How to Learn More About Your Target Audiences

3 free tools for determining your ideal prospects

From your Facebook ads and landing pages to your emails and sales pitches, the words you combine to communicate with target audiences matters more than you may realize. Oftentimes, small business owners revert to what they know best - their services and products. Unfortunately, features aren’t as attractive to cold - or even warm leads - as stories that relate to your potential customers.
Researchers have proven that text demonstrating knowledge of unique struggles is more engaging than feature-driven information. In fact, Copywriter Today found that traffic to your website automatically increases by 7.8X when you use compelling copy.

Let’s say you want to start a marketing campaign with the objective of selling a package for group travel to travel managers in your area. Before you open up a Microsoft Word or Google document, define the exact person you need to target. Buyer personas exist to keep all of your data on a particular audience in one location. When crafting your buyer persona for travel consultants, think of yourself like a novelist. As a novelist dives into the plot for a new novel, the first step is to put together character profiles.

Why do communicators - from marketers and creative writers to salespeople and designers - dedicate time to this process? Because it not only enriches your understanding of possible leads, but it also fosters an intense emotional connection with your content.

Try these 3 free resources to start creating audience and benefit-focused copy today.

Tool #1: Indeed.com

Explore online job descriptions.

In the past 15 years, the nature of work has changed drastically. Employees are now expected to possess higher levels of education and maintain transferrable skills. People no longer stay with the same company for decades. They switch jobs every few years. Since the economic environment and technology landscape shifts so frequently, you can’t be sure that the audiences you targeted 5 or 10 years ago are still relevant to your business today. Instead of relying on educated guesses about your target audiences, assess accessible data revealing their psychological makeup.

Stay updated on your audience’s daily challenges by researching specific job titles on job search sites like Indeed.com. There, you will gather data to create a list of concrete and abstract details about your buyer personas.

Although job description text and layout varies from employer to employer, some sections remain constant across all industries and companies. While you review an Indeed posting for travel managers in your area, search the pages for the following details:

• Professional experience
• Technical skills
• Personality requirements
• Primary responsibilities
  
  

Researching Travel Managers

How to Use Indeed to Become an Expert in Your Target Audiences from Limo University on Vimeo.

CONCRETE DETAILS

Experience Level:
Generally about 2-5 years as a corporate travel consultant
Responsibilities:
Manages GDS queues
Evaluates cost-efficient and timely travel arrangements
Communicates travel suggestions to clients

ABSTRACT DETAILS

Personality:
Organized
Dependable
Team player
Proficient communicator

Motivations:
Growth, Connection

Tool #2: Surveymonkey.com

Utilize strategic surveys.

Ask your current customers for feedback by delivering short surveys. Send a quantitative survey digitally - through email or pop-up forms - to a wide range of audience members. Multiple choice questions help you determine who experiences what with your service. In a qualitative survey, you pick a smaller sample of your audience to question. Use open-ended questions to elicit authentic, emotional responses and to understand why customers feel a certain way about your services.

Choosing the Right Questions for Travel Managers

Quantitative

1. What factors do you consider when booking transportation for your customers?
A. Price
B. Vehicle Availability
C. Company Reviews
D. Digital Presence

2. How important is booking software to you?
A. Very Important
B. Somewhat Important
C. Not Important

3. Which of the following challenges do you encounter most often when working with limousine and ground transportation companies?
A. Poor communication
B. Unsatisfactory customer service
C. Lack of affordable travel options
D. Other: ______________

Qualitative
1. What does the phrase “custom experience” mean to you?
2. What do you think of our group travel services?
3. What is one thing we could do to improve our group travel services?

Tool #3: MakeMyPersona.com

Create text for the people reading it.

Once you have completed primary research on your target audience, you can begin building your buyer persona with confidence in your results. Using buyer personas to develop your content leads to 73% higher conversion rates, according to Aberdeen Research.

Hubspot created a free tool, MakeMyPersona.com, to help businesses illustrate their prospects. With insight into the professional skills and personal motivations of your target audiences, you set yourself up to write truly audience-focused copy.

Transforming Your Copy

BEFORE

Limo Company ABC provides comprehensive group travel services. We manage logistics for meetings and events and offer a wide range of luxury vehicles for your clients’ transportation needs.

AFTER

From 9 to 5, your life revolves around GDS queues and travel reservations. What if one luxury transportation company gave you all the information you need for your clients in minutes? We help you enhance the travel experiences of your clients with our quick and convenient booking system.

No matter what tactics your marketing efforts consist of, if you don’t fully empathize with your target audiences you won’t reach the goals you set.

Implement the techniques and tools outlined above to position your business to achieve maximum success when promoting your services through social media, digital advertisements, web copy, landing page copy, and more.