Most people think they can launch a business and be a millionaire by the end of the year because social media gurus have said it over and over on post. However, before you can land sales first day of business, you need an audience to sell. In addition to that, finding your audience as a new business owner is not as simple as just selling to your core group of friends.
Target Audience Starting From Scratch
If this is your first business and you have a small audience of just family and friends, you can go a couple of routes to determine your target audience profile. Poll your friends and family by sending the email stating you need help finding your audience as a new business owner.
- Age
- Where They Live
- Education level
- How often do they shop online
- How often do they hire people to do XYZ service
- Ask them if they are willing to share your business.
- Favorite stores to shop
- Influencers or bloggers they follow
Make It Easy To Share Your Business
On social media, people will post strangers will share your content faster than your friends. However, let’s dig deep into this concept for a second. If you have an online clothing boutique for kids, and I know none of my friends have kids or niece/nephews, me sharing it wouldn’t per se reach your target audience. A social media share is excellent, but you want to reach your target audience to create leads for future sales. In addition to that, Facebook and Instagram are moving away from sharing to help increase page views to users creating new original content that drives it back to the source.
In addition to that, make it easier for your friends and family to share your business. One thing I teach clients is to give their peers the content to share. Send out an email that includes different scripts for whatever channel they share with the correct links and graphics.
If you want to increase the views on your sales items, send a script for your friends and family to share vs. “hey, can you post about my business.” You assume they are good with words and can create a caption that invokes a CTA, aka “Call To Action.” Instead, create that for them and thank them for when they do it.
Creating A Target Audience Profile
My target audience is women 25-45 in the United States and a sprinkle in Canada, Germany, and Africa. After a decade of getting to know my audience, I invested in tools such as Google Analytics to understand my website traffic. Who are the repeat readers, how long are they staying on the page, and much more? For a long time, I believed my audience was in Atlanta because I resided there at one point, but it was more up north readers for my website.
- Google Analytics Plugins on Youtube.
- Google Analytics For Beginners on Youtube.
There is a couple, of course, you can also take on the subject matter, but I will suggest understanding the basics first by watching videos on youtube.
On my website, you can purchase the Target Audience Profile worksheet for $1. A small investment to help guide you on this journey.
Marketing To Your Target Audience Profile
Recently, I learned about installing Facebook Pixel onto my website to help me market better when I am boosting or running ads. This tool allows me to target audience members who have stopped by the website, signed up for email marketing, and much more. In addition to that, when I started paying to run ads, I study when my audience was most active online.
You will market to your audience through your CTA banners on your website and email marketing campaigns. In addition to that, how you design your ads via Facebook and Instagram. Truthfully, I was against the pay-for-play model in past years, but I have seen a dramatic positive effect on my business by running targeted audience ads. If I am investing $5 a day, I want to make sure that I am building a lead funnel or stopping on my website to read a blog post on business. If you plan on hiring someone to run your social media ads for you, I highly suggest doing your due diligence to find the right person. Furthermore, don’t just hand over the reins to them; you need to comprehend what the data is telling you too.
One of my favorite sayings is, “you might be the juiciest peach in the store, but there is someone who doesn’t like peaches.” Everyone is not your target audience. Many business owners make that mistake and cause delays in getting to the right audience. Invest in doing A/B testing that allows you to focus on data vs. emotion. You will see which email marketing, social media post, ad, or CTA banner has worked in driving your sales vs. believing it was something it wasn’t. Understand growing your small business awareness organically will take a lot of work, but it will be worth it.
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
