Small Business Talk
The Podcast to Grow your Business Faster
How to Get in Front of the Right Audience
Show Notes
This question I get asked all the time, but do you know who your right audience is? Your ideal audience. The first thing you need to think about is can that audience pay you or can somebody else pay on behalf of them?
And yes, we all say that we’re not in it for the money. But seriously, if you’re not in your business for the money, why are you doing it? Earn as much money as you can and then you can do good things with it. You can help the poor. You can help your favorite charity. You can work less. You can do whatever you would like with your money.
But if you’re not in it for the money, then seriously, why are you doing it? Also, if you’re not charging enough, then you’re not going to give your best service. It should be a value exchange. They pay you and you give them as much value or if not more value, think about the way you buy things. Who’s your favorite supplier?
Value Exchange
Who do you absolutely love to buy? It could be an iPhone. It could be a Samsung. It could be something like that. Is that phone actually worth that amount of money to you? Yes, it is. It makes your life easier. Did it cost that amount of money to make it? No, it’s a value exchange. You are saying the value in that phone.
So therefore, most of the time you’re quite happy to pay it. So if when you’ve just dropped it on the concrete and have to buy one when you weren’t quite ready. But you know what I mean, it’s a value exchange. So the first thing you need to think about is the ideal customer at that right customer, can they pay or can somebody else pay on their behalf?
It might be a case of it’s a government funded thing, or it could be some other corporation, or it could be that if you’re coaching or something like that, that the company pays. So it gets down to can they pay? The second thing is, do they have that pain point? Do they have the problem that your service, your solution is perfect for them?
The second thing is, do they have that pain point. Do they have the problem that your service, your solution is perfect for them? So it’s a case of their pain, your service, solving that pain. So do they have that pain?
The Right Audience
When you’ve worked out those two things, then you need to work out how to get in front of them. Where do these people hang out? What do they like to do? You don’t need a lot of your ideal customers, generally speaking, but you do need the right ones. So you need to know where they are, where they’re hanging out, what they like to do. And you need to be quite specific. So start by thinking of your best customer. The customer that pays on time, loves your service, refers you to everybody, follows your advice, does what you ask is a repeat buyer, buys everything that you have to offer.
Who’s that customer? Can you put a name to that customer? Doesn’t have to be their real name. Just pick of the favorite name that you like. So maybe that customer is Sally. Sally is married. She has a couple of kids. She lives in the suburb. She drives an SUV. She’s involved in sporting clubs because that’s where her children are.
She works part time, she’s quite busy, time poor, etc. So then think about how Sally consumes her media. What does she say? What does she do? Is she a Facebook user? Maybe she is. If she’s in more of a corporate in her part time job. Maybe LinkedIn is her thing. So work out where your customers are hanging out and then you can think about what messaging they want because not all platforms do the same.
It could be a case that they don’t hang out there at all. If you have an older audience, then something like the newspaper. Yep, the newspaper might be where they get their information from. Yes, there’s still newspapers around. There are online newspapers. Is it financial newspaper? So don’t overlook the old traditional ways, because depending on who your customers and the way they like to get their information.
Consider Partnerships
What other services do they use before yours or after yours? So if you’re selling houses, for instance, they might need a mortgage broker, they might need a settlement agent, they might need a stylist to set that house up before they sell it. They might need a gardener. So once again, get it all nice and pretty before they sell it. Who can you have partnerships with? Those kind of people? Can a coffee shop partner with a car dealer, for instance? So, every time they sell something, they might get a hamper from the coffee shop. They might get a lunch or dinner or something like that as a voucher.
What other services can you partner with so that they can put you in front of your ideal audience, not somebody that competes with you, but somebody that has a complimentary service generally before yours, but sometimes after yours can work really well as well. And especially when you’re thinking about reciprocity. Because if you’re thinking about somebody before you, then they’ve obviously their service, you’re after them.
So when you’re looking to get in front of your ideal audience, quite often it’s thinking outside the box. It’s doing something a little bit different. And partnerships are a fabulous way of getting in front of an audience that you wouldn’t normally get in front of. But don’t be stingy. Make sure you do reward your partners. Make sure it’s worthwhile them sending their valued customers to you and make sure that you do look after them and look after them well, when they have.
Giving Equal Value
Getting in front of your ideal customer or right customer is not as hard as you think, but you have to know your customer well. And don’t overlook your current customers. Quite often, we spend a lot of time out there trying to find new customers where if you looked after and maybe did a value add to your current customers, then they can quite often bring you new business as well, new business from themselves as well as referrals.
So think about how you can value add to your current customers as well. Appreciate them and see what else you can do for them because you never know they’re going to know other people or they might be using more of your services as well. Because quite often by helping somebody else, it means that they can then help you back. All in the world of karma. It means that the universe will help you in a different way and you just don’t know.
How to Get in Front of the Right Audience
So when you’re thinking about getting in front of the right customer, it’s a multi-pronged approach, but it all goes down to knowing your customer and knowing them really well if that’s something you need help with.
Listen to the full episode of Small Business Talk episode 207.
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