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An understanding of your audience is another key aspect of any business plan, but many new to the business overlook it. They are going under the old philosophy of “Build it and they will come.” While that strategy did work a few years ago when blogging and online businesses were just starting to take off, the field is too saturated to use it today. It is just too hard to get “found” if you don’t have a strategy.
Part of that strategy is knowing the profile of your audience called an avatar. You must know certain things about them, like:
What is their age range?
What is their income range?
Are they primarily male or female or about equally split?
What are their hobbies or interests?
What problems do they have that you can solve?
Knowing this information, you can target the products and services to your audience. For example, it would not make sense to offer an eBook on women’s health over 40 on your blog or website if your audience is either primarily male or in women in their 20s and 30s. However, it could be a good seller to an audience primarily comprised of baby-boomer women if it was marketed correctly.
So how do you find out this information? There are several ways, but what most do is either to ask them or hang out where their potential customers hang out.
Ask Them
One of the best ways to get precise information on your audience is to post surveys and polls on your blog or website. The answers you get back are valuable information about your audience specifically. And in most cases, it doesn’t cost anything. You can create poll questions in a post. Or create a survey using Survey Monkey or another survey service.
Go Where Your Audience Goes
Hang out on the forums and groups in your niche. Read their audience comments and interactions. See if you can pick out an area where there are a lot of questions or if you can see a need that isn’t being filled right now. Develop a product or service that fills that need and get it out there on social media sites with a link back to your blog or website. Keep it simple by using the one problem – one solution theory.
Get a copy of my customer avatar worksheet to fill out and keep handy while you're working on getting to know your audience. Request that HERE.
Rebecca Paciorek is an Online Business Manager specializing in assisting in the growth of your business through traditional and digital means. *I often recommend products and services that I use or that have been recommended to me by people we trust. In many cases these recommendations are accompanied by an affiliate link, which provides me with a referral commission should you click through and make a purchase.
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