10 Ways to Learn About Your Target Audience

Unless you’re intimately familiar with the psychology of your target market, any demographics you claim are mere semantics. If you want your messaging to be effective and your brand to be enticing, you need to go a step further and get to know your customers better. How do you do that? Here are 10 ways to know your target audience:

1. Challenge your assumptions.

The first step is the most important, since it may even help you redefine your target audience. Don’t assume anything. Let’s say you’ve decided your target market is middle-aged women. Why? You may have gone even further, assuming certain styles or directions of messaging appeal to them.

But don’t take any of this for granted. Unless you have more than anecdotal evidence backing up your claim, ditch it.

2. Learn from what others have found.

This is entry-level market research at its finest. Read up on some case studies, examples and psychological analyses by marketers who have come before you. Sources include industry reporters, general market researchers and, in some cases, sociologists. Filter your data to ensure the research is as relevant and as recent as possible.

3. Create a customer persona.

Once you’ve collected enough objective data to start forming solid conclusions, you can start crafting a customer persona. This persona is basically a fictional character who exhibits all the traits an “average” member of your target audience is expected to have.

Include hard factors like age, sex, education level and income, as well as disposition factors like temperament, sensitivity or curiosity.

4. Conduct large-scale quantitative surveys.

Now it’s time to back up your assumptions and conduct some primary research (rather than the secondary research described above). Start with large-scale quantitative surveys, covering the widest cross-section of your audience possible. Your questions should be multiple-choice, giving you hard statistics that can teach you about your audience’s habits.

Ask questions relevant to your brand and product, such as, “How important is X to you?” or “What is your biggest consideration for purchasing a X?”

5. Conduct small-scale qualitative surveys.

Complement your quantitative research with qualitative research -- the data won’t be as objective, but you’ll learn more detailed insights on your audience’s psychological makeup. Target a small sample of audience members, and use open-ended questions to get long responses you can interpret.

Again, ask questions relevant to your brand and product like, “What does the following phrase mean to you?” or “What do you feel when you see this image?”

6. Look to your competitors.

Your competitors may have already done such market research and put it into action. If they target the same audience you do, observe and learn from the way they write and advertise to their potential customers.

If they don’t, look for ways that you can distinguish yourself.

7. Look to other popular products and services.

Look for products and services that your target audience is already using -- unrelated to your industry. How do these brands position themselves? What kinds of messaging do they use?

8. Listen to social conversations.

Use social listening software in combination with targeted social lists to zero in on what your customers are saying online. What trending topics are they following most closely? Whom do they usually interact with, and why?

Again, you can look for other brands that may emerge as successful messengers.

9. Examine interactions with your brand.

You can use social listening software again, and tap into Google Analytics to examine user behavior on your site. Evaluate how your target demographics are interacting with your brand: Do you get lots of blog comments and social shares? Use this data to fine-tune your approach.

10. Allow some room to grow.

You’ll never have a perfect understanding of your target audience. Even if at some point you did, your audience members would evolve and change as soon as you figured them out. Allow some breathing room in your strategy, and always strive to understand your audience a little bit better.

None of these methods can, by themselves, give you a perfect portrait of the “average” customer in your target demographics; populations are too diverse and too unpredictable for any one set of assumptions to hold true.

Instead, you need to collect your findings from multiple sources and merge them into one comprehensive, multifaceted vision. From there, you’ll be able to better shape everything you create for your audience, from blogs to headlines to calls to action. 

How To Make Awesome Idea For Your Startup

One of the major challenges for many would-be entrepreneurs is coming up with their first business idea. Sadly, there is no good “idea generation” method out there. At best, some entrepreneurs get bland advice such as “just be creative.” Although given with good intentions, most advice seldom works. Instead, it just increases your frustration.

This article has a single objective:

• You’ll learn an effective method of developing viable ideas for your startup

Some background

Ever since I became an entrepreneur, the concept of generating business ideas has fascinated me. It has also vexed me, because I was bad at it.

