon
Copywriter
Rainmaker Digital Services