"Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you make. It is the art of creating genuine customer value."

- Philip Kotler, American marketing author, consultant, and professor emeritus

The Importance of Knowing Your Audience

The importance of knowing your audience and creating relatable, relevant digital content is one of the most critical strategies we stress to our clients, most of which are small business owners. We recently witnessed what happens, through the Bud Light fiasco, when this strategy is ignored. Regardless of one's political leaning or stance on social issues, small business owners can learn valuable lessons from this situation.

The Cost of Disconnection: Bud Light's Example

What’s so important about it? Let’s start with stats. According to Forbes, 86% of consumers are willing to pay more for a better experience. On the other hand, when a brand feels “out of touch” to their customers, this can quickly become financially painful. In Bud Light’s case - after the ad campaign was released, the value of Anheuser-Busch's stock went down by $5 billion, which is a 4% drop. At the same time, their sales took a big hit, falling between 50% and 70%.

How to Discover Your Audience

Putting this information to work in the digital world means providing content that your audience resonates with then your chances of converting them into paying customers increases significantly. Another relevant stat, 52% of consumers say they are more likely to buy from a company if they feel an emotional connection to it. Basically this means creating relatable content for your audience and the emotional connection and loyalty will be the result.

At this point I’m sure you’re thinking, “How do I discover my audience?” Well, I have some actionable tips for you:

Customer Surveys: Your existing customers will give you all the foundational information you need to start the discovery process. Surveys can be used to learn customer demographics, pain points, interests, etc. It’s also a way to provide value by asking genuine questions that show you're paying attention to them or by simply giving a reward for completion. The information gained from the survey will shape your customer avatar.

Social Media Analytics: One of the valuable bonuses of using social media is the ability to use analytics tools. Think of it as another way to gather information for building that perfect customer avatar. Analytics tools enable a subtle way, without creating a survey, to score demographical data, preferences, tendencies, interests, etc.

Google Analytics: Keeping to the analytics flow, track your audience’s behavior while on your website using Google Analytics. Major points to take into account are what pages are most visited and how long they stay on pages.

Creating Content that Resonates with Your Audience

After identifying your audience, create content that speaks to them based on the data you gathered. Tips for execution are as follows:

Correct Tone: You have to communicate in the same tone as your audience. For example, use a conversational tone and emojis if your audience is primarily millennials.

Relatable Stories: You have to share stories that your audience can relate to. Some examples include personal experiences, customer success stories, stories that involve their interests and/or values, etc.

Visuals: Visuals can be highly engaging and express complex concepts in a more understandable way. Images, infographics and videos are all ways to convey your message.

Conclusion: Building Strong Relationships through Understanding

In conclusion, the Bud Light situation shows us how important it is to understand the people we're trying to reach and create content that they can connect with. In our fast-paced, ever-changing world, it's key to keep up with what our customers want and need, so we can build strong relationships with them and avoid making expensive mistakes.

Follow the tips in this blog post to discover your audience, create content your audience resonates with, and convert them to paying customers. Knowing your audience and being able to create a genuine connection using digital marketing content is crucial to the success of your business in 2023. If you’d like to establish your online presence, but don’t know where to start, read about Online Quadfecta. Good Luck!