5 Ways to Understand Your Audience and Over Deliver

As a startup all we dream about is our success. I know it initially seems like a far-off reality.  We’re constantly met with ongoing setbacks and blows, as we try to bring everything together to launch or maybe streamline an existing business.

Around this time, we’re so involved with the finite details of our business it’s common to forget to benchmark and measure where we currently qre.  For this very reason, I have compiled 5 reasonable reasons why you really should start!

What Calls to Action are Working?

A Call to Action or CTA is when your customer has followed an instruction you have prepared for them.  As an example, you may have shared a post asking for people to sign up as a subscriber to your email list.  The link you’re sharing will take them to your list, and each click to it is then measurable.

A further measure of this could be sharing this link on different days, at different times, and maybe with different wording or an image.  By doing this, you can measure when your audience best responds to a CTA. 

Each Social Media profile comes with its own Free Insights section.  Here you can generally see how many people have looked at that post / tweet, where they’re based, and also what action they took.  The action could be clicking the link, viewing the image, or perhaps sharing it. 

What Customers am I Attracting?

As your business continues to grow, you can “see” what type of people are starting to follow and comment on your Social Media channels.  You can also see who is signing up for your emails (Google Analytics) and contacting you on the phone. 

If your message is clear, you’ll be attracting the right sort of customers (the ones you have specifically targeted) and around the right time of the purchase cycle. 

If the message isn’t clear, you’ll only see people maybe liking a post and not clicking into to learn more, you won’t get regular calls and zero sign ups.  Also, you notice your Bounce Rate on your website grow.  Your bounce rate is an indication of how long people stay on your website after coming across you.  Don’t be too alarmed – it’s typically high at the beginning!  It literally means they bounced off or headed back to search.

What Platform is working better for me?

It’s not always obvious where you’ll initially find your audience, unless you first do some research.  There are formal reports about social media platforms that typically get updated by the likes of Ipsos Mori or Mintel, and by the time ordinary folk like us get access to their figures, it’s nearly 3-6 months out of date.  However, if you have a spare $2,500 you can get the latest now. 

Alternatively, you can just try a couple of platforms and generate as much interest as you can!  There is some evidence that as Instagram is the fastest growing platform of a wide (ish) audience, it’s worth putting your entrepreneurial efforts into that.  Especially as the leading method of marketing is now video.  However, you can place your business on whatever platforms you most comfortable with.  Once you’ve built a following, it’s worth trying to add other platforms over time to widen it. 

The important message to remember here though, is only do what you have time for.  Or whatever you can afford to outsource.  It would be a real shame if you built up some strong relationships with your customer and then let them fall by the wayside when you got too busy.

What time do I have to dedicate to my product or service?

Which leads me directly here.  Once you’ve come up with your concept, you’ll need to update and improve it.  Try today to think of different ways to reach your customers in a fresh way – maybe every 3 to 6 months (depending on the lifecycle of your business).  This doesn’t mean that you have to rebrand or change message.  It means you have to update the message by saying it in a fresh way.

On top of that, that  you need to ensure you provide ongoing fresh and authentic social media and website content and, of course keep your customer service at a high level. 

I do understand how hard this can be!  For some people, getting a virtual assistant is essential almost immediately and it’s worth considering getting one.  You can check out recommendations from friends and family, your local networks, and also third-party platforms such as Upwork.

What ROI am I offering my customer?

Finally, what return on investment (ROI) are you offering your customer?  I know they get the product or service they have paid for, but what could you offer for extra?  What would be most useful for them?  How can you remain top of mind or be something that they would recommend to a friend or family?

Can you perhaps offer something for free?  Such as an extra product in the mail?  Can you give them access to a Q & A area on your website or free Facebook/LinkedIn Group?

Ideally by over delivering on a regular basis, it makes them appreciate what you do more.  This is turn makes them feel happy.  Nothing sells a product or service better than a happy customer. 

There is a lot more I could share, but these points are by far the fastest and most achievable.  If you have any questions or would like any support in any of these areas, please do hesitate to contact me at melanie@stomp.ie.

Melanie Boylan

Melanie has been supporting business owners with Social Media Training and Management since 2013 after a Magician asked for her help with Facebook. More on that later...
In late 2016 Melanie started writing for Irish Tech News and now travels to locations throughout Europe and reports, blogs and Live Streams her experience of events whilst she's there.

Her interests span Social Media (of course) Event Planning and Co-ordination, Start Up Business Support, Mentoring and Sponsorship on the job. However, off the job she's into SciFi / Sci Fact, STEM and Space. Oh and Cats rule.