Communication Tips Day 3| Knowing Your Audience
On Day 3 of Communicate Your Way to Success—Effective Communication Tips we talk about the importance of knowing your audience. Knowing your audience when communicating is essential whether you are delivering a speech, presenting a seminar, writing a review or creating content for your website.
In terms of a website audience, your audience is the specific group of people who are most likely to be interested in what you have to say about topics that interest them. In essence, they are your niche.
In Day 2 of this series, you learned about creating a core message for content marketing. If you missed it, you can read it here:
I am business coach. I specialize in coaching women in ways to double, triple and in some cases 10X their business on their way to their perfect calendar. My core message is very simple.
“You can live the life you’ve always dreamed of, the life you and your family deserve.”
WRITE AND TALK TO YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER
Who is your ideal customer? The answer to that question is absolutely critical in order to craft a core message and communicate effectively to them. Here is a communication tip, while there are millions of people in your niche, don't create web content for a group.You should always sound as though you are writing to one individual person. That person is your ideal reader or customer.
Take a few minutes and think about your ideal customer. The more specific you are, the better you will be when communicating with them. When creating your ideal customer profile, don’t pick a wide range for their age and income, a retired woman in her seventies thinks very differently than a career woman in her thirties.
Each age group and gender of people has different needs. Relating to a couple who is affluent is different than writing to a young couple struggling to make ends meet. That’s just common sense—which means, we need to know our ideal customers both in terms of their demographics and psycho graphics as depicted in the following table.
COMMUNICATION METHODS
Once you have clearly defined your ideal client and crafted your core message to them, you can decide upon which communication methods are a good fit. Think about your ideal customer and their preferences when it comes to communication.
While everyone you communicate with uses all three modalities to learn, most people fall predominately into one of three categories when it comes to their preference for assimilating information—Visual, (60%) Auditory (20%) or Kinesthetic (Tactile-20%). It’s not possible for you to know which learning style is best for your ideal customer which means your best strategy for creating website content is to create multiple types of content. Using that strategy will help you reach at least 80% of your intended audience.
Listed below are a few online communication options:
Blog Posts: Generally between 400 and 2,000 words with topics related to your core message and secondary messages. Do keep in mind that the majority of website readers skim through lengthy articles looking for information of specific value to them. Great for Visual learners.
Video:Housed on YouTube, Vimeo or other video channels and re-posted on your blog. Great for both Visual and Auditory learners.
Speeches, workshops, expert interviews: Excellent for reprint on your blog post or in a magazine or PR article. Great for Visual learners.
Podcasts: Audio articles or radio shows. Great medium for Auditory learning styles.
Webinars, Seminars and Teleseminars: Present information live then post a replay on your website or use the replay link in email sequence letters or online newsletter/Ezine.
Infographics: An excellent way to create a visual description of a lengthy report. Visual.ly is a good source for creating simple infographics. You can also use Powerpoint but you have to use the “portrait” page set up and adjust the length of the slide.
Powerpoint Presentations: Turn presentations into an infographic or upload them to Slideshare to create a visual marketing presentation.
Ebooks:Great for creating authority and demonstrating expertise. Consider selling your eBook on Amazon or using it as a free offer to capture email contact information.
That’s it for Day 3.If you have enjoyed this post please do three things for me—1) “LIKE” it, 2) Leave your COMMENT OR QUESTION and 3) SHARE IT on Facebook and Google+
For Your Success!
Recent Comments
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Rebecca, these are most helpful posts. You're so right about the different needs at different ages. Yet, a 40 year old today would have different needs and communication styles today than I had when I was in my 40s. We must keep in touch with the world around us and understand our customers as they are today and revamp our sites as needed. I find the chart most helpful. Thank You. ~Debbi
So-o-o-o TRUE! You will love the next post in this series. Check it out. Thanks for your comment!
Hi Rebecca, I have heard radio and TV presenters say that they picture a particular lady sitting in her kitchen, or a family in their living room.
My Dear Con...you are SO COOL >:o)! I wanted to add a paragraph about the power of visualizing a picture of your ideal client because I think it helps to keep a picture in mind of who it is that you are trying to help. I love your comment dear one. Thank you.
Thanks Christa. I'm always energized when I know the content I write helps my audience. Is there anything else I can help you with?
Thank you for your offer! Today I am working on Keyword search for a site for my t shirt press. I think I have finally found the right one!:)
What a great post. I have been paying attention to that in my Analytics. I found that some of my audience falls in the health and fitness category and so I wrote a blog for a wrist heart monitor.
Monitors heart rate, calories burned and whether your overdoing your training or not doing enough...etc...I am trying to focus on paying attention to the various types of visitors I am receiving.
Thank you for sharing Rebecca. :))
Kim...you captured the essence of this post in such a practical way. I love that about you! I am so jazzed with your comment.
Many blessings to you for continued success...Rebecca
Thanks, Rebecca. I am currently defining my customer as I revitalize my Jafra business after a few years. It's something I believe in and have been involved with for 11 years. However, the needs of women 11 years ago are very different than they are today. Your guidelines will come in very handy.
Carla...thanks for bringing up such a smart communication strategy; and that is the need to refresh content and remain current with the growth of loyal customers. Resting ourselves on "what worked" in the past for an audience could spell doom for an online business owner.
People change. Technology changes. We must adapt or become extinct. Thanks for the BRILLIANT observation!
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Hello Rebecca...another well written and informative post. I certainly appreciate the effort you put forth to create and share.
Jeff
Thanks, Jeff. Communication is a big topic for website developers (LOL). Keep reading! ~Rebecca