Get to Know Your Audience with @Bill_Slawski #VCBuzz

Knowing your audience is key to your digital success.

By understanding your target reader and customer, you are able to speak directly to their needs, questions and struggles.

How to get to know your audiences?

Let’s discuss!

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About @Bill_Slawski

@Bill_Slawski is the veteran of the SEO industry, and one of the smartest SEO professionals out there. He has been into SEO since 1996 and there’s no one in this industry who doesn’t know the name.

@Bill_Slawski is director of SEO Research @gofishdigital and writer behind SEO By The Sea, an awesome blog reviewing search patents.

Questions we discussed

Q1 How did you become a digital marketer? Please share your career story!

I built a website for a couple of friends starting a business, and then I started promoting it, and then discovered search engines, so I started doing SEO on the site. I began learning more SEO as Google learned more search.

A1: I became a digital marketer in 2002 when I owned a business and I felt the "internet" was going to eclipse the Yellow Pages. We had spreadsheets to track results and very few if any tools. Also there were several search engines fighting for dominance. #vcbuzz
— Mover Search Marketing (@moversearchmkg) June 16, 2020

Q2 What are the best ways to get to know your target audiences?

Ask Sales and Customer Service about your audiences. Survey Your audiences. Social Listen to them where they gather on social networks/forums. Learn how competitors address them. Explore Your Analytics/Site search/comments. Look at Google trends. Talk w/your audiences

A1 The best way to get to know your audience is to engage with them. Data will only show you so much. My opinion. 🙂 #vcbuzz
— Jon-Mikel Bailey (@JonMikelBailey) June 16, 2020

The best way to have others recommend you is to be "the" go-to person for a specific niche and skill. #vcbuzz https://t.co/5ltbZcaULX
— Gail Gardner (@GrowMap) June 16, 2020

Become an influencer and expert and community member – build relationships, and it all makes a difference.

Yes! And it isn't that hard. Most anyone can become an expert, influencer and community member / builder — just be active at your passion. #VCBuzz https://t.co/qrzaM0wSfQ
— Gail Gardner (@GrowMap) June 16, 2020

A2 – They want to be heard so we listen. We don't "sell" to them, we let them buy & there is a difference. People like to buy, but not be sold. This requires a change of view & it's part of our team's culture. Social listen and literally talk to the stakeholders #vcbuzz
— Mover Search Marketing (@moversearchmkg) June 16, 2020

A2 If you listen, your customers will tell you what they want. Check your site search. Read the comments in your reviews and posts on social media.

You can even send them short, fun surveys in your offer emails to determine what their interests are & preferred products #vcbuzz https://t.co/tApaFQd1XU
— Gail Gardner (@GrowMap) June 16, 2020

A2:
a) Social Media listening tools
b) Analytics – to determine demography, age, gender traffic source.
c) Advertisement pilots to filter out the interested TG from followers.
d) Online & offline surveys.
e) Twitter Chats
f) Conversation over Live streaming.@bill_slawski #vcbuzz
— Dakshin Adyanthaya (@upsidedakshin) June 16, 2020

A2. I learn quite a bit by listening in on sales calls to hear what solutions people are looking for and what problems they have.#vcbuzz
— Boyd Norwood – Just for fun: www.isSEOdead.org ? (@boydnorwood) June 16, 2020

One of the best and earliest tools I used in SEO was having a notepad next to the phone where people talked to new & potential customers, to use to write out their questions

A2: Talk to them. Engage with them. Ask for their feedback. Ask them about their biggest pain points and what problems they need solved. (Don't assume you know the answers, especially when you're not even in the target audience.) #vcbuzz https://t.co/M8DtbUob65
— Jaime Shine ?️ (@jaimeshine) June 16, 2020

Yes, Conversations can be rewarding.

Q3 How to organize the data you are collecting from different sources, and more importantly, what to do with it? In other words, as you get to know your audience better, how to turn those insights into strategic action?

We often brainstorm on Slack and share ideas about what content we might want to develop. Interactions with audience members (conversations & Surveys) can lead to more and better connections and relationships.

A3 – We need help with this! ? We are always trying to turn "data" into "information". There is a difference and we always struggle. But @salmanlashkari said it well – find the pain! #vcbuzz
— Mover Search Marketing (@moversearchmkg) June 16, 2020

Build a knowledge base about your Audience & questions and pain points they might have with answers. Use Basecamp to brainstorm how to use those questions and answers on your site & to develop content.

A3b Use marketing automation to organize it for you. As they click on different offers/links/images in emails, automatically segment them for even more targeted offers. #vcbuzz
— Gail Gardner (@GrowMap) June 16, 2020

We then utilise the data to also create content that is working, personalise it with emailers, focus on re-marketing ads, whatsapp broadcast, blogs, infographics and videos.@bill_slawski #vcbuzz (2/2)
— Dakshin Adyanthaya (@upsidedakshin) June 16, 2020

A3 – b1.1 Have them tell you their pains, then have them tell you what it would be like if those pains disappeared, let them "feel" the relief. Then deliver on it! Clients make buying decisions based on emotions regardless of what they tell you. #vcbuzz
— Mover Search Marketing (@moversearchmkg) June 16, 2020

Q4 What are your thoughts on persona building? Do you ever use all that data to create buyer (or reader) personas?

I am a fan of persona building for channels such as Television, Print & Radio. On the Web, I would rather want to know what questions they might have, and what intents they might have when visiting the site.

A4 I think a lot of effort goes into persona building and then they are ignored. I still think they are useful when used. Engaging your audience on a regular basis is the easiest way to know who you're talking to and if they're the right audience at all. #vcbuzz
— Jon-Mikel Bailey (@JonMikelBailey) June 16, 2020

A.4) Yes. This roots back drawing a persona of followers and the buyers. Analysing different types of buyers, the platforms they are in, the content they consume and how we can personalise the content further to each persona using that data. @bill_slawski #vcbuzz
— Dakshin Adyanthaya (@upsidedakshin) June 16, 2020

I thought it was just me being lazy not using personas much for what I personally do. Primarily, I'm just active in what I know and clients come from those channels.

For clients, they are part of the original marketing strategy because they need to understand who buys #vcbuzz https://t.co/808s3mQwk7
— Gail Gardner (@GrowMap) June 16, 2020

Q5 What are your favorite digital marketing tools to understand your audiences better?

Surveys, mention trackers, Q&A sites such as Quora. Social Sites that allow upvoting of questions/topics such as Reddit. Google Surveys, Twitter Polls, & interactions on Twitter around shared topics of interest can be rewarding & Chats!).

A5)
SimilarWeb
AnswerThePublic
Google Forms
Mail Chimp / Newsletters
Fanpage Karma
Conversations using Quora, Instagram Live, Stories and Twitter Chats and Ask The Expert Formats
Social Listening Tool – I use Simplify360@bill_slawski #vcbuzz
— Dakshin Adyanthaya (@upsidedakshin) June 16, 2020

A5 – we love Ahrefs, SEMrush, Answer the Public as paid tools. Then of course GA & GSC for free #vcbuzz
— Mover Search Marketing (@moversearchmkg) June 16, 2020