Marketing 101: Essential Tools To Learn More About Your Audience

It's not rocket science but knowing your audience is essential in order for your business to succeed, you need to get to know your customers on a one-on-one basis. Since you can’t do that with hundreds or thousands of customers over the internet, tech tools can help you learn as much as possible about them.

For anyone who has ever worked in any field of marketing, the age-old staple of "Know Your Audience" should be second nature, but it applies in almost any area of your business. In order to succeed, you need to get to know your customers, deeply, on a one-on-one basis. Since you can’t do that with hundreds or thousands of customers over the internet, technology can go a long way toward helping you learn as much as possible about them. In this blog, I'll go over some of the most accessible technologies that can help you to flesh out all you need to know about your audience, to create content, products, and services that will enhance brand awareness and influence.

What Do You Need to Know about Your Customers?

Depending on your time, resource, budget and ethical standards, you can go as deep with this as you like, but for most small brands and businesses, it's enough to consider the following metrics: Demographics tell you who your customers are and include data such as age, geographic location, economic status, family makeup, and other data.

Psychographics identifies psychological factors such as values, needs, beliefs, and issues the customer faces.

Buying Behavior looks at how people make decisions about what they buy - an essential if you want to help interpret their needs and influence their behaviour.

Analytics Programs

Analytics can help you get to know your audience - and how they are using or engaging with your online resources. Google Analytics is a free tool offered by the world’s biggest search engine that offers a wealth of information on website visitor behaviour. It tells you how people interact with your website, which pages they spend time on, what traffic sources direct them to your site, and much more. Through Google Analytics, you can discover things like which of your pages’ content is most interesting to your audience. Top tip: Take advantage of the analytics offered by any tool you use. For example, Facebook offers various data for its Pages and most social media management tools will also have their own analytics or reporting tools.

Customer relationship management (CRM) programs 

CRM's can help you collect and analyse a variety of data about your customers, including demographics and behaviour. They track every interaction you have with your customers from initial inquiries to repeat purchases. This data is analysed and presented to show trends that give you insights into your audience.

Online Surveys 

Online Survey's allow you to create and run surveys where you ask your audience whatever you’d like - a business essential if/when you can’t talk to your customers directly. To get more responses, you can offer a discount or freebie as an added incentive. Survey Monkey is a popular choice for this, but take a look at the platforms you currently use to see if they have survey functionality. Many social media platforms offer built-in survey features.

Social Media Tools.

Social media is a great way to learn about your audience. There are many tools that can give you insights from these platforms. Tools like Mention let you choose topics to follow since you can’t follow every single conversation. HubSpot has a free tool that uses social media to help you create a customer persona. Tools can help you analyze content and profiles for overall trends. Don’t Forget the Personal Touch. In addition to the above tools, don’t forget to maintain a personal connection. Nothing is more valuable than the relationships you nurture with your customers. Keep channels of communication open and encourage them to reach out to you by asking questions, seeking feedback or creating relatable content. Spend time on social media, interact in a friendly way and be constantly curious. Use every interaction as a valuable opportunity to learn about the people you serve.

Knowing your audience and your customers is a key foundation to building a solid and sustainable brand.

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