Find Your Audience

Opening

If you're speaking to everybody, you're usually connecting deeply with nobody.

That's one of the biggest mistakes people make when building a brand.

They ask:

"How do I get more followers?"

Before asking:

Who do I actually want following me?

One thousand right people can be more valuable than one hundred thousand people who have no connection to what you're building.

Start with one primary audience

You may eventually reach multiple groups.

That's fine.

But start with one primary audience.

Who is the person you most want to help, influence, educate, entertain, or eventually do business with?

Maybe it's athletes preparing for life after sports.

Maybe it's first-time entrepreneurs.

Maybe it's business owners trying to scale.

Maybe it's women entering leadership.

Maybe it's fitness professionals.

Maybe it's real-estate investors.

Get specific enough that you can understand them.

Go beyond demographics

Age and location matter sometimes.

But that's not enough.

I want you to know:

What do they want?

What frustrates them?

What are they afraid of?

What are they trying to become?

What questions do they ask repeatedly?

What have they already tried?

What language do they use?

What would make them follow someone?

What would make them trust someone?

What would make them buy?

That's audience understanding.

Speak from experience

One advantage I have when talking to athletes is that I understand competition.

I understand training.

I understand pressure.

I understand what it's like to have an identity attached to performance.

If I'm talking about preparing for life beyond athletics, that experience gives me a different connection to that audience.

That's what you're looking for.

Where does your experience overlap with somebody else's problem?

That's powerful positioning.

Listen before you talk

If you want to understand your audience, listen.

Read comments. Take calls. Talk to customers. Talk to people at events. Look at questions. Watch what they complain about.

Pay attention to the exact words they use.

Those words should eventually appear in your content.

Good marketing often sounds like somebody read your mind.

That's because they understood the problem before they created the message.

Why would they follow you?

People follow for different reasons.

Education. Entertainment. Inspiration. Access. Identity. Community. Aspiration. Expertise. Opportunity.

Figure out your role.

Are you helping them:

Learn? Become? Avoid? Achieve? Understand? Connect? Make money? Improve physically? Gain confidence?

The clearer that answer becomes, the easier content becomes.

Your assignment

Create one primary audience profile.

Give them a name if that helps.

Then write:

Who are they?

What do they want?

What are their five biggest problems?

What are their five biggest ambitions?

What questions keep appearing?

What do they currently believe?

What do they need to believe?

And finally:

Why am I qualified to help them?

Closing

The goal isn't to convince everybody.

It's to become extremely relevant to the right person.

Now that you understand who you're speaking to, the next question becomes:

Why should they choose to listen to you?

That's positioning.