Everything is easier to market and sell when you know who your ideal audience is. The trouble is that, more often than not, audience research is far too fluffy and in-actionable.
You’ve got your “Marketing Mandy” who likes her coffee sweet and creamy and your “Payroll Saul” who has three kids and vacations abroad.
If you don’t sell holidays or coffee, these things have minimal relevance. They’re just clutter and noise — an extra slide in that slide deck you barely ever open anyway.
So let’s simplify things. Let’s look at what you need to know about your audience without the fluff and the noise.
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5 things you need to know about your audience — and where to find them
The first one is fairly obvious.
Pain points, drivers, and triggers
- Why are they looking to buy?
- What “job” does the product need to do for them?
- What are the triggers that made them look for a solution?
The last one (triggers) is very ignored and it’s a shame because it is exactly what gets people to buy now, not next week or next month.
Example: your prospect wants a website because they need to showcase their work and look “legit”. They want it now because a few potential clients have asked about it. Pain point → trigger.
Knowing their pain points helps you understand how to frame your offers. If you sell web development, you can use the example above instead of talking about SEO and content marketing, things they may have no interest in.
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Where do you find pain points, drivers, and triggers?
- Social media and email polls → seriously, just ask!
- Feedback from previous clients
- Social media comments
- Specialized forums and communities
How to use them in your marketing
You need to make them the stars of the show in all your sales/marketing assets. Use them to paint outcomes, to describe the pain so that it shows you understand it, and to guide clients who write testimonials and reviews.
Pain points are your North Star. Every piece of content you put out there should point back to them.
Start with your content pillars and everything will fall into place.
Wants and desires
- What do they want to achieve?
- What’s the ideal version of their future selves?
- What would their desired outcome look like if it were easy?
While it may seem similar to pain points, there is an important difference: this part also paints the journey, not just the destination.
Following up on the example above, we know that your client needs a website. Their wants and desires will tell you:
- If they want you to build it for them or teach them how to do it.
- What would the process look like if you’re building it for them? How involved do they need to be?
- What will their business look like after launching it? How many new leads can they expect? How will their conversion rate increase?
A good primer on identifying what clients really, really want here.
Where do you find your audience’s wants and desires?
- Again, ASK them using polls, surveys, or 1:1 calls and DMs.
- Start with existing clients and find out what the experience was like for them and how it changed their lives/businesses.
- Platforms like Quora and Reddit are great starting points. People are very honest there (much more so than on regular social media) and browsing through their questions will tell what they actually want.
How to use them in your marketing
Once again, they are great for your sales copy and for guiding people who write testimonials.
But the real gem here is using wants and desires to build new products and services. If you know what they want, you will build products that your audience truly needs, not something you hope will work.
I used this to build all of my products, the Audience Accelerator course most recently. Once I understood that my audience’s priority was a large AND relevant audience of their own, I knew what I had to do.
I tested, vetted, and launched confidently knowing that I can truly help them future-proof their business by attracting an audience that builds sustainable revenue.
Priorities
So far, you know what they want and why they want it. However, you are not the sole provider — they have options.
Let’s help them choose you.
In this part of your research, you are focused on:
- What is the one thing that matters most to them?
- Is there a differentiator that can close the deal now?
For example, they need a website to close more deals. What’s the most important thing to them?
- Price. They want it cheap OR they stay away from cheap providers because they think they’re subpar.
- Speed. Are they in a rush?
- Industry knowledge. Do they prefer to work with someone who has experience in their industry or do they want a fresh perspective so that their website doesn’t look like their competitors’?
Where do you find your audience’s priorities?
- Previous clients. Ask them if there is ONE thing you said that convinced them you’re the right provider.
- Leads that never converted. Ask them why — it’s a difficult conversation but it’s important. You can do this automatically (i.e. send an email to people who clicked on a link but never bought) or during 1:1 calls/DMs.
- On forums like Reddit/Quora. Simply ask: “People who recently bought web development services, how did you choose your provider?”
How to use them in your marketing
This could be the last section of your sales page:
- List your advantages i.e. “we deliver websites in 3 days”
- Create a comparison table — you vs other providers
- Use them in your FAQ section i.e. “why are your web dev services so expensive? — Because of the fast turnaround, we have a whole team working on your website.”
Barriers
- What’s stopping them from buying from you?
- What are their objections?
- What are their concerns?
Examples:
- Your web development services are too expensive for them → clear barrier
- They want a faster turnaround → an objection you might be able to tackle if the demand is reasonable.
- They are not sure you have enough experience in their field or that a new website will truly help them meet their goals → valid concerns you can appease with.
Where do you find what’s preventing your audience from buying?
- 1:1 honest conversations are the best starting point.
- Competitor reviews and testimonials will tell you why they were chosen instead of you. Look for patterns and statements that appear often.
- Reddit and Quora will give you great answers too but more generic i.e. they won’t be specifically about your products.
How do you use them in your marketing?
- Use them in your FAQ section.
- Use them to moderate your audience’s expectations. All my product pages have a section called “Do NOT buy this if…” where I tell readers who the product is not for. It’s not your usual “don’t buy if you want to stay poor” drivel. They are legitimate arguments for why some clients may not be able to use a product to the fullest.
- Use them during sales calls to appease concerns and address objections before your prospect voices them.
- Use them in cart abandonment emails (if applicable).
Content consumption habits
Content consumption habits tell you exactly where your audience hangs out and what formats they prefer.
- Are they on LinkedIn or X?
- Do they prefer video or written content?
- Webinars or eBooks?
- Long-form or short-form?
Where do you find your audience’s content consumption habits?
- Start with your analytics dashboard → what pieces of content get the most traffic and how long are people sticking around for?
- What about social media? Is there a difference between how your long-form posts perform vs short-form?
- SparkToro is my go-to for finding the best channels and where my audience hangs out. You can get a lot of information on the free plan too.
How do you use them in your marketing?
This part of your research will tell you:
- What channels you should be on.
- What format you should focus on (video, written, audio, and so on).
A quick note here: I’m all for diversification and I firmly believe a single channel doesn’t cut it. However, it’s very easy to stretch yourself too thin. So resist the urge to be everywhere.
If you’re a solo business owner, aim for no more than three social media platforms and one or two pieces of digital real estate you own (newsletter, blog, podcast).
Want to dive deeper into audience research and connect it with your strategy? My Guided Strategy Framework will help you do just that — make sure your audience insights are relevant and put to good use. Grab it here.
That’s it, that’s all you need!
Seriously, this should be enough to fuel well-targeted marketing. Treat everything else (shoe size, favorite drink, marital status) as trivia. It may not be completely useless in some cases but it’s not worth spending hours digging it up.
More importantly, it will be very hard to spot patterns with these personal bits of information. Married and single people may both want cheaper websites, for different reasons. And, whether they have kids or not, they all want the website finished on time.
🎙️ My podcasts and interviews
Can you stand out and make serious revenue without sleazy business practices? Heck, yeah! Beatrice Gutknecht and I had fun shaming bros and proving there are better ways on The Art of Branding podcast. Listen to the episode here.
Adriana’s Picks
- Brazil blocked X after Elon Musk refused to block certain users. The decision stands.
- No, you were not crazy. Ad platforms did listen in and served you ads for products you mentioned on your phone calls.
- Instagram is introducing public comments on stories. They will also disappear after 24 hours.
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