Marketing Strategy: How to Develop Your Audience and Grow Your BusinessByJo Macdermott
When it comes to successful marketing, knowing your audience is everything. The increasing reliance on the internet has led to audiences becoming more fragmented and dispersed and as a result of that, marketing has had to become more narrowly targeted than ever. Understanding and developing your audience has become even more essential than it was five or ten years ago. The more information you have about what your target audience wants and needs the more easily you can target your marketing to meet their needs and engage them over the long term.
Why is audience development so important?
Over recent years trends in marketing have led us towards a more audience centred approach than in previous years. With so much information readily available online, businesses have to entice audiences by offering them information that is engaging and of value to them. This means that understanding your audience and their needs becomes even more crucial than ever to being able to find out and give them the information they are looking for.
Social media has led to increased engagement between audiences and brands and with social sharing, the chance to get your brand in front of new readers without having to lift a finger. The more you can engage your audience and connect with them, the more likely it is they will buy your products or services and spread the message to their friends. A solid marketing strategy will help you build a base of loyal followers who you can reach at the click of a mouse and it all starts with audience research and development.
How can I develop a wider audience?
Building your audience online relies to a large extent on content marketing. Your potential customers and clients will seek out information that is useful and valuable to them and reject anything that comes across too much like a sales pitch. This means that to grow your audience you need to tap into what their needs are and find a way to provide them with valuable and useful content they will want to read and share.
With the use of platforms such as Google Analytics, even the smallest of businesses can track their audience and learn what gets read and what doesn't. If you aren't using data analysis to work out what your audience needs and wants, you could be missing out on valuable information which could make a crucial difference to the success of your online marketing. Regularly analysing data can reveal what content encourages conversions, what makes your readers go elsewhere and allows you to see where your website traffic is being referred from.
Audience development should be an ongoing part of your marketing strategy no matter what the size of your business. With enough exposure to your brand and by engaging them and developing trust your audience will eventually become your customers. By knowing and understanding your audience you can increase the effectiveness of your content marketing and help your business grow.
Copyright © 2014 Jo Macdermott. All Rights Reserved
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