Did you know 47% of small businesses interact with customers virtually?
With more people online than ever, your digital marketing strategy is key to your success. And if done right, it can be cost-effective, too.
But with so much competition on the social web, what do you say to create an impact? How do you know your audience will respond? Or even read it?
There’s nothing worse than planning and creating a campaign, only to see minimal engagement.
But audience analysis can help you avoid this. And it is the most important digital marketing tool in your arsenal.
What Is Audience Analysis?
Audience analysis uses machine learning to identify and draw insights about your target audience.
It aims to shed light on their psychology, buying behavior, and interests. In short, it helps you get to know them.
For a business to succeed and retain its customers, it needs a solid communication strategy. And to communicate well, you need to understand.
Imagine how much easier it would be to sell a product to your target audience if you knew all about them. What drives them? What are they afraid of? What do they react to? And which media do they prefer?
This boosts customer engagement. It helps you connect with them. And it helps your business meet its potential.
Why Is It the Most Important Tool in Your Digital Marketing?
So you’ve connected with your audience. Now you need to guide them through their buyer’s journey.
Audience analysis can smooth this process. You know what will catch their attention and lead them to the next stage. And you can plan your strategy development around this.
You will make the right decisions based on audience intelligence, not hunches.
By using social data the right way, you can picture what your customers are like. In the real world.
Save Time With Laser-Focused Content
You can pinpoint your audience’s problems. Then it is easier to design solutions and position yourself to provide them.
If you know where your customers hang out online, you save yourself from targeting the wrong places. And social media marketing is a cost-effective way of raising awareness of your brand.
You can design your editorial calendar around your insights. This will enable you to write content your target audience wants to read.
And a renewed content strategy will match their values. It will suit their priorities and help you develop long-term customer relationships.
In time, this will give you more leads, higher conversion rates, and more sales. And did we mention it will save your marketing budget, too?
Where to Start With Audience Analysis
Tapping into all the social data on the web can feel like plugging into a high-voltage socket. It is overwhelming.
What you need is a refined scope to target your analysis.
Bigger projects need larger scopes, i.e., more research and more questions. Smaller projects can have smaller scopes, with higher detail if needed.
But first, you need a plan. You will miss the answers you need if you fail to ask the right questions.
What Do You Want To Find Out?
Sit down, alone or with your team, away from the computer.
Now decide what you want to find out. Which questions will benefit your business the most? What are you missing? What are you trying to achieve?
Once you have your questions and goals down, the rest is easier to put in place. You have a roadmap. And you will know when you have what you need.
Your other option is akin to searching around in the dark, hoping to chance upon a pot of gold. You might miss what you are looking for.
You’re As Good As Your Tools
It’s vital to choose your audience analysis tools with care. Certain features are more useful than others. We’ve rounded up three which will give you the greatest benefits.
Audience Intelligence
Look for a tool that has audience identification. This enables you to spot individuals and segments aligned with your niche. You can set your own attributes to hone your search.
Segmentation helps you separate groups within your audience. Interests, social connections, and engagement rates are all useful. Don’t waste time on the wrong groups.
Insights into your audience’s personalities are also vital.
Many intelligence tools give you the ability to analyze social posts and engagement. With this data, you can model how your audience members behave.
Social Listening
You want to track any mentions of your brand on social media. The right tools alert you to what they are saying and what opinions they have.
Social listening can guide you to audiences you had missed. But if they are talking about your brand, they are potential customers.
It can also lead you to social media profiles with followers in your audience.
Team Up With Influencers
Influencers can help promote your products, services, and content. Look for a tool with micro and macro influencer identification.
If a chunk of your target audience all view the same social media profiles, they could be connecting with influencers.
Finding a shared voice to raise awareness of your brand can be game-changing.
Who Are They, Exactly? Defining Your Target Audience
To understand your target audience, you need data to create a model of them. This needs to be as detailed as possible. It is where audience analysis comes into its own.
Here is an overview of the data you will find most beneficial.
Demographics
Demographics have their place.
Geography, age, gender, education, and occupation help link your target audience to your business. But they have limitations, too.
They teach you nothing about your audience’s pain points or motivations. In short, the psychological drivers that make them want to buy something.
They won’t buy your product because they live there, are this age, and are in the middle class.
But they might buy your product because it solves their problems. Or it makes them feel good. And audience analysis helps you to achieve this.
Psychographics
You can use audience analysis to find out what your audience talks about, what they like or don’t, what they fear. The list goes on.
Key areas are their interests, hobbies, values, and affinities. With this data, you can align your digital marketing with your target audience.
And with principles of psychology, you can provide a product they benefit from. Your business will gain conversions and new customers.
There are many ways to gather psychographic data. Some are time-consuming, like A/B testing, paid research, and focus groups.
But that is why this data is so valuable. Once you have it, it can take your business strategy to the next level.
Learn From Your Competition
Did one of your competitors create a stir with their content?
By analyzing your audience and their engagement patterns, you can learn what works. This saves you time. You don’t need to commit to a new strategy until you are sure it works.
We’re not saying to copy your competitor’s strategy. But by learning what’s working for them, you can add elements of that in your marketing, too.
Or if you want to shake things up, subvert it and hit points they never thought of to get out in front.
Put It All Together
You should have enough data to create a model of your target audience.
You can develop your content and marketing strategy around this. And you should see results before you know it.
Depending on which audience analysis tool you use, you can create a hyper-detailed audience report to use in your future campaigns.
Need Some Help Getting Started?
Audience analysis can be tricky to get right. That is why the data you harvest is so valuable. If it were easy, everyone would do it.
And once you have your data, honing your strategy development needs experience. You can learn on your own, sure, but why not free up time to grow other parts of your business?
Pivotal New Media can help you gather intelligence. We can help craft your content strategy and development process. Feel free to check us out.
We have a jealousy-stoking success rate with Fortune 500 companies. And we can help your business thrive.
