Marketing Monday: Listening To Your Audience


During Strategy Sunday, I talked about the lessons I learned from God just by listening. Listening to music, listening to His word, listening to the priest during the homily at Mass. Today, I’m going to discuss why listening to your audience is the most critical part of developing your marketing strategy.

You Only Have One Perspective to Offer

You know the reasons why you give gifts and what you hope to get from that exchange, but until you start actively listening to the audience you want to reach, you won’t know if this is common to everyone you are trying to reach or whether it is unique to you.

You will miss out on important information that they could be sharing with you about how you need to position your products to win them with your marketing. You also won’t be able to borrow their exact language or make them feel like you are talking directly to them.

5 Ways To Begin Listening To Your Audience

While I mentioned joining groups of the kind of people you want to target and then listening for opportunities to serve them during last week’s Marketing Monday on Connecting with Your Audience, there are 5 additional ways that you can begin listening to your audience. These are faster and will allow you to gain actionable insights immediately rather than having to wait.

1.      Read Top Blogs on the Topic

https://www.yaioa.com/blog/gift-guide-blogs/

See what bloggers are saying about common problems experienced by those you are trying to reach. Make a note of what they say and how they say it. This will get you started.

2.      Look for Industry Insights and Research Reports

https://nesslabs.com/psychology-gift-giving

There are companies out there whose sole job is doing surveys of various groups and analyzing industry data. This information is going to provide you insights that you can use to learn more about your audience, its behavior, and its needs.

Trust me, there’s an industry report for just about everything. I even found an industry report about how many people buy watering cans each year and what the market is for that, if you can believe it.

3.      Listen to Top Podcasts about the Topic

https://lewishowes.com/podcast/john-ruhlin/

There are several million potential podcasts. You don’t need to listen to them all. Find the ones that are most respected by the audience you are trying to reach and listen to those. If you can’t find a podcast out there on the topic, step up and start one!

4.      Search YouTube for Top Videos That Are Geared Toward Your Audience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd-LmlnE9QE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywOcT2BZ9dw

This will not only help you get ideas for topics that interest your audience, but the comments section by itself can provide even more insight into what your audience is thinking and what their top concerns are so that you can put together content that will address those concerns.

5.      Search Amazon for Top Books Geared Toward Your Audience

https://amzn.to/3l3CpPZ

https://amzn.to/3BEZSgm

There are two reasons for this. First, as I’ll talk about during Wealth-Building Wednesday, reading books is how you will begin to position yourself to gain the wisdom that will lead you to building wealth. Second, read the reviews. This is where you will find information from your audience about their likes and dislikes, topics they wished people would cover that didn’t get covered or topics they wish people wouldn’t cover at all.

Don’t Just Listen. Take Notes.

Whenever you hear something or read something that grabs your attention, write it in a journal. Use it in your marketing and it will help you speak powerfully to your audience.

Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Experiences to Share?

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Did you find this article useful and helpful?

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