Connecting with your target audience is essential for your business’s success. So what are the steps you can take to achieve it? Find out here
Are you a content creator or a product-based business? Do you know the number one thing that makes your business tick? – Your Audience. More importantly your TARGET AUDIENCE.
Finding your target audience and forming a strong connection with them is what will make or break your success. And I really want to see you succeed.
It is vital to spend time cultivating a relationship with your target audience. But that definitely sounds easier said than done. You might be wondering how do I even get started? How do I build that trust with people I have never met before? What are the steps to building a community?
Here I take you through the top proven ways that you can begin connecting with your target audience and make an impact so that your Boss Babe ventures succeed, and you make a difference.
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What is a target audience?
First, I think it is important to define what exactly we mean by the target audience.
Your target audience refers to the specific group of people most likely to want your product service or content. The target audience may be dictated by age, gender, income, location, interests, and many other factors.
Connecting with your target audience can help you create trust. Trust is a necessary part of any business. Instead of spending hours trying to cater to every person, defining a target audience allows you to be more intentional with your content or product. You will build engagement quicker and you will save yourself a great deal of time.
Now that we have defined that, let’s get to the most important part of the post.
1. Define your niche.
It is so vital that you get clear on your niche. Whatever it is that you are creating, if you do not get clear on your niche you will end up creating content for everyone and anyone. You will not form any connection with anyone this way.
So often people focus on numbers, the more the better being the consensus. However, this is not the case. It is always better to have fewer raving fans than million who are passive and indifferent. So do not be afraid to niche down, even if it takes a bit longer for your target audience to find you.
Having a clear niche will mean that you will become your audience’s go-to person and they will begin to trust you.
2. Define your target audience.
Once you have figured out your niche, you can begin to think about clearly defining your target audience.
For this to work, you want to be as clear as possible and I genuinely advise that you create a somewhat of an avatar of your audience. What age would they be? What do they do in their free time? What are their interests? Where do they live? What do they do for a living? What stage of life are they at? Where do they want to be? What is their relationship status?
People search for content to help them solve some sort of a problem they have. Without first defining your target audience it will be difficult for you to hit the target on what sort of problems your audience may be having. Therefore, it will be harder for you to create the kind of content that helps them.
You will form a much better connection with people if you approach any content created with the mindset of being a problem solver. For that, you need to know the people and the difficulties they might be facing.
3. Have a meaningful purpose.
If you are disingenuous people will see right through it. Trust me. I have seen content that was written from a genuine place of care, and I have seen content that was only written for the creator’s purpose (make a sale, advertise…). I definitely trusted the former more.
If you are truly passionate about what you are creating, you will do it with a completely different kind of energy, and this will come through in your content. If you truly care about what you are doing and care about what you are bringing to your audience, your content will be more authentic and more relatable. You will form that connection.
Plus, it will be so much easier to keep going and keep creating new content long-term – you will find more meaning in what you are doing.
4. Find where your target audience hangs out.
By that I mean where do they hang out in the digital space. You can’t connect with an audience if you do not have an audience. Especially the right kind of audience – the target audience you are creating content for. You need to seek them out!
This is another reason why defining your target audience is such a vital primary step. Once you are clear on who they are you can make better predictions on where they might hang out. Pinterest is dominated by women, especially in the 18-49 age range. Quora on the other hand is dominated by men. If you are creating content for women then Pinterest might be a better option to market your content.
You cannot simply rely on the idea that your audience will magically find you. You have to seek them out too and be strategic about it, so you are not losing your precious efforts.
When you market your content in the right places, you are more likely to attract the kind of audience you are looking for and creating content for. That is definitely the first step to forming a connection.
5. Do your research to create relevant content.
Do not make assumptions about what your target audience might be struggling with. Research what they might be struggling with and create content around that.
Think of the time that you read a blog post or saw an Instagram post that resonated with you. You probably felt like someone just got you and had your back and you felt an instant connection to the content and them. That is the sort of impact you want to have on your target audience every time.
For this to happen you need to find something that your audience will resonate with. Do your research. Look through what you have already created and what content got the most engagement, ask your audience, find Facebook groups where your audience might be to find what they need help with and check through other relevant content creators’ topics to see what worked for them.
6. Add value.
Always give your content 100% and make the effort to make it the most creative, thoughtful, and impactful piece of content. Make it meaningful and show that you care.
Try to get in the headspace of your target audience and think about how they will benefit from what you are putting out there. What will they gain from it? How will it benefit them?
Try this next time you create a piece of content, and it should help to ensure that you bring value to their lives so that they form a connection with you and will want to engage more with your content.
7. Invite engagement.
Ask them questions and ask for their opinions. Get a conversation going. People want to know there is a real human being on the other side.
