4 Steps To Know Your Audience

February 13, 2013 by Alia McKee

A Secret

I’m going to tell you a secret about myself.

I can be overly self-involved. I work at it, but I still find myself living and breathing in an Alia-centric world most days. (The irony is not lost that I’m leading this post about audience with a story about my own self-involvement).

But there’s a professional reason for this self-disclosure — I promise. You see, self-involvement is not a great trait for a marketer or fundraiser. Because we are not our audiences.

A Wake Up Call

This morning we presented the results of an audience survey we conducted for a client. And — surprise, surprise — this client’s audience does not reflect me nor my interests. They are older. They are really into different hobbies than I am. They have grandkids. The list goes on and on…

This happens every time we do research. And it’s an important ongoing wake up call. We are not are audiences.

So what’s a self-absorbed marketer to do?

4 Steps To Know Your Audience

  1. Say this aloud with me. “I am not my audience.”
  2. Survey your audience to find out more about who they are, what they’re interested in and why they affiliate themselves with you – if they do at all.
  3. AudubonImagine them. Post a photo that represents your audience(s) on your wall to remind you who you are creating content and campaigns for. For Audubon, the photo here is pretty accurate.
  4. Watch what they do. People often aren’t great predictors of their own behavior. They might say one thing and do another so watch what content they interact with and create more of that content.

In our world audience is everything. In order to give them what they want, we have to know who they are.  So let’s do it!