If you want to better engage with your target audience, one valuable tool you should consider is listening to your audience. By understanding their needs and preferences, you can make informed decisions that resonate more effectively with them. In my previous post on “5 Digital Necessities to Improve Team Communication and Productivity,” one of the recommendations on “encouraging feedback” generated great questions on how to gain feedback from customers or clients. We wanted to recommend how companies, of all types and sizes, can leverage feedback to optimize their sales and marketing approach.
After working with hundreds of business owners and being a business owner myself, I’ve realized there’s one mistake we too often make: Once business owners decide who their target audience is, they decide for themselves the best ways to approach and help them. The mistake here is that what you think is best for your clients or customers might not always be accurate. If you want to be sure that you’re pursuing and pleasing the right audience, why guess when you can just ask them? Listening to your audience is crucial for making well-informed decisions.
Asking your current and prospective customers how your plans, such as product ideas or marketing messaging, will affect them will ensure a greater chance of success. Colin Shaw published “The ONE Question to Ask When Making Decisions” and in that post he talked about Ricoh Canada and the benefit of putting the customer at the center of everything you do.
“The sad thing is there are too many companies that don’t even ask the question.” – Colin Shaw
At our digital marketing agency StringCan Interactive, our strategic process involves carrying out primary research for all of our new clients. In other words, we conduct new and customized research that helps our clients learn more about their specific target audience. Our clients often have a very good grasp on who they believe their audience is but need our help to string together where they are online, what type of content they desire, and the messaging or calls to action that would most resonate with them.
We use many processes and tools, but often we get the best insights by asking our clients’ current and prospective customers to fill out surveys and/or questionnaires, and we interview them. Our clients have found that this primary research is extremely valuable and benefits their business plans in several ways. Here are five insights you can gain by listening to your audience:
Validates Secondary Research
To make sure you’re on the right track, many business owners look up industry research that’s easily available online. However, this research might not be up to date or relevant for your unique audience. By conducting the research yourself, you can confirm whether or not this secondary research is still accurate for you. You can also ask specific questions that are more relevant to your company and will likely get more detailed and valuable answers!
Listening to your audience helps validate any secondary research you have conducted. It ensures that your strategies are based on accurate and current data.
Confirms Target Audience
Although you might know who’s interested in your products and/or services, you still might not understand your target audience fully. By reaching out to a wide range of prospective customers, you can confirm who is most interested in your business and learn more about them. You may even discover you have an audience that has been entirely untapped!
Listening to your audience can help you refine your understanding of your target market and discover new segments to explore.
Reveals Best Engagement Platforms
Even if you know who your target audience is, you may not know the best ways to approach and/or connect with them. Primary research gives you the chance to ask your customers where they are most active, whether it’s Facebook, mobile apps, or weekend events. This information can help ensure that none of your customer engagement efforts are going to waste and can maximize their results.
By listening to your audience, you can identify the most effective platforms for engagement, ensuring your efforts are directed where they will have the most impact.
Helps Build Relationships
If your target audience doesn’t know or interact with you, you can’t encourage them to purchase your products and/or services. The primary research process gives you another opportunity to communicate with new contacts and show them that you care about satisfying their needs. After the primary research is complete, the results offer valuable guidance for building more meaningful relationships with these customers.
Building relationships is a key benefit of listening to your audience. It shows that you value their input and are committed to meeting their needs.
Exposes New and Effective Goals
Whether you want or already have returning customers, it’s crucial that you continuously understand their changing needs. This will help you determine how to keep them happy and will reveal great opportunities for company adaptation and expansion. Also, by asking your customers what they want and need, you can be sure that your business goals always align with your audience’s pain points.
By listening to your audience, you can uncover new goals that align with their needs, driving your business forward in a way that ensures customer satisfaction.
Assuming you know the answers isn’t an effective strategy, but finding the answers is. By asking your target audience the right questions and listening to their feedback, you can ensure that your business goals, strategies, and processes are compatible with what they want.
For additional insights on effective listening strategies, check out Qualtrics’ guide on customer feedback and Forbes’ article on customer engagement.
I hope you enjoyed this article. If you would like to keep track of what I write, you can follow me on LinkedIn or X (Twitter) (@jayfeitlinger). If you need help with carrying out primary research, my team at StringCan, a B2B Growth Marketing Agency would be more than happy to help! Feel free to message me or post a comment if you would like to learn more.
