Marketers remember: Audiences are people, not targets

“Know your audience.” It’s a phrase we’ve all heard before, and it’s important. If you don’t understand who you’re targeting, your marketing efforts won’t work. Simple.

However, demographic data such as age and location have limitations. You need to know your audience on a deeper level by focusing on: why Your audience does what they do. What motivates them? What is important to them? Why do they need your technology? What problem does it solve?

Here, you’ll gain the insights you need to turn your imagined target audiences and demographics into real people. Then you can create a marketing strategy and brand that resonates and builds human connections. Here are some tips to help you research your audience to bring that important human touch to your marketing strategy.

Jobs to be completed (JTBD)

JTBD is a research method that helps us understand why. why Customers buy from you, not because they “want to.”

Let’s say you’re marketing a new e-commerce technology. With JTBD, you can conduct surveys and interviews to gain valuable insights, including:

• Why do customers need my product?
• What is your customer’s purchasing thought process and what influences their decision?
• What is the path to purchase?
• Why did my customer purchase my product for the first time?

Asking the right questions will help you understand your audience’s needs. You can then create a marketing strategy that targets the right people and creates an emotional connection.

data, data, data

Have you ever talked to someone who wasn’t interested at all and switched off a while ago? It’s basically the same as marketing without audience research or data.

So stop guessing. Use data to uncover your audience’s likes, dislikes, behaviors, and interests. Of course, where you get this data depends on your product or service, but product data is a good starting point. Website; GA4; Social media analysis. Surveys, questionnaires, interviews. Honestly, it’s just good old-fashioned small talk with your customers.

Data also helps you speak the language of your audience. No more common jargon or blanket messages. Just having conversations that resonate with real people.

How to humanize your tech brand – why it really matters

B2B, B2C, B2B2C – we are all the same people.

Once you’ve completed your initial research, it’s time to implement your marketing strategy. However, you should always remember that your audience is a human being, not a target. BBehind every title is a person: CEO, CTO, founder, manager. Someone who loves to entertain and engage, just like you. People who like to be talked to like humans and feel valued.

This is where many brands stumble because they lack a human voice and sound corny and robotic. This may be because you are worried about looking unprofessional. Or we are too obsessed with copying our industry or our competitors. Perhaps they rely too much on AI tools like ChatGPT or Google Bard, copying results word for word rather than using the tools for inspiration. Or it may simply be due to a lack of specialized resources.

Whatever the reason, it’s time for a change. Humanizing your marketing strategy is key to building an emotional connection with your target audience. Show them that you care about their needs, challenges, and aspirations. Emotional connection = purchase = sale!

Here are some ways to humanize your brand:

• Tone of voice: Compare your brand’s content to that of other brands within and outside your industry. If it feels robotic or commercial, establish a voice that accurately reflects your brand and speaks to your audience like a human. Avoid jargon, acronyms, and buzzwords. This doesn’t make you look professional. It will make you stand out.
• Stop the sales pitch. Marketing isn’t about you, it’s about your customers. Every time you implement a new strategy, ask yourself what it will do for your customers. Why should they care? Customers are tired of being told what to buy or how to think. They want to know what it’s going to be for them, so share it.
• Let’s try something different: Rather than just copying what your competitors are doing (who’s to say they’re doing the right thing anyway?), look to them for inspiration, identify gaps in the market, and stand out. Please be so. The most successful companies grow through innovation.

Whether you’re a B2B, B2C, or B2B2C brand, focus on building genuine human relationships with your customers. By conducting thorough customer research to understand who your customers are and how they think, you’ll be able to speak to them in a way that resonates with them. Data remains an important tool for understanding your audience, but right It’s all about them and how they can really stand out.

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