How to Find Out Who Your Audience Really Is
Today we will be talking about the audience you influence. We’ll cover how to find your audience when you’re launching your online course.
Why You MUST Know Your Audience
There are 3.4 billion people on the web at any given point, so how do you sift through these internet users to reach the people you really want in your online course? In order to avoid marketing to the whole online world and wasting money, time, and resources on people who are never going to be interested in your class, you have to know your ideal audience and their language.
This is extremely important! Before you can market effectively, you have to know how to talk to your ideal client and what their burning desire is. When you speak their language and address this desire, your message will resonate with your audience and get them excited to join your online course.
I have been working with clients for the past eight years. I listen to the language they use, know their struggles, and mirror words they used in their testimonials. This ensure we are communicating effectively.
If you want your online course to sell like crazy, you need to know what your ideal audience is saying and what the obstacles to their burning desire are. That way when you share how your online course can help them achieve their burning desire, you will deliver your message in a language they can understand. You will use this language to create ad copy, blogs, social media posts, landing pages, and more to convince your audience your online course is worth their time and money.
Your audience’s language applies to both the actual words you are using and the images and delivery system. If you’re an avid reader, you can identify the different categories of a bookstore by the book covers. Romances have suggestive titles like Heart’s Dawn, long curly script, and people swooning on the cover, while science fiction books have titles like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, tighter, more modern text, a cooler color palette, and some sort of technology on the cover. If a hard science fiction book was named The Lusty Mermaid in flowing script, science fiction readers like me will walk right past it, assuming the book was a romance and not their kind of story. This is why your message has to be clear and speak your audience’s language. Don’t be The LustyMermaid.
Keep in mind that your avatar has specific needs and concerns RIGHT NOW. The language used to address them matters. For example: Budding and Aspiring Influencers usually have a team of 1 or a small team with 2-3 virtual assistants or contractors. They talk about needing more help, templates to grow, and organizing to grow to consistent six figures without breaking the bank. They are on the cusp and need help to get everything done and bring in new clients. Established influencers have more money and less time. They are busy and are looking for the best ways to scale without losing control over their brand. It’s a whole different conversation! This is why developing your client avatars is so important!
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8 Ways to Research Your Audience
To really understand your ideal client, their language, and their burning desire, you’re going to have to do some research. You need to study your ideal client, create some marketing content, and test your content. Some places you can conduct your messaging research are:
Special Guest Caitlin Berve
Caitlin Berve recently earned a MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado and now runs Ignited Ink Writing, where she edits books, writes copy, and speaks about writing. Her work has appeared in many literary and art magazines, including the April edition of Ghost Parachute online and Proof: a 30th Street Fiction Anthology. Her favorite stories contain a bit of magic and her fictional pieces reflect this. Attending writers’ conferences, being Vice President of the Boulder Writers Alliance, and participating in 30th Street Fiction writers’ critique group have further honed her writing and editing skills, giving her the tools necessary to write and help others tell their stories.
Not incidentally, Caitlin is also our primary copy writer here at Social Savvy Geek and works very closely with me on our content for the radio show and our blog. As part of that process, she is in the studio with me for nearly every show!
Caitlin shares how she became an author, why she choose to start her own freelancing editing and writing business, and how a reader is an author’s ideal client/audience.
- Question
- Answer
Who is the audience for your online course?
What language do they use?
How Knowing Your Audience Can Help You Design Your Online Course
Earlier we talked about how to research your ideal audience to learn their language and burning desire to mirror both in your marketing message. This information is particularly valuable if you are in the midst of putting together your online course or coming up with an idea for an online course.
Ask yourself, which Facebook groups am I already in alongside my ideal audience? You can use these as an opportunity to generate questions and clarify what your clients want and need right now.
You can populate your ad copy with the key words you identified through your SEO research. Do NOT use keyword stuffing though. Your content should flow and your keywords should naturally fit into your message. Be aware that your meta SEO and your content SEO may be different. You can use the search bar to identify keyword phrases. Start typing in a question or keyword and see how the search engine recommends ending your search. These are commonly asked questions that can help you better understand your ideal client’s needs.
Create a social media post or email with the language you’ve been researching and test it. See how many people interact with your content and adjust accordingly.
Knowing the exact phrases your ideal audience uses can lead you to create a course that will sell like hotcakes and gives you leverage to use in your marketing tactics leading up to the launch of your online course. Once you’ve discovered your audience’s language and burning desire, you have made a giant leap in filling your online course.
I have a question for you.
Answer me on your favorite social channel.
Who is the audience for your online course? What language do they use?