Coming up with an idea for my own company was painfully difficult. Actually, I wish I had this method when I launched my startup ten years ago. Instead, I took the long and hard road. This experience is why I wrote about this subject in my series about college startups and why I am writing about it here.

No flash of inspiration? No worries

One of the most significant and common mental hurdles is the belief that entrepreneurs are different. They are inspired and creative geniuses, like Steve Jobs. This belief was a hurdle for me and other entrepreneurs I have spoken to. Honestly, I don’t consider myself a “creative” genius, certainly not in a “Steve Jobs” type of way.

I’ve discovered that generating business ideas does not require as much creativity as you think. As a matter of fact, most great ideas are simple incremental improvements of existing technology. Little “pure creativity” is actually needed.

Don’t believe it? Let’s look at two examples:

Apple’s iconic iPod® is considered a piece of pure creative beauty, but it was hardly a new concept when it was launched. As a matter of fact, the market had a number of competing MP3 players at the time. Apple improved the existing concept and took it to a new level. They created a device with an awesome form factor. It also had great usability and a fantastic buying experience. Thanks to those improvements, they now own that market.

Consider Google’s search engine, its flagship product. Another flash of genius from a company admired for its creativity. Well, the technology behind search engines existed long before Google was launched. Actually, long before the Internet as we know it existed. Google simply enhanced the concept by adding an algorithm that used links and other signals as ranking factors.

Key takeaway: most great companies just enhance existing market solutions.

What should your business do? Solve problems

One detail that many would-be entrepreneurs tend to overlook is that businesses have a single mission: they solve problems. And businesses that are good at solving problems often do well. It’s that simple.

Consider any successful company and you will see a company that is good at solving problems. Look at Amazon, Google, Apple, or Uber. They all solve problems well. This fact is very important when looking for business ideas.

Key takeaway: problems equate to business opportunities.

Putting it all together – Getting the big idea

We have discussed two important facts. First, most great business ideas are not inherently creative. In other words, they don’t create something out of nothing. Instead, they improve on something that exists. Second, businesses have the singular task of solving problems.

In summary, you have to look for an existing problem and find a way to make it better.

The method

The method for coming up with one or many business ideas is simple: look for problems. Spend a few weeks looking for problems. Live your life normally but pay attention. If you encounter a problem in your personal life or at work, make a note of it.

Problems can be about anything. Can’t find a cab? That’s a problem (ask Uber or Lyft). If going to the grocery store seems like a waste of time, that’s a problem. Getting ahold of a doctor is difficult. Another problem. Write them down. You get the idea.

Don’t evaluate problems at this point. Just write them down.

Take this opportunity to ask people about their own personal and business problems. They will be happy to share their problems with you. Pay attention and write the issues down.

Selecting finalists

If you follow this process for a few weeks, you will generate a large list of problems. Most of them won’t be useful. Some may interest you, and one or two may be great opportunities.

Review your list of problems and evaluate each idea against your selection criteria. For example, here are some selection criteria I use:

1. Does the problem interest you?
2. Does it affect a lot of people/businesses?
3. Would I pay to have this problem fixed? (this one is important!)
4. Do you think you can you improve it?

Check your list of problems against the selection criteria. Discard any that don’t fit. If all goes well, you should have one or two ideas left. If you were really good (or lucky) you may a few of them.

Choosing a winner

Nine out of ten times, the winning idea is obvious to you. Every so often, you end up with more than one great idea. How do you choose? Consider working both ideas concurrently for a little while.

When I was first looking to start a company I had a couple of ideas that I really liked. So, I tested both. I did some research and started small operations to test the concepts. Eventually, one concept won.

Here is an example

I will finish this article by offering a quick example of how this process works. Recently, a family member was admitted for a week-long hospital stay. During their stay, I noticed that relatives had a difficult time getting in touch with the doctor.

Day-to-day communications were difficult. The doctor would make a daily visit to the room but never at a set time. If the family happened to be there when the doctor arrived, they got to ask their questions. Otherwise, they’d have to wait until the next day.

