The successful growth of a business lays in its ability to connect with its target audience. When you start a new business you’ll have an idea of the individuals your product or service will appeal to, but identifying your target audience is only half the battle. You also need to know how to engage with that audience in order to strengthen and maintain that relationship, as well as to attract new customers.
Below we have outlined the steps you need to take in order to effectively identify and engage with your target audience.
Research your target audience
In order to engage with your audience you need to understand who you’re targeting. There are a variety of elements you need to consider when researching your ideal customer, but the most effective way of doing this is to develop a market segmentation plan. Market segmentation enables you to identify the key characteristics of your target audience. This includes factors such as geographic segmentation (where your customers are and how that location effects them as consumers), demographic segmentation (this includes groupings such as age, gender, income, occupation etc.) and psychographic segmentation (this includes social factors such as lifestyle, personality, values etc.). Once you have visibility over your target audience you will have the ability to engage with them on a more personal and direct level.
Engaging with your target audience
Now that you know who you are targeting, it’s time to start engaging. Building a relationship based on trust can lead to repeat custom, brand loyalty and positive word of mouth that has the power to generate new customers. Rather than striving for perfection for your brand, you should be focusing on your customer service. Below are three simple ways that you can instantly improve your customer service through engagement:
- Be Accessible – if you are going to engage with your customers, whether that is via your website, content marketing or social media profiles, you need to interact with your customers. If you receive a comment, make sure you rely. You are not a faceless brand, you are representing the personality and core values of your business.
- Be Personal – following on from being accessible, you also need to be personal. Cater your responses to the needs of the customer. If you receive a complaint, this is the perfect opportunity to showcase your customer service skills. Listen to the customers’ needs and deal with the individual rather than giving a prewritten response.
- Be Consistent – the final thing you need to maintain when engaging with your customers is consistency. Decide on the tone of voice you want to use for your brand and stick to it. People need to see that your brand is established in order to put their trust in you.
Use the same platforms as your customers
Content marketing strategies enable you to strengthen your customer following, but there’s no point creating content that will not be seen by your target audience. If your customers use social media, engage with them on this platform. If they are likely to read a digital magazine associated with your product or service, publish engaging content here. More likely your target audience is going to see your brands presence online, the greater the chance they will interact with you. You can use these tactics to engage with audiences across multiple channels using targeted, relevant and personalised content.
We hope that this has given you a better understanding of how you can identify and engage with your target audience. If you have successfully grown your business through effective customer engagement, let us know in the comments below or on witter at @openwebhq.
