Feedback is a great tool to help us grow. Depending on the source, that feedback can throw us off our game and make us completely second guess our intentions.
A negative comment (or what you perceive as a negative comment) can suddenly send you down the rabbit hole – tweaking and revising your website, social profiles and content – all without a plan in place. Now, something seems off and your content reads as disjointed, lacking personality and not engaging your followers.
Can one comment have that much power? For us, it almost did.
Our team had almost allowed someone – just one person – to completely derail our entire strategy. We knew our target market and how to reach them with our content and yet, after hearing that one person didn’t think we were a fit, we had thought about changing everything without knowing if the business in question was even within our target market.
This is a common theme for small businesses with limited resources. Time, money and staff all play a part in determining what you can invest in so you may not have a content strategy in place or a designated social media manager. If you find yourself struggling with your brand’s identity, what can you do?
For us, we took a step back to reevaluate our target audience, content strategy and point of view. Once we found our way back to our why, our point of view and the value we provide to our clients was quite clear and our strategy quickly fell into place.
Identifying your target audience is a key first step to ensuring the content that you and your team spend so much time creating doesn’t fall on deaf ears.
Not sure how to define your target audience? Here are 3 steps you can take:
- Dive into your current customer base. Are there any common characteristics or interests you can identify?
- Turn to your social platforms. Who is following you and who is engaging with your content?
- Take a look at your product or service. Who would benefit the most from that product or service?
Once you’ve identified your target audience, it’s time to compile all of the info that you know about them – gender, age range, location, income, education, marital status, occupation, interests, lifestyles and behavior. The more you know about them (or can assume based on info that you know about them), the easier it will be to develop your target audience. The more specific your audience, the better you can tailor your message to speak directly to them.
On the daily, we’re all bombarded with content – good, bad and ugly. The only way your message is going to cut through all that noise is if you’re talking to your audience as though you were their best friend. If you want to grab someone’s attention, build their trust and carve out a little space in their busy life, you want them to feel like you understand them. The best way to understand them is to know them as much as you can before talking to them, which is why defining your audience is a super important first step to building your strategy.
Are you thinking to yourself, “Sounds great, but who the hell has time?” We get it. You’re focused on your business. Plus, marketing isn’t fun for everyone and it can be hard to get started. Contact us today to schedule your risk-free strategy session with the SSMC team!
