There is no excuse for not knowing who your audience is, and what they need. With myriad tools and techniques at your disposal, many advertisers are enjoying the modern capabilities that allow them to narrow in on the intricate desires of their customer segments. However, complications arise when your audience needs are confused with market trends, and businesses continue to serve up content and product offerings that have missed the mark. Sound familiar? If you’re worried about confusing an authentic audience desire with a trivial trend, here is how you can differentiate between the two.
Engage an expert agency
A digital advertising agency with a backbone in behavioural change will be able to quantify what your offering is, and how that works in with shifting trends. The last thing you want to do is brandish your message or offering with a trend that will be stale by the end of this sentence. These agencies are designed to study customer behaviour, fostering a communication method that resonates on a deep, long-term level. Start workshopping a strategy that will go the distance and leverage the insights of a team trained in studying such behaviour.
Listen to your data
Imagine what professionals one decade ago would say about the data we have access to now? They would be blown away. Although the truth remains that most of us are underutilizing this data, either overwhelmed at all the channels offering up insights, or we simply don’t know how to put this gold into action. You’re not alone here. Decide on which key channels are your main sources of conversion, traffic and engagement – and start there. Poke into your backend, and start by making just one change based on the customer data and recommendations before you. If this feels out of your wheelhouse, don’t be afraid to find a professional who can help you with this.
Build out a deeper customer segmentation framework
If you can’t articulate the salary, age and societal stance of your audience, do you really know them? Beyond these basic demographics, there are so many more nuggets of wisdom you can draw from your customers, and utilise for future product and service planning. How do they feel about packaging? What is their preferred number of edms per month? Who do they receive inspiration from? This is the next frontier of customer intel you should be striving to capture. By tapping into these questions and building out a deep customer segmentation model, your user experience will only improve. This creates brand advocacy.
No one said you can’t leverage a trend
Living and dying by the sword of a trend is ill-advised, but that’s not to say you can’t leverage one here and there. In fact, trends and influences will always give some colour and context to a robust and clear marketing strategy. Think of it as a season change. Using the information you have about your audience, supported by the data, you can adopt a certain level of relevancy and urgency to your message based on trends. This soft-touch approach is like a nod to what is happening around them, without throwing in all the hard work you have put together in being unique and targeted to this point.
It’s a fine line to walk when giving your audience what they want, while systematically avoiding trends that will not land with your market. It’s always recommended that you engage a digital advertising agency to assist with your message construction and delivery, so you can rely on the fact that your message is landing every time.