What It Means to Get Below the Surface of Your Target Audience

I’m an admitted political news junkie. I get caught up in campaign and election coverage on an almost nightly basis even though it makes me angry.

I can’t stand that short sound bytes and one-liners get headlines and influence voting more than substantive information. I can’t stand that debate moderators seem to be more interested in provoking a brawl than facilitating a discussion of issues.

But what really makes my blood boil, and is directly relevant to marketing, is the way media outlets label voters.

Liberals, conservatives, independents, young women, old men, African-Americans, Latinos, Muslims, seniors, college educated, high income, low income, blah blah blah.

And am I the only person who’s ready to punch someone in the face if I hear the word “evangelical” one more time?

I don’t care what voters look like, how much they make, or what religion they practice. I’m much more interested in why they voted a certain way and what issues are most important to them.

All too often, the “why” often gets pushed to the background, and we use labels and stereotypes to make assumptions about the “why.”

You know, because all women will vote for the female candidate because they share a common anatomy, and every person who goes to church every Sunday will vote for the most religious candidate.

I’m no political strategist, but I do know a little something about marketing. And when I ask a client who their target audience is, I often hear superficial labels that provide little insight about who they’re trying to reach.

Just as basic metrics like clicks, views and open rate are becoming less relevant to measuring marketing performance, superficial demographic data doesn’t go far enough when identifying a target audience.

The trend in marketing is towards personalization, which involves delivering specific content to an individual and optimizing the customer experience based on the individual’s interests, needs, behaviors and preferences.

While it might not be realistic to expect the average small or midsized business to have the technology or expertise to practice personalized marketing, every business is capable of digging deeper to better understand customer behaviors and motivations.

For example, conversion rate optimization is a practice that uses analytics and testing to increase the percentage of website users who become customers or take a desired action. Content, design and layout are all taken into consideration, from a page’s headline to the color of a button. This helps you better understand user preferences and adapt accordingly.

Much less scientific but just as effective is the simple art of observation.

When you have face-to-face conversations, watch the body language of your customers. When you have phone calls, take note of the words and topics that seem to pique their interest. Write down their questions and ask follow up questions.

Ask questions that have nothing to do with what you’re trying to sell. Without coming off as nosy, find out about their background and interests. Focus your questions less on the “what” and more on the “why” and the “how.”

Very often, the most important question you can ask is, “Why is that important to you?”

Most importantly, pay attention to their answers. Consider using a customer relationship management (CRM) system to store this information and keep it organized and accessible.

Simple observations will help you figure out what matters to our audience so you can hone in on a message that resonates with them and influences their behavior.

When you approach your target audience the same way an all-news network approaches an election night recap, you end up with information that isn’t particularly helpful or useful.

Get to know your audience below the surface. Use that information to deliver content that has value to them. You’ll build stronger relationships and close more sales.

Win-win.