I asked around and other patients’ families had similar experiences. This problem affected many people. As far as I could tell, it also affected other hospitals.

The ramifications of this problem are important. Bad communications with the attending doctors often lead to poor choices. This problem has been around for a while. As far as I know, no one has solved it well. The scope and the potential are huge.

Now, if this problem interested me, I would start researching it. I’d look into how other hospitals cope with this issue. I would also start thinking of solutions to improve this. After a few minutes of thinking, I came with some possible solutions:

1. Have doctors visit at a set time. Use a text message reminder to the family caretaker
2. Develop a secure patient-doctor messaging app
3. Create communication kiosks that would allow doctors and patients to exchange messages
4. Develop a system to set 10-minute conference calls with caretakers once a day

As you can see, some of these solutions represent potential business ideas. Frankly, I am not sure if any of these solutions are viable. This problem is complex. However, this example should give you a gist of the process.

7 Ways to Say I Love You of your Team and your Customers!

There's a lot to be said for leaders who love their people. When employees or customers feel the love, they rarely peek over the fence to see what other companies are offering. Why would they?

If people feel secure, appreciated and cherished, they have little reason to shop around for something better.

Are you spreading the love to members of your team and your customers? Here are seven simple ways to say, "I love you."

1. Awards. 

Employee of the Month, Customer of the Month, Best Dressed, Funniest, Craziest, Best Giver -- you name it and then make an award for it. Find a reason to reward your staff and customers regularly. Who doesn't love a simple dose of recognition? This can be simple as creating a certificate or purchasing a plaque and then recognizing that special person for their awesomeness.

2. Notes. 

It takes less than a minute to write a note of recognition to someone you appreciate. A note to a customer can have a message as succinct as this: "I appreciate you. Thank you for your business." 

A message to an employee might include a thank-you for a specific task well done. Take a moment to make the effort to send a handwritten token of appreciation. It's likely to go a long way.

3. Gifts.

You don't have to spend a lot of money to give a special gift that shows someone you care. I have a co-worker who visits Starbucks daily, and he always picks up these little cards with free iPhone apps, compliments of Starbucks. He hands me an envelope full of these whenever I see him.

This co-worker knows that my daughter loves playing games on my iPad so he scoops up these free apps. It means the world to me that he's thinking about my family when he's buying his morning java. 

4. Spending time. 

One great way to say, "I love you" is to take an employee or a customer to lunch. I own a large real estate firm with more than 300 employees and sales team members. Each week I block off time for two lunch dates with my people. That way I can spend 60 to 90 minutes really getting to know what makes them special. You can quickly learn how amazing your staffers are when you take the time to listen to them.

5. Birthday salutes.

What better way to show a person you care about him or her than by marking a birthday? I'm not talking about wishing someone "Happy birthday" on Facebook where the message can become lost in a stream of dozens of others from well-wishers. I'm suggesting that you send a card or a gift.

A program that I've been using for the past five years is Send Out Cards. It's an automated system that keeps track of birthdays. Each month I log into the system to create a custom card for all my people with birthdays. I send them out along with a gift, like a package of delicious brownies or another type of sweet. One feature that I love is that if I forget to send out a card, I receive an email reminder.

6. Including families.

One of the best ways to show someone you love them is to appreciate their families. Aside from sending birthday brownies to staffers, I give them to the spouses, significant others, kids and grandchildren of my team members on their birthdays, too.

When you hire an employee, you adopt his or her entire family. Or at least that's how I see it. Therefore, showing love means extending it to the family of everyone who makes your company great.

7. Pats on the back.

Last, but certainly not least, there's the good old pat on the back. When you catch a team member or a customer doing something great, reach out by phone or visit in person to say, "You are amazing. Thank you for being you."

These modest steps can make a profound difference in your business. Of course, the greatest paradox in building any business is that the things that are easy to do are also easy not to do. These are basic ideas, yes, but that doesn't make them any less powerful when executed.