This week’s #FreeAdviceFriday comes from Sally Tyrell, Director of Blackbird PR who stresses the importance of understanding your target market before embarking on any form of PR or communications activity.

Here’s what Sally had to say:

If you don’t know your customer or consumer, it is virtually impossible to effectively communicate and market to them. Taking the time to understand target audiences is a crucial step and should always be top of mind for SMEs (think about when you first started your business – maybe things like Twitter didn’t even exist!).

There has been plenty of times I’ve met with businesses who have a sudden urgency to be on TikTok or the latest marketing trend, simply because everyone else is doing it. Your time (and money) is much better spent knowing your target audience, how they get their information, and when and where they are most likely to want to engage with you.

Here are three tips to help better understand your target audiences:

Look at your current customer or consumer base. Who are they and what do you know about them? Write down as much detail as you can. Consider things like age, sex, location, job position etc. From this you should be able to start to create target audience personas about your current and potential customer base.

Now that you have a better idea of your audience/s, delve in and really get to know them even better.

• What does your ideal customer or consumer look like?
• What would lead them to buy your product or service?
• How can you get your product or service in front of them?
• Where do they spend time? There is little value writing blogs on LinkedIn if your audience is never there.
• What content are they most interested in? Explore what is important to them.
• How do they like to receive their information? Some people prefer to read detailed articles on a news website, while others want a quick snapshot in a video.
• Where do they go to get information? Are there key groups or individuals that might influence this?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you need to find out! There are lots of way to do this including setting up google analytics on your website, online surveys, focus groups or even just talk to your current customers.

Start to map out your communications and marketing activities based on what you know about your target audiences. Some of it should be quite obvious. Start by ruling out all the places they don’t spend time, and instead focus on the places they do. The great thing about marketing and communicating today is that channels such as Facebook allow us to get really specific with who we want to target, so if you know your target audience well, you can set-up a look-a-like profiles to advertise your product or service. When writing or producing content, make sure it’s addressing your customer needs, and in a tone, they will respond well too.

Finally, remember to regularly look at your target audiences as they may change, or their consumption habits might change. Don’t get caught up in what you think is an effective marketing tool just because the business next door is on it. With target audiences, knowledge is always your greatest asset!

Thanks Sally, great advice! For more #FreeAdvice from leading industry professionals, keep checking in with us here or on LinkedIn where we regularly share useful insights and helpful tips to help you on your DIY PR journey. Good luck!