In previous modules, we discussed knowing who an audience is in terms of the peo
ID: 3685477 • Letter: I
Question
In previous modules, we discussed knowing who an audience is in terms of the people who physically make up an audience and some of the best ways to reach them. Another important factor when considering your audience is determining what they need from your communication. How do we determine needs? Research the web and the SNHU library databases to discover ways in which we can determine the information that a targeted audience needs from our communications. Be sure to list your sources of information so that your peers can benefit from your research.
Explanation / Answer
1. Keyword Research
One quick and easy way to see what people are searching for is to start typing your keyword into the query box in any search engine like Google or Bing and see what other terms pop up.
2. Sales / Support
Talk to anyone in your company that has direct contact with your leads and customers every day. They are the people that understand the needs, wants and problems of your target audience. Understanding those pain points, you can develop a more targeted marketing campaign that reaches your target audience.
3. Forums
Internet forums are a great place for you to learn about what your target audience wants to know. Specifically what they're asking and inquiring about. Scour through various industry related forums across the internet that might help you identify what your ideal prospects want to know and what they're interested in.
There are a ton of forums out there that can help you obtain more information that will help you gain a better understanding of your target audience, you just have to find the right one. Not all forums will be beneficial, look for forums that have a section geared towards your industry or service.
4. Historical Data
What is your best performing page, offer, blog article and call-to-action? Knowing these will tell you which pages on your site are generating the most inbound links, comments and page views indicating what content is driving your target audience to your site. Knowing what content is bringing them to your site can provide you with a lot of information about your audience.
You shouldn't be checking this data whenever you feel like it, every quarter you should be checking and analyzing your page performance. Has the performance of your pages weakened or improved ? This can help you identify which topics your audience is interested in learning more about.
5. Social Media
There is no better place for marketers to gain information regarding the behavior of your target audience than by monitoring and crowd sourcing on social media. Social media has made it easier for companies to learn about their target audience through the comments, the pages they like, and their interests. Through social media you can learn about your target audiences demographics, geographic location, education level, and other information that will help you develop more targeted campaigns.