Today we’re talking all about your audience, and why it’s absolutely crucial that you know who they are!
As I mentioned in my last blog post, it’s key that you make your brand irreplaceable, and you do that by knowing exactly who you are. But once you’ve got that down, what’s next?
That’s where knowing your audience comes into play!
You need to know who you’re communicating with, and who you’re trying to reach with your messaging, services and/or products. Because otherwise, you’re basically just screaming out into the masses, hoping someone will hear you. You want to be whispering to your ideal, dream clients. By knowing exactly who they are, you can connect with them on the deepest of levels, and turn them into the most amazing, loyal, excited customers.
You want to build the like, know, and trust factor with your audience.
And how do you even begin to do that if you don’t know who you’re doing it with?
A perfect exercise to establish who your business’ audience is to create a brand persona. This helps you bring to life your audience by creating a fictional persona that you can envision every time you’re creating any kind of brand materials.
That’s why I’ve created a filloutable PDF Brand Persona template – just for you! – that you can use to identity your ideal audience!
Download a copy of your FREE Brand Persona template today!
Now is the perfect time to bring your brand to life through your brand persona!
Once you’ve downloaded your Brand Persona template, here are my top three tips on how to fill it out and get the most out of it!
1 – Don’t skip the previous step – establishing who you are.
Make sure you’ve established who and what your business is. Don’t skip ahead to creating your brand persona and identifying your audience without doing the very important first step.
2 – Go through the worksheet and roughly fill everything out.
Don’t get stuck in overthinking your first attempt. That can hold you back, and we want to use this initial round as a brainstorming exercise. Write what feels right, and who you imagine connecting with through your brand.
3 – Put yourself in your audience’s shoes.
Now that you have a rough idea of who your brand persona is, envision being that person – having their job, hobbies, interests, personality.
Would you connect with your brand and business? Why or why not? What of your activities or interests would make you come across your service or product? Would your struggles and fears connect with your messaging?
Spend some time digging deeper and questioning these different aspects of your brand persona, and most importantly, how this person would connect and engage with your business. We want to be absolutely sure that you’re clearly communicating and authentically connecting with your audience through a solid brand strategy.
4 – Bonus tip: test out your brand persona!
This isn’t a one-and-done kind of exercise. Use this tool as a starting point to start creating your brand messaging and marketing materials with this brand persona at the forefront.
When you’re writing a caption, envision them. When you’re creating a graphic, picture it capturing their attention. And then actually put this content out into the world, in front of your real audience. See how they connect with it, is it engaging and enticing?
Another fun little exercise is to survey your existing audience. You can get a pretty good idea through analytic tools on Instagram and Google, but you can always ask them more detailed questions through an email survey or in Instagram stories. Ask your audience about their interests, fears, goals, and what resonates with them most (e.g. certain words or phrases). This can be super helpful in tweaking and refining your brand persona.
One last key tip? Make sure you’re actually engaging with your audience and learning about them through real interactions! Reply to comments on your blog, visit your Instagram follower’s accounts, send and reply to DM’s. The best way to get to know your audience is to engage with them and start building that like, know, and trust factor in real life!
I hope you find this a helpful tool in continuing to establish your brand strategy, getting unstuck, and setting your business up for success!
So let me know in the comments below, who’s your audience? Tell me a bit about them, I’d love to know!
XO
Danielle