Engagement takes extra time and extra effort. When you are willing to spend that time replying to your audience, you will also help to make them feel heard. They’ll feel more connected with you, and they are more likely to remember you.
Be curious and find out about them.
Not only will it help you connect with your audience, but it will also give you valuable insight into what content works, who your audience is, and what other content they might be interested in.
8. Take on feedback.
Following from the last point…be open and receptive to their feedback.
But remember that you may not be able to always please everyone especially the trolls. Mean comments, especially directed at your personality are not constructive and you should filter them out.
However, often your audience will tell you what sort of content they liked and why and what more they would like to see. This sort of feedback you should take on because it is a sure-fire way in which you can better serve them, and they will want to engage with you more when they see you listened.
9. Track results and do more of what works.
Apart from any direct feedback you receive, make sure you also follow your analytics. Form any type of content you put out, there will be a way of tracking how your content performs. See what gets more traction and what gets the most engagement. You can also get some valuable demographic information. Also, you will find out what does not work, and this will stop you from wasting time creating content that brings little value.
When it comes to content creation, when you are serious about building a community and scaling things up, then these pieces of information are your gateway to success. You want your target audience to look forwards to your content, to wait with anticipation for the next piece, and not be disappointed when it arrives.
Track results because they give you all the information you need. It is very easy to assume what will work and create content that you want but remember that what you want and what your audience wants are two different things.
10. Show up authentically.
Picture perfect – it’s so last season.
I really am seeing a big shift, especially in the online world, of people wanting to see authenticity over perfection. For too long people put on a façade when showing up online or when creating content. But recently there has been a major change…authenticity is in.
Humans want to engage with other humans, not some form of perfection that is only attainable to a few. They want to find other people that are relatable and can understand what they might be going through. They want to feel understood, and they want to feel comfortable knowing that their lives are just like everyone else’s.
So do not be afraid to show the real you – be yourself because it will benefit you as much as your audience. You won’t lose your identity and they will find you more relatable as you will remind them of themselves.
It is not easy! It is scary because you are much more vulnerable. It is much easier to hide behind a persona but believes that by being you, you will feel more empowered, and you will make others feel more empowered to be themselves. Now, how awesome is that?
11. Don’t try to please everyone.
Because you won’t so do not waste your time and energy. You will only get frustrated. As mentioned before, it is better to have 100 soaring fans than 10000 who do not care. So, create with those 100 in mind.
You want to be the go-to person for your audience, and this will not happen if one week you are posting about one topic they love and the next it’s something different altogether. I definitely made that mistake, and I really would not want you to make it. This is why I am so passionate about sharing this with you.
Your people will find you and these people will stay with you.
12. Give it your all 100% of the time.
Always give it everything you’ve got. I think that it is important in anything you do in life.
People will notice when you put in the effort, and they will appreciate it. They will be more likely to invest in you now and further down the line.
Of course, you will have moments where maybe you are feeling a little bit less inspired and where you might be going through a tougher time. But if all the other times you showed up, then your audience will not care, they will even understand. This is another reason why it is so vital that you form that connection with them. Because it works both ways.
13. Be consistent.
This is vital. You are building a relationship with your audience and like any other relationship, if you do not continually nourish it, it will fall apart.
Be consistent with your content creation as much as possible. You will begin building trust, you will stick in the mind of your audience, and you will build a community of like-minded raving fans. This is vital to creating that connection but also consistency is key to business success overall.
14. Believe you have something to offer.
Your energy will translate to your content. You have to believe in what you are creating so that your audience believes it too.
I truly believe that everyone has value to offer but so often I see that people hold themselves back because they do not believe in themselves enough. They fail to see that their uniqueness is what makes them so incredibly valuable.
Your point of view, your experiences, your thoughts, your feelings, your words, your creativity – they all hold the power to inspire somebody and maybe even change their lives. Your experiences shaped you to become who you are today and sharing this with others can help shape them too.
So never forget that you have something to offer…never be afraid to show up.
On A Final Note.
To summaries – how to connect with your target audience.
- Define your niche.
- Define your target audience.
- Have a meaningful purpose.
- Find where your target audience hangs out.
- Do your research to create relevant content.
- Add value.
- Invite engagement.
- Take on feedback.
- Track results and do more of what works.
- Show up authentically.
- Don’t try to please everyone.
- Give it your all 100% of the time.
- Be consistent.
- Believe you have something to offer.
Having the right audience or customer is vital for your success and it is worth spending that time trying to create that connection. If you tried these tactics and they worked let me know.
If you found this post useful then I would love to know in the comments below.
As you now know, your feedback is important to me so I can better cater content for you.
Have a great rest of the week.
xxx