When said in a Glasgow accent like Lynne’s this might sound a little accusatory, but in the context of professional marketing - it’s a great question!
We all want more personalised experiences, services and communications so it is incumbent on businesses and organisations to glean a better understanding of their audiences, so they can communicate better and target their marketing efforts (and budgets) in a more accurate and efficient way.
We all know that our business data is valuable - we focus on creating opportunities for data collation and we invest significantly in protecting that data, so it feels incredibly counterintuitive that we don’t make the most of the data we already have and hold to build a better understanding of our target audiences and to make better, more commercial marketing decisions.
A study by BCG found customer insight is the top spending priority for senior executives, with 75% saying it is critical to accelerating growth, rising to 100% among companies with revenues over $5 billion (£3.7 billion GBP).
The critical part audience research plays in business strategy is well established, however business leaders are struggling to implement their learnings effectively. CMO Council found only 3% of marketers believe their organisations are effectively turning customer data and intelligence into action.
At Switch, we very much agree with the 75% who recognise the importance of audience research for growth. Our role as marketers is to effectively communicate the value of your business, and ultimately, that value is created in the minds of your audience.
So what does audience research tell us? Quite a lot of focus has previously been placed on demographics. Demographics tell you who people are on paper, however behavioural or psychographic segmentation tells you how they live, what they value and why they choose products and services, providing richer insights. Two people can be in the same “demographic” - age, gender, family, income but could respond completely differently to the same marketing campaign.
One example could be Noel Gallagher and Brian Cox. These gentlemen are the same demographic: male, late 50’s, born in Manchester, have grown up kids and are former 90’s pop stars. But they have two very different identities, personas, lifestyles, psychographics and motivations which drive their behaviours.
So this is a great example of demographics being a starting point, not a strategy. Segmentation enables us to prioritise where our clients are spending their time and money and helps us tailor their messaging effectively so we a) add the most value and b) engage their target audiences most effectively. Before we start to communicate, we need to know who we are “talking to” and we need to research our audience.
One of the biggest barriers to traditional audience research has been the ability of businesses to get their audience in the one place at the same time. Thankfully, digital tools have transformed how insights are gathered, enabling richer understanding through observed behaviour (online audience listening and social media scraping) as well as audience and stakeholder feedback gleaned digitally. At Switch, we find that combining in-person and digital, qualitative and quantitative information using internal and external data creates a more complete and actionable view of the audience.
Choosing the right sources of information plays an important part in effective audience research, but just as critical is determining what information you collect in relation to your objective.
For example, a common trap that “Business to Business” (B2B) businesses fall into, is conducting audience research as if they’re a “Business to Consumer” (B2C) Business.
For B2C businesses, audience profiling and customer journey mapping will give you a strong understanding of your audience, however the same process for a B2B business will likely not be as effective.
In the world of B2B marketing, purchasing decisions are often made by a committee rather than an individual. This means the person signing the cheque, the person using the product or service, and the person most likely to block the decision may all be different people so it's vital to work out each of their involvements in the decision making process in order to drive effective action.
Aligning your research to a clear goal, using the right sources of information and utilising the right methodology to fit your business are all essential pieces to the audience puzzle.
When those pieces come together, they form a strong foundation that strengthens all areas of your marketing.
Dan Kennedy’s 40–40–20 principle allocates emphasis across three key marketing components: audience (40%), offer (40%) and creative (20%). In practice, audience research underpins all three. It shapes targeting, reveals how value is perceived and built in the minds of the audience, and uncovers the motivations, needs, and objections that inform more persuasive messaging.
It is only once we understand our audience that we can really craft the most compelling copy and creative to engage them. If we have managed to reach our target audience, in a way that truly attracts their attention, then the message we are communicating needs to motivate and engage them. Our copy needs to hit the mark, be succinct enough to convey the key message and provide further opportunities and a call to action to assist our audience in making a purchasing decision. Ultimately the copy is what will persuade the audience to engage with our brand.
When we work with clients to profile their audiences, we like to get personal. We need to understand more than who we THINK we are talking to. We want to know
Who and what they listen to.
Who or what are their trusted sources?
What are their likely objections to our product, service or brand?
What needs do they have that we can fulfil or what problems do they face that we can solve?
And so much more.
This is before we think about their preferred communication channels and what would influence them to purchase our client’s products or services.
At Switch we work really closely with our clients on their audience profiling and segmentation as part of our strategy-first approach to end to endless marketing. If you would like to talk about taking your audience understanding to a whole new level, get in touch.
And Switch clients, watch this space, an invitation to our audience profiling round table is imminent.
