The Key to Knowing Your Audience

Growing your audience is about more than just numbers. After all, a brand with 100k Instagram followers and zero customers isn't going to get very far. But, how do you find those evangelists that will take your brand to Glossier-level stardom? The key is knowing them and, more importantly, knowing their problems.

Many entrepreneurs create a product because it satisfies a need... their need. Often founders are their own target customers because they feel so passionately that this is a service or product that belongs in the world. Once a business starts to scale, they face a problem: finding larger groups of likeminded individuals to believe in their solution. Digital natives will say that data in the answer but finding the solution to the problem requires more than just numbers, it takes instinct.

It's not enough to just ask your customer what they want because often times the problem you're solving is one they've grown accustomed to. Marketing guru Seth Godin wrote this week that "You ought to know what [your audience's] problems are, what they believe, what stories they tell themselves," and we couldn't agree more. The most important question is "what are they worried about?" If you can help ease that internal struggle, your audience will go from observers to loyal evangelists before your eyes.

Users don't want to be broadcast ads or flat content, they want something that speaks directly to them. The future of service is in personalisation and what better way to start than to speak to your audience's worries and desires.