The world is always changing, and nowadays it’s changing faster than ever. The good news is, since the advent of a more accessible Internet, today’s educated and curious consumers are regularly hitting the Web to research and discover the benefits of continuously emerging products and services. This is a huge opportunity to market your business and your brand—but there are quite a few tricks of the trade you need to know to best cash in on this opportunity and build your brand in process.
Ask yourself the following questions and you’ll be on your way to educating your target audience, building your brand identity, and seeing more sales in the long run.
Where’s My Untapped Niche?
Chobani tapped into the yogurt market by advertising their new product as not just another yogurt, but instead, a Greek-style yogurt. While most American’s had never heard of Greek yogurt before, they were immediately interested in exploring this “new” yogurt style that offers less sugar and more protein than traditional yogurt. The Chobani brand was launched in 2007 and in a few short years Chobani became the top-selling yogurt in the United States. (Read: they don’t just top the Greek yogurt charts—they’re THE top-selling yogurt in the entire country, and they became a billion dollar business during a period of economic downturn to boot!)
The Lesson: To educate your audience, first identify your niche.
Who Loves Ya?
To understand how to reach your potential customers, you must first learn all about them. Determining how your ideal customer approaches and digests information can help your business and your brand identity manager plan a fabulous plan of attack. Tap into their interests to determine where they hang out on and offline. The more you understand exactly WHO benefits from your products and services, the better you’ll be able to reach out, provide the information when they want and where they want it, and then influence their buying decisions.
The Lesson: To educate your audience, get the word out to the right people.
What Do You Do BETTER?
Whatever your product or service, we assume you’ve hit the market because your business offers more value to consumers than other similar industry products or services. Right? So you need to SHOW your target audience exactly WHY your products or services are the best available. Don’t just say you’re the best. Prove it time and time again by showing off a list of benefits that really hit on your potential customers’ pain points and testimonials that illustrate how your company regularly goes above and beyond the competition. Back it all up with excellent customer service and a great brand and your target market will be hard to miss.
The Lesson: To educate your audience, show your value, then back it up.
Who Do You Love?
Today’s consumers love a brand that gives back. Donate a percentage of your profits to charity. Show you care about people, whether in your community or across the world. When people purchase products that support humanity, they feel good about their purchases—and that emotion your brand just evoked? Priceless! The popularity of Tom’s Shoes is derived from this approach. Tom’s Shoes helps disadvantaged people across 60 countries receive shoes. You buy shoes; people get shoes. Feels good, right?
The Lesson: To educate your audience, make them aware you care.
Using these techniques, you can really tap into your target audience and educate all those eager potential customers about your business and your brand. Educate your audience and they make better, more empowered buying decisions (like hiring your people or purchasing your products). Plus, when consumers are given the opportunity to understand the value your brand truly offers, they’ll pay more for your products and services—and that’s more money you can invest back into your awesome business and your awesome brand!