If there’s anything I know I’d like to do when it comes to my business, it’s getting to know my target audience better. For those of us that are pretty solid on who we want to serve, or rather who our products and services will benefit most, the hard work of figuring out who our target audience has already been done…thank goodness! ?? Unfortunately, the hard work doesn’t end there because, like the world, our businesses are constantly evolving and growing — which means that our target audiences are as well.
So just when you think you got these folks nailed down with products and services to match, it’s time to reexamine, and possibly reapproach. It’s crucial to stay up to snuff when it comes to keeping up with changes and developments within your target audience, and I’ll sharing why’s it all the more that you really know your target audience before setting forth with your offerings.
You may have products and services that you think would be great for your current target audience, but are they engaging you, sharing your content, or purchasing from you?
If not, you may be missing the boat on who your target audience really is. And trust, you don’t want to be in this place, like you really don’t want to do that! :::in an Urkel voice:::
Not knowing your target audience well enough can set you and your business up for a lot of strife and disappointment, and possibly wasted time.
You’ll be left with products sitting on the shelf or services unbooked because the people you’re currently targeting either don’t need your products or aren’t interested in them. I can attest, because I was in this exact position for the longest, and didn’t even realize it. This resulted in me failing to properly reach the individuals that I was creating content and offerings for.
I was convinced that it was one group of people, when in fact, it was a completely different group. The people I was targeting didn’t need my products or services, they were more peers than my audience. To be honest, I probably spent more time consuming their content that they did mines because many of these people I looked up to. When I recognized that I wasn’t gaining any traction, I needed to take some time to pinpoint why and get to the bottom of it all — which and I did, pretty much ASAP.
[Tweet “Don’t waste time targeting the wrong people with your content. Find out how not to in this post by @blissandfaith.”]
My first step was to take myself through a target audience identification process using my Niche & Nail It Workbook, to help me define/redefine my target audience.
I originally created it to help other creatives find their niche through identifying and defining their target audiences so that they could then go forth and create content that would directly serve their target audiences. The ironic thing is that I ended up having to use the exact tool I’d created to help and serve others myself. In the end, I was able to get on the right track with my learning and knowing who my target audience currently is, and not who I think they are.
In going through the Niche & Nail It Workbook myself, it enabled me to paint a more accurate picture of who my target audience was because it had to me to examine them by asking detailed questions and think critically about the answers. Another great feature of the Niche & Nail It Workbook that I found so extremely helpful was that it breaks down who your target audience is by demographic, personality, emotional/perspective, and business information, so I was able to examine my audience from multiple angles.
[Tweet “When it comes to your target audience, examine them by asking detailed questions and think critically about the answers”]
So you may not be sure where to start when it comes to examining your target audience.
Maybe you feel you know them pretty well, a little, or not at all? Well, if you’re at a crossroads or feel like you haven’t been targeting your audience effectively lately, I’ve created yet another free tool to help you. A few weeks back, I created a target audience evaluation quiz for readers to take in when they visited my site. I thought it’d be a fun way to engage readers when they visited my site, as well as help them get to know their target audience better — or rather see if they needed to.
The quiz itself is comprised of 10 short questions that get your wheels turning about key components of your target audience.
I wanted to make the quiz as insightful and easy to take as possible, which is why I ended up switching the platform I created the quiz on after just a couple of weeks. When I initially created the quiz, I used the quizz-generating tool Qzzr, which was easy to use and implement, and I could even brand it a little (color-wise that is).
I set the quiz to prompt readers upon exiting my site since I didn’t want an in-your-face pop-up prompt when they first land on it. From there, they would then opt-in to the quiz with their name and email, and then be redirected to the quiz page. I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t want to set the quiz up this way from the jump because I didn’t like the idea of asking readers to opt-in in order to take the quiz — but I decided to try it out anyways and see how it performed.
I’d looked for other options where I could capture leads (because yes, the other purpose of the quiz is for it to be used as a lead magnet for list-building) upon quiz-takers finishing the quiz and having their results delivered via email, but none of them had a free trial period that included lead-capture.
[Tweet “Get direct feedback + capture leads from your audience when you create an interactive quiz for them to take.”]
This appeared to be an advanced feature, even with Qzzr, in which the lead-capture capabilities were only available at the higher, more expensive tiers. I wasn’t quite willing to make an investment since this was something new that I’d need to see how my audience would respond to, and if they even had an interest in it (one worth investing in at that).
After a couple of weeks, and not many opt-ins for my quiz, I circled back around to a tool for quiz generation called Interact that I’d previously looked at and wanted to try.
From my previous research, I remember them having lead capture, but overlooked the fact that they had a 7-day free trial under all of their priced tiers. Needless to say, I quickly switched my quiz over and didn’t skip a beat, because they integrated with my email marketing service, ActiveCampaign.
I was able to easily create a branded and streamlined quiz that I could seamlessly embed into my site, allow me to provide a simple to use tool for readers to evaluate how well they knew their target audience, and capture leads that were integrated with my EMS. This took away so many of the steps that I’d had set up with my Qzzr quiz, in that I had about 3 or 4 steps to even get to the quiz, versus with Interact only having one. Now, all readers have to do it visit the landing page for the quiz, hit start, take the quiz, and enter their name and email to have the results delivered directly to their inboxes.I love that I’m able to get to know my target audience better
I love that I’m able to get to know my target audience better via the quiz, and they, in turn, can evaluate their knowledge of their target audience and get to know theirs better. Another great feature of Interact is that I’m able to embed the quiz not only on its own landing page but within my posts, like so:
This way, I’m able to embed the quiz whenever and wherever on my site, making it that much easier to garner participation from readers. If you’re looking to get to know your target audience better or see where your knowledge of yours currently stands, I highly suggest taking my quiz.
[Tweet “This free quiz by @blissandfaith tells you how well you know your target audience. ?? Take it now!”]
On the flip-side, if you’re looking to implement a new and fun way to foster audience engagement and participation on your site, I can recommend doing so via a quiz and using Interact to build it enough. They provide you with integrations, lead capture, analytics, and so much more!
Feel free to check them out here to find out more about them, and don’t forget to take advantage of the free 7-day trial. Even if you’re on the fence, you have nothing to loose by trying out Interact out for a week, taking advantage of all of the awesome features.
*Disclosure: I am a partner for Interact and will receive a commission if you choose to sign up using my link. As always I only recommend products and services that I’ve used and truly enjoy and believe in. Whether you use my link or not, I do hope you check them out, because I have had an excellent experience with them and wouldn’t want you to miss out. You may even be extended the opportunity to become a partner yourself!
