15 Ways to Get to Know Your Target Audience

One of the biggest factors impacting the success of your marketing is how well your audience relates to your content. If your audience feels that you understand their needs and can help them, they will be more likely to respond to your calls to action. If your content isn't relevant, they will tune your messages out.

But how exactly do you get to know your target audience? Understanding their pains, needs and wants can be challenging ' especially if you spend all day running from meeting to meeting and crisis to crisis.

Here are 15 ways to get to know your audience:

1. Subscribe to the magazines and blogs that they read.
2. Subscribe to Google Alerts for the news topics that they follow.
3. Attend the same conferences and trade shows that they attend. If you can't make it in person, you can check out the events' websites to find out what topics are trending right now.
4. Study how your competitors are interacting with your audience.
5. Connect with members of your target audience on Twitter and pay attention to their tweets.
6. Join LinkedIn groups that members of your target audience belong to and follow their discussions.
7. Join Facebook groups that members of your target audience belong to and follow their discussions.
8. Review the comments on your blog.
9. Monitor your social media presence to learn what your target audience is saying about you and which content they are sharing the most.
10. Check your website analytics to learn which pages are getting the most views, as this will give you an idea of the content that your target audience finds the most interesting.
11. Review your website analytics to see which keywords people are using to find your web pages.
12. Use Google's keyword tool to find other keywords that may be relevant.
13. Ask your sales team and customer service representatives about your customers' biggest concerns.
14. Survey your customers to find out what types of content they want from you.
15. Ask for their opinions every chance you get!

Using these tips will help you get to know your audience, so you can create content that meets their needs and increases your conversion rates.

What about you? What methods do you use to get to know your audience? Feel free to share your comments below.