Are You Missing Your Audience

by Aubrey Terrazas | Jun 3, 2020 | Uncategorized

The ability to broadcast to millions of people faster than you can finish a sentence is an unbelievable power that every business has in 2020. The problem is that, unlike brick and mortar stores, you can’t see who is walking through your door every day. Most businesses intuitively understand that they are supposed to be on social media – Facebook has over 90 million small business pages.

It’s hard enough to find the time to create meaningful content for your business while you’re busy running it. Even if you do manage to take some lovely photos, how do you know if you’re reaching the right audience?

Why It Matters

Content has its best reach when the message is specific to the right person. Think about how you talk differently to the 90-year-old lady that lives next door vs. your 16-year-old niece. You might have an idea about whom you think is the right audience when you start your business, but with marketing, the data wins every time. Taking the time to see who is paying attention and what their behaviors are can reap massive rewards as you learn to tweak your message.

The Tools

Google Analytics

This is a free platform from Google that adds a bit of code to your site to gather data from everyone that visits your site. If you have someone who runs your website, they should be able to add this tag easily. Otherwise, most web hosting companies give you super simple step-by-step instructions. Use the “Audience” tab to see not only the gender and country of your visitors but also their behaviors, such as their preferred browser or level of conversion.

There are hours of free Google training on their site and too much to mention in this post. But! Even if you are only using the Audience feature, it can tell you not only your audience but also which segments of your audience could be most valuable. For example, maybe only 20% of your customers are women, but their overall value is significantly higher as they convert more often and with more cash.

Facebook Business & Pixel

With 2.6 million active users daily, some of your people are spending time here. But you already know that, which is why you created your Business Page! Did you also build your Business Manager Account? These are two separate items that work in tandem, but the Facebook Business platform gives you more tools.

Like Google Analytics, the Facebook pixel adds a little bit of code to your website and feeds you with data about who visited your site. The data is particularly relevant if you are running ads (and yes, the Ads Manager account is separate from your Business Manager Account & Business Page!). The tool that I find especially useful in the Business Manager is the Audience Insights. Here, you can learn the basics about who likes your page, and you can also see which other brands interest them. If you’re still building your brand, you can even add in a few interests and behaviors outside of your page to see what type of people are into what you sell.

For example, if you sell swimsuits, you could enter “beaches” and “swimwear” as interests and see the age, marital status, income, profession, and similar interests of people who like swimwear and beaches.

Facebook Audience can give you great lateral data on your audience

Putting it into action

Now you have a big picture and can start to visualize a real person: Sandy is 35 and married, lives in Dallas, shops at Whole Foods & Banana Republic, has a Bachelor’s Degree, and is a nurse practitioner. Sandy is your personae.

You can now play with your message for each stage of the buyer’s journey (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) to send Sandy down the funnel from your social media brand awareness to conversion on your site. You’re likely to have a few personas, and the data will tell you who your most valuable customers are.

Talk as if you are talking straight to your specific audience, and you’ll be in a place to start a relationship with your customer. Find your audience so they can find you.