If you want to get good at marketing, you must get to know your customer. Understanding who your ideal clients are, what they enjoy, what they do on a daily basis, and what their pain points are is the only way to attract them.
Our recent guest on Creating Your Encore Career was copywriting expert Marisa Shadrick. She taught us how to get to know our audience in this way.
Why You Need to Get to Know Your Audience
Too many entrepreneurs don’t know who their real audience is. This is a huge issue because you can’t go deep if you don’t know your audience. You really have to target a specific audience to go deep with them.
This informs the method through which you’ll do marketing and the copy that you’ll write. The best copy is produced this way because it's targeted to a specific person. However, when it's vague, you won’t reach anyone.
On top of this, you have to go deep to figure out what transformation your audience is looking for because that transformation is what you're actually selling. You're not selling products. You’re selling the benefit those products will bring to your audience members’ lives.
How to Learn About Them
Go to YouTube and do some searches on your demographic.
Read books and look at the reviews to see what people who have read the book have said, what they liked, what they didn't like, what was omitted, and what they thought was valuable about the book.
Look in Facebook groups and communities. Search words in the public groups and see what questions pop up about them. This shows you what people have been saying and what the conversation has been on certain topics.
Survey prior clients or people in your own community.
How to Write for Them
First, you need to learn about your audience. Ask questions like: Where are they in the before stage? What are their frustrations? What are their pains? What does their typical day look like? What are their beliefs? What false beliefs do they have? What is their self image?
From there, you can begin to write around those pieces of information. You could use images that complement your text showing the after that your audience desires (i.e. weight loss transformations, a happy couple walking down the beach, etc.).
Make sure you bridge the gap between the before and after with your words as well. Bring your audience in in a way that allows them to experience the transformation you’re offering. Headlines are also extremely important because you only have a few seconds to capture your audience’s attention.
On top of this, people love it when you’re honest and vulnerable. Just be yourself and be honest and people will resonate.
Always remember to be very succinct as well. If a word isn’t holding its weight, delete it. You don't need adverbs or filler words in your copy. Instead, make your copy crisp and make it flow very easily.
Marisa has been my coach during the last year. During that time, she has given me great insights and support. I know she will do the same for you if you will apply these amazing insights.
