The Top 10 Ways to Find Your Audience 31

Your Audience Is Out There Somewhere!

It doesn’t matter who you are, what your opinions might be or even whether you have anything to say worth listening to.

Someone is willing to listen to YOU right now.

In fact, they are listening to someone right now and they might as well be listening to you!

But, most likely they aren’t.

Even if you have thousands of fans, clients, customer and supporters for your ideas, products and services, you haven’t even touched the surface of the audience available to you right now.

As I write this there are 310,574,391 people in the United States alone and  the world has a few more … 6,877,731,978 at last count.

I’m pretty sure you aren’t reaching them all.

But, I’m also just as sure that there are THOUSANDS of people who agree with what you want to say — No matter what you think.

1. “Who IS your Target Audience”

• What type of audience do you want?
• Are you looking for a particular age, gender, location etc – or stage of life, political interests?
• What are the personality traits, emotions, needs, passions and frustrations of you audience?
• What value or benefit can you bring to the table?
• Who is your ideal customer?
• What kinds of groups or associations would they join?
• What do they dislike?

Try imagining a prototype person who is your main audience.

• Name the person.
• Give them an age.
• An outlook on life.
• A job.
• A family.
• A city to live in.
• Interests.
• An Education.

Do you have more than one audience?

Why not list them all out?

• What is cool to these people?
• What impresses them?
• How do they interact?
• Are they technical?
• Are they sophisticated?
• Are they conservative?
• Are they radical?

What is the tone of their language?

• Do they use slang?
• Do they want “Just the facts?”
• Are they emotional?
• Are they angry?
• Do they have a history together?

What do they want and need?

• What are they missing?
• What are their problems?
• What do they value?
• What is most important to them?
• What are they least likely to care about?

The best way to spread your message is to start by observing what is already being shared, discussed and admired by your audience.

2. “Identify where your audience is and what they do”

• Where do they hang out?
• What activities are they taking part in?
• Are they readers?
• Social animals?
• Do they have their own jargon or lingo?

Talk to your audience

• Do surveys.
• Ask your friends and relatives what things they would look for if they were your potential customers.
• Find online forums that appeal to your audience.
• Research what your competitors are doing.
• Keep on top of what your industry buzz is about for successful target marketing.
• Subscribe to relevant newsletters and publications.
• Use market research to find vendors and content providers.
• Search Google for blogs, profiles and groups.

Look for “Hot Spots”

Where does my target go to …

• Network
• Research
• Read the news
• Catch up with friends
• Be entertained

See who’s getting results  …

Which items are …

• Getting the most buzz
• Gathering responses
• Causing controversy
• Being the most useful

Check your competitors …

Be sure to locate your competitor’s online presence to make sure you’re heading the right direction.

• Focus on high-traffic sites, events and profiles …
• Find potential partners, what websites are they on.
• Don’t stop researching your target audience. Your marketing strategy must keep pace with change.

Check your own analytics.

Google Analytics is a great way to see who refers readers to your site. Check out where your audience comes from and visit those sites.  Then check and see where they are going when they LEAVE your site.

3. “Find the key influencers”

Who are the key  …

• Bloggers
• Marketers
• Experts
• Print Publications
• Media Outlets
• Mavens
• Reporters
• Social Media Addicts

Then figure out what motivates them to move your message out to the masses.

4.” Engage with Empathy”

You don’t stand out in a crowd, by standing there and yelling. Think about the boy who cried “Wolf.”  It works the first time, but after a while people tune you out.

Introduce  content or conversations your audience is interested in using a voice that commands respect or affection or they won’t listen to you.

Ask …

• What is my audience interested in?
• What would they want to read?
• What do they search for?
• How can I entertain?”

Definitely …

• Be personal
• Be helpful
• Be enjoyable
• Ask questions
• Be human
• Be nice
• Be interesting
• Use their language and jargon
• Share media (pictures, videos, reports) they will connect with

5. “Expand the edges”

Reach out to your audience and become part of communities.

• Subscribe to blogs
• Join networks
• Join groups
• Write articles
• Publish a book
• Attend live events
• Speak
• Create useful content
• Comment on blogs and forums
• Set up Google Alerts to track mentions.
• Use StumbleUpon – to discover and read new content
• Introduce yourself – Sending someone a personalized email shows them that you have noticed them and you care about them enough to personally contact them.
• Respond to posts
• Answer questions
• Solve problems
• Make them notice your presence.
• Share interesting content.
• Check out advertisements
• Use Google Trends and Trendrr to search for what is trending now.
• Use Quantcast to get data (size, age, income, education etc) on your audience.
• Use Technorati to search for hot blogs and posts.
• Use Dan Zarrella’s ReTweetability Index and Wefollow.com to find the most influential Twitter accounts by keyword and number of re-tweets.
• Use local geo-targeted directories such as Placeblogger
• Search Facebook fan pages

Find out who and what is popular

• What posts are drawing comments
• What is being retweeted
• What Fan pages have high followers
• What topics are hot today
• What is the news media covering right now
• Which headlines are drawing you in
• What videos are getting the most views

6. “Deliver quality solutions”

Think about who you are, what you stand for, and what valuable contributions you can make to your audience.

Be as specific as possible.

• What do you have to say that will surprise your audience?
• What do you want your audience to think, learn, or assume about?
• What impression do you want to convey to your audience?

Solve real problems!

Develop content and delivery platforms (blogs, social network profiles, article sites, forums, etc.) so you have a platform to can communicate your expertise on a consistent basis.

7.  “Determine your keywords and key phrases”

Develop a list of keywords and key phrases your audience is searching for.

For detailed help on keyword research, view the free video tutorials at http://newbiequickstart.com

Keyword research is a tactic marketers use to help increase search engine optimization (SEO) for bloggers and websites to improve their visibility in search engines.

After you have your keywords, here are a few ways to use them:

Use Twitter Advanced Search to search on your keywords and phrases and follow interesting people in the results.

Subscribe to the RSS Feed of the results.

Identify hashtags used in posts related to your terms.

Write tweets using your keywords as hashtags.

Use Twellow.com to search Business Categories.

Use Blastfollow.com to follow Twitter users in mass based on subject.

8. “Outsource your marketing to find your target audience.”

It’s easier than ever to find qualified and knowledgeable experts for reasonable rates to create marketing strategies for your company’s target audience.

Click here for free resources for List Building and Outsourcing.

9. “Advertise!”

Who says you have to jump through hoops to build an audience.

It is nice to know that there are targeted, reliable, effective options in paid media to reach consumers in their media of choice.

10. ” Do good!”

All of the above methods really come down to one basic principle.  Do good things and you will have all the audience you ever need.

Hope this helps!

All the best,

Ken McArthur

Best-Selling Author and Producer

KenMcArthur.com
The Impact Factor Movie
The Impact Masterminds
The Impact Action Plan Workshops

P.S. Here’s the addresses to find me on Twitter and Facebook …

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/KenMcArthur

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ken-McArthur/20103565427

P.P.S. Hint, hint …

Want to learn everything I know for less than $15?

Click here to get my latest hardcover book!