How to Build an Audience for Your Business

When it comes to building up an audience for your business, it’s not always all about the numbers. While these are an important aspect of it, the priority should always be on capturing the attention of the right type of audience. If you have 100,000 people landing on your website and only make 1 sale, your efforts have been wasted. It would be much better to have 10,000 interested people visiting your site and generate 1,000 sales.

One of the best ways to connect with a targeted audience is to have some type of engagement with them. Social media is a great platform for building up interactions with existing and potential customers. Building up relationships will automatically lead to new growth and will also lead to more word-of-mouth advertising. This type of advertising is invaluable and is certainly something that every company and business should be striving for.

1. Determine What You Already Know

Whether you have been in business for a few months or a few years, think about the information you have and what you already know about your customers. Dig deep to find out the details of your target market. Some of the things that you may want to consider when looking at the contacts you currently have include the following:

• Age
• Region
• Response to content
• Male or female
• Other factors

For example, if you have a brick-and-mortar store and have built up a regular clientele, think about these people. What type of lifestyles do they have? Are they the type of people that want to hang around and have a conversation or do they want to get in and out of the store as quickly as possible? Ask yourself questions about the customers you have now, and this will give you a starting point to work with.

The next thing you want to do is look for similarities. The current clientele you are serving can tell a story regarding other types of target markets you may be missing. For example, if a lot of your customers are coming from the healthcare field, think of alternative health officials that may also be interested in what you are offering such as chiropractors, acupuncturists etc. Think of groups of people that have similarities to your existing customers.

2. Make Use of Social Media

Social media is a gold mine in terms of advertising, interacting with others and gathering data regarding target markets. People want to make connections with the brands they prefer using their social media accounts. Make sure that you have a page available where people can follow your brand and ask questions about it. Check the page regularly to respond to questions or comments.

Ask questions to others regarding the brand and what else people may want. You’ll be surprised to see how many answers you’ll receive! You can use this data to expand your business and you’ll be able to see the types of people that are taking the time to answer your questions. These are the individuals that are really interested in your industry.

Start placing ads on social sites according to the different demographics that are offered. Facebook gives you the opportunity to choose from different age groups, professions etc. Keep track of the ads you are placing and the different demographics selected. The success of your ads will tell you more about the different markets you should be addressing.

3. Highlight the Value of Your Brand

In the past it wasn’t common for brands to talk about the values associated with their products but times have changed. Individuals are now more interested in purchasing services and products with brands that share the same values with them. It’s all about connecting with customers on a deeper level emotionally by letting people know more about your company beliefs.

One of the biggest ways you can accomplish this is by taking action. Community involvement in an issue is a great way to build up brand loyalty. Support an organization or charity that you believe in. Show the value of your brand by expressing how you are helping society, what you’re doing and the changes you’d like to see happening. This can be done by holding events, attending events and then talking about what you’ve done and showing pictures on both your website and on your various social media channels.

4. Choosing the Right Platform

There are different types of crowds that hang out on the various social platforms. You might find that you are getting a lot of response to your posts and advertising on Facebook, for example, but aren’t reaching a lot of people on Instagram. It’s a good idea to test the different markets across the different social channels to find out where you are getting your best responses.

Don’t forget about reaching out to other professionals as well on sites like LinkedIn. You can build up an audience on this site that is completely different from the relationships you can form on other social media websites. You will meet other like-minded professionals on LinkedIn that may want to form partnerships with you to help build up your audience.

You can never tell where your next success may come from so keep building up relationships and testing the waters. Then, you’ll be able to build up even more relationships based on the data from any successes you’ve experienced.

5. Make Your Company Real to Others

One of the best ways to highlight your brand and make your company real to others is to let individuals see what is happening behind the scenes. Take pictures and videos to show what you are all about and provide employee profiles. This is a great way to connect with people and build up your audience.

The Internet can seem like a lonely place and it’s easy to forget that there are actually people working behind the scenes. Introduce your employees, display how your company is handling orders and products and make your business come alive in the eyes of the people watching your videos and viewing the photos. Building up an audience for your business isn’t complicated but it can be quite time-consuming. Find out how Qode Media can help your brand build up a loyal, targeted audience by visiting our website now at qodemedia.com.