Not everything about audience building is as cut and dried as the experts would like you to believe. In fact, here's some decidedly counterintuitive advice for engaging your target audience.
1. Your target isn't small enough
You don't get 10,000 new customers by targeting 10,000 new target audience members. You get sales by targeting 1,000 individuals who will spread the word once they've bought your product or service
You need an audience that will share your product. You have limited chances at best of reaching everybody, so let your audience help you get the word out about how great your product or service is. The key is to build a narrow audience of individuals who know you or your brand very well. Because people only buy from those they know, like, and trust.
2. Talk with your audience
Businesses work so hard at engaging their audiences with their marketing content, but when individuals reach out in response, businesses often don't interact. This sounds very counterintuitive, but businesses think people posting comments to blog posts aren't looking for a response. Wrong!
You should always at the minimum thank your readers for their comments, both good and bad. Let them know you appreciate them taking the time to read and comment. It shows you're listening to what your audience is saying and you take them seriously. A great way to engage with customers and demonstrate your expertise is through forums: they're not just somewhere to go while you procrastinate.
3. Don't sell
But what's the point of great content then, you may ask? The purpose of great content is to offer your audience something of real value. You can't offer the same content everyone else is using either; it must be original and thought-provoking.
No one wants to buy from someone who puts out content that screams "buy from me now, please!" But if you continually give them great advice and inspiration, when they're ready to buy, they'll think of you first. You must give away your best stuff to sell one day down the road.
Why do counterintuitive tactics work?
People expect businesses to be in it for themselves. Individuals often come into interactions with a business feeling that they're being seen in terms of the money they could hand over.
So surprise them.
Make your customers feel valued by providing great content that isn't all about you, but about them. We'll cover a few more ways to do this by the end of this article, but one of the key ways to gain your customers' love and trust is through good writing.
Blog posts that solve a problem, social media content that entertains your customers or teaches them something - all of these tactics mean writing well in lots of different places. You'll need to adapt your writing style to suit the audience you're trying to reach.
Good grammar can follow you wherever you write. ProWritingAid's Chrome extension sits in your browser, catching typos and writing style errors in everything from emails to Facebook posts.
If you're writing longer pieces of content, you can check for grammar errors without sacrificing your own voice in the ProWritingAid apps. ProWritingAid allows you to change your writing style so that you receive suggestions based not only on your writing but what you're writing.
Want to go from blog articles to business reports with ease?
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Or, check out our free ebook all about writing for business at the end of this post.
4. Promote others' content
Another counterintuitive idea is to promote other's best work. Link to your competitors if they provide content that meets the following checklist:
- Cites a government study
- Links to an industry organization or authority on your topic
- Hosts reliable bloggers or experts with large followings and similar content to yours
You're trying to educate your target audience, not sell them. Build your brand's authority and trust by linking to great content. When you consistently provide the best content out there, who is your audience going to turn to when it's time to buy?
Be careful not to litter your content with useless links. That will have the opposite effect, driving your target audience away.
5. Get clear on your promise
What's this about a promise, you say? Great content does more than answer the standard question, "what's in it for me?" It instead answers this one simple question:
- How will your audience change because of reading your post?
How will their lives become easier, how can you help them grow, or can you help them do something faster, better, or more efficiently than before? Give your best ideas away for free—with no strings attached.
Another idea that sounds trés counterintuitive, but giving away your best ideas creates immense value for your audience. It's the best way to turn your target audience into co-collaborators, supporters, and even raving fans who share your posts and help you reach countless others.
6. Underwhelm your audience with data
It sounds counterintuitive because most authors think the more data they use to prove their point, the more they'll sound like an expert, right? Wrong. The more of a data dump you do, the more overwhelmed your audience will be with points to remember.
People can remember anywhere between 4 and 7 things, hence why phone numbers are 7 digits long. Be ruthless when editing. If a piece of information, a story, or a statistic doesn't connect back to your promise, cut it out.
7. Give them something to do next
You don't want people reading your content with, "fascinating, but what do I do with it?" No matter how great your content is, how compelling your stories are, people need to know what they're supposed to do with all that new information.
Show your target audience how to take action. For each point you make, answer the question, "what do I do with this?" And every action you want your audience to take must bring them one step closer to your promise. It's even more powerful if your audience can take at least one of these actions while reading your content.
Final thoughts
When you write your next blog post or article, keep in mind who you want to engage. Picture that person at the epicenter of your post. Persuasion becomes easier, relationships deepen, and you become your target audience's go-to expert. And people like to buy from those they know, trust, and like.
So counterintuitive advice—yea or nay? If you want to be best-in-class, shake things up a bit and don't do what everyone else is doing. Let us know in the comments below what works for you.
Be confident about grammar
Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.
