Whether you are new to B2B marketing or a ninja veteran, it’s never “not-the-time” to understand your audience’s needs. And well, it’s often changing. As we are edging 2021, and after the crazy year we’ve gone through, now is the perfect time to try to find out the pains and challenges that our target audience is facing. After 5 years of managing B2B accounts, I was able to narrow down the main 3 ways we could use to map what the people we are trying to sell something are struggling with:
- Be where they are
As obvious as this may sound – you definitely need to be where they are. When we are discussing this topic in this pandemic era, we are definitely talking about digital environments. A know-it-all B2B marketer will be in the hunt for every blog, community, and social group (LinkedIn, Facebook) their target audience may be hanging out in these days. It is a complicated task but there are few ways you can find those places:
A. Time for stalking
Whether you have an existing client base or not, act as a private detective around them. That means you should identify your “target” and start following them around. Do things like: Checking their LinkedIn activity for and groups they may be interested in or looking for the Facebook pages they are following. At best, you will find the sources you need to better understand them, at worst – you’ll have a better understanding of their other interests – an important factor you can possibly use in your marketing materials.
B. Use the search engines
Yes, it is the same pill you take every time you just don’t know something – Google. It is as effective as it is addictive. It is a guarantee that this will do 90% of this job for you after an hour of online searching. You should definitely type in queries like: “<your audience profession> Blog”, “Community for <your audience profession>”. After you’d reach the 6th-7th page on Google’s (or Bing’s!) search results, you will have a better understanding of the bigger picture.
C. Analyze like your life depends on it
Being a marketer in the 2020s has its benefits. I can only imagine what the Don Draper like marketers would have to do just to know they’re audience interset better. I honestly could go on and on about this topic, but instead, I will give you the 3 best sources to analyze your audience on the digital analytics tools:
- Google Analytics – Audience
- Facebook – Audience overlap
- LinkedIn – Website demographics
- Apply to their job
I know how strange it sounds, but this is the most effective and daring method I have ever heard of – and it can possibly give you the exact insights you need to step up your knowledge. So here is what you do:
Step 1: Find a company that could use your services.
Step 2: Check out if the department you are approaching in this organization is hiring.
Step 3: Check out all the job requirements.
What can it give you?
Almost anything.
The level of working experience they are requiring from their candidate indicates on their department’s level of maturity. The requirements for system and methods knowledge indicates on what systems they are currently using. The position title and description can tell you the gaps and pains they possibly have in their company.
Just start looking at jobs and you will learn quickly how to think like their HR manager or the head of their department.
BONUS TIP: Take a look at their Glassdoor reviews. Other than the usual gossip, you’d be able to find a lot of insights about the cultural environment and the pains that this department is facing now (past employees tend to be very honest)
- Talk to them
How simple. Feeling like Cristopher Columbus here (#PeopleWereAlreadyThere). Talking to your audience can be found as a tricky task to perform; whether you have no client base yet or you just don’t have the access to this information, YOU WILL NEED TO DO IT. This is personally the biggest challenge for me in identifying problems for my target audience. Talking to an audience can be performed in many different ways: Phone calls or Zoom (time-consuming), surveys (too general), emails (too formal), social media (too informal). But this section deserves its own unique angle and different questions around it, therefore it will be the main focus of one of my future blogs – So stay tuned!
Before I leave you to start this 2021 journey for better audience understanding, I want to have a quick word about analysts’ reports. Gartner, Forrester, G2, and similar companies are having quarterly/yearly reports to identify trends in various industries. Beware of treating it as complete truth. Make sure the report is for your exact specific section in the industry and keep in mind they have their own interest coming first. Remember – what matters is what your target audience is actually purchasing, and it’s your obligation to make sure they will have your product in mind.
Yuval Tessler 