First thing’s first…know your people.

Get to know who you’re marketing to. Who are they? What do they believe about themselves? What do they want?

Step one when you enter a new marketing adventure is to get to know them well.

Learn About Their Identity

People make decisions based on their identity. The better you know who they are, what they love and what they value, the more seamless it is to create a marketing strategy that gets results.

Your people may be interest based (hikers, golfers, DIYers or furniture lovers), in a certain phase of life (homebuyers, college students or career-focused professionals), profession based (engineers, designers, realtors or plumbers) — the list goes on and on.

Most brands have multiple target audiences, so learning about them can be complex. What motivates your people?

• Values like love, stability, progress, peace, family, adventure, ease, joy and creativity
• Preferences like access to information, learning new things, processes that make their life easier, options to choose from, quality over quantity and a deeper look at what they’re buying
• Consumption sources like email, websites, AI, blogs, radio, social media, magazines and podcasts
• Resources like webinars, videos, events, white papers, online membership communities and coaching

Dramatic pause……this is why I love integrated marketing. There are so many ways to reach people, and I love to see how they all work together.

It takes excitement, determination and curiosity to dig in and get to know current and future customers.

Be Curious

What will you discover about your target audience next? What do you know about your target audience that you haven’t fully built strategy around yet? Do you have a target audience you haven’t even explored yet?

This is why I get excited about getting to know “my people.” Revenue, results and leads are all on the other side of getting to know them better. You’ll see the numbers increase exponentially as you continue to get to know them and evolve with them as they change.

Use Accelerators

You will get to know your people over time, but there are ways to speed up the process by being present and taking intentional action.

• Data, Data, Data (three times because it’s that crucial) — Learn from how they’ve interacted with your marketing efforts in the past. We often have data that is underutilized. Purchase history, email click behavior, successful campaigns, competitor observations, online reviews, customer service call logs and social media activity. Pro tip: Look ahead and think of missing data that you wish you had and set up the capture system now so you have the data going forward.
• Interviews — Conducting an insightful interview will serve two purposes: it will help you gather information straight from your people and it will help your people feel how much you value them. Prepare questions that get beyond data you can collect like their backstory, what’s important to them, challenges they’ve overcome and what they wish companies were doing in their space. This anecdotal data will develop a deeper knowledge that numbers can’t tell.
• Questions — Ask better questions. All questions are good, and some are better. Think thoroughly about how to get to the core of your people and their identity. Be curious and keep a log of questions that had impactful answers so you can ask others. Be sure to ask yourself better questions too: How could we better serve our customers? What do we currently offer that can help them solve their challenges? How can we align our marketing strategy with our audience’s values?
• Events — Virtual and in-person events give your people access to ask you questions. Everyone is busy, so setting aside dedicated time for you and your people to spend time together can spark conversations that lead to gems of knowledge. An online live Q&A panel with active question prompts or local gatherings at places they are familiar with where you can create a brand experience to get to know them better.
• Shadowing — There is no replacement for human interaction. Following someone through their day, seeing how they interact with your software or product or sitting in on a strategy session on how they operate day-to-day will give you insights that help you understand their thoughts and behaviors. It could be a light commitment of an hour or two, or some may welcome you to join them throughout their whole day. Having a brand who cares enough to spend time with them can make all the difference.

Start Now

Think of one action you can take today. Choose one of the above accelerators and take the first step in making it happen.