Episodes

This episode of The Hayley Osborne Show, I am talking about how to find your ideal audience. Identifying who your ideal clients are is so important for business growth. I discuss creating a detailed customer profile, analyzing your current customers, doing market research, and checking out your competitors. Tune in to learn how to apply these strategies in your business to find your perfect customers! The waitlist to my signature membership, Superhero Marketing is OPEN! Get your name on it to receive some awesome bonuses if you join via the waitlist!

Summary

0:01 Finding ideal audience and marketing growth for small businesses. 

4:23 Finding and connecting with the ideal audience for small business success. 

8:49 Creating a detailed customer profile for business success. 

13:14 Market research, competitor analysis, and networking for business growth. 

17:49 Finding and targeting the ideal audience for a business.

Hayley Osborne  

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Hayley Osborne show. I am so glad that you are here. Today is episode 98. 

Oh, we are getting there in almost 100 episodes, which is pretty surprising, even for me. But here we are. And it just proves that consistency prevails. And that’s pretty cool, I think. 

So today, I wanted to talk to you about how to find your ideal audience. Because this is one thing that has been coming up and up and up with clients of mine and just responses and things that I have received across different marketing channels of my own. So I thought that it would be kind of important to address it in a podcast episode. 

So you know, there’s a couple of things also that I wanted to say before we get started. So doors to my signature membership, superhero marketing are opening, soon ish. So on Tuesday, the 19th of March, which is a couple of weeks away, there’s a few things that are going to be happening in and between now and then. But what you can do if you have been thinking that this is the right opportunity for you, and something that you need in your life, basically, it’s such a cool group of humans, business owners, but it will help you to develop clear strategies and activities that you need to do in your small business to help you have the biggest growth with the least amount of time and effort in your business. 

Now, there is a library full of amazing content that will help you with all facets of marketing. And that is, you know, the number one way to reach more people and drive growth in your business, which means revenue. And that also is you know, I teach a masterclass every month at the beginning of the month, and we have a coaching call as well, the third Wednesday of every month, and then I invite some amazing guest experts in to teach you their zone of genius things that I am not, but things that I think are really relevant to your small business growth. 

And I find that what tends to happen with marketing and especially digital marketing for small businesses is that the speed at which it moves is so fast. And if you do not have your finger on the pulse as a small business and you’re consistently working in your business, in your business, but you’re not working on your business, then you tend to lose sight and lose grip of how fast this world is moving. Whereas and then it can become really overwhelming. But when you are consistently educating and upskilling yourself and education is one of my highest values then you never really feel out of touch. 

And the beauty of superhero marketing is also the community that comes with it. I said that before but the community as far as I’m concerned to have around you as a small business to champion and cheer lead you on is one of the most powerful things that you can have in your business as well. And what tends to happen in that community is referrals and collaborations and you know they become a really good extension of your brand. So have you ever heard the term your network is your net worth that is so true. And it’s important to develop a the right crew around you that will lift you up and help you because there’s power in numbers anyway, so you can get yourself on the waitlist to the membership which opens in a war in a month, almost a month, almost four weeks away and if you do join via the waitlist so you are thinking of joining any joined by the waitlist you’ll have access to doors opening 48 hours before they open to the public. And you’ll also get three awesome bonuses, there’ll be other things that come up as well for you. 

But these are the things that I have prepared for this. So you’ll get a bonus 60 minute one on one session with me, which is valued at 699, which will get you off to a massive head start and flying start, then you will get my 14 Day Live video strategy camera template, which is massive, as well as my affirmations to manage your mindset around marketing. Right. And this is really important as it is my first ebook as well. But mindset around your marketing is important. And you know, one of my biggest mottos is done is better than perfect, which is huge. And it’s better to get it out there because how you start is never how you’re going to end. So if you can manage your mindset around your marketing, then that is the first place of getting started. 

So doors open on the 19th of March. And if you want to find the waitlist, you can just if you are on my website, you can access it through there very, very easy. It’s easy to find if you are if it’s easier to follow me through Instagram, you will see there’s a quick click through that you can add yourself to the waitlist there. So head over, don’t miss out. There’s always a lot of fun that week, I’ll be running a challenge, which I’ll talk to you about later. It’s my marketing makeover challenge. So I’ll give you the dates then. But the wait list is there. So get yourself on it. And I would absolutely love to welcome you in as well as some awesome humans waiting for you in sight. So that’s one thing that I wanted to talk about. 

Now today, I want to talk about how to find your ideal audience. And as a small business owner, you know that it is pretty much vital to your success. And it’s a difference between speaking to no one and speaking to people who agree that engage that nod ,when you speak and that buy from you. But there’s such a diverse market out there, and how do you pinpoint the audience that will be the most receptive, I guess, to what it is that you have to offer. So I just wanted to talk about some really practical ways to help you connect with your ideal customers, how to find them, and how to identify who they are. 

So first of all, I know that you probably know this. But before you find your ideal audience, you need to understand what problem does your product or service solve? Right? So when you know the problem that it solves, it’ll make it far easier to find who you are targeting and who your ideal audience is. And what benefits. Do you do it? Okay, so think about that I’m sure that you already know. But if you haven’t articulated that or written it down somewhere, it might be a nice time to start, and how does what you do improve your ideal clients life? So answering these three questions will give you the type of people that will most likely be interested in what it is that you sell, whether you have a product or whether you have a service. 

Now, I also want to say have you ever done any marketing avatar work because small and medium sized businesses benefit the most from having an avatar. And the reason that I say this is when you try and appeal to everyone, you actually end up appealing to no one. 

What is an avatar, it’s a detailed profile of your ideal customers. So it doesn’t make assumptions or categorize people into groups, but it focuses on one person and outlines and helps to understand everything about them. And it will eventually help you to tell your brand story. But it doesn’t mean that I know and a lot of people think you have it at then I’m going to be just focusing on one person. But what it is, is it doesn’t specifically mean that you target that one person but what it does, it helps you align your message to take your customers on your brand’s journey, and therefore your ideal client will come along for the ride. 

Okay, so you might think that it sounds counterintuitive, but it’s actually really great because then you have this document to refer back to that will help you to go on Okay. Well, I don’t know why. Say for example, I am telling my story on LinkedIn when that’s not where my people live. So maybe I won’t bother with that platform because Instagram is where my audience lives, or it might be the reverse. But it’s important to do one thing and do it really, really well. So, and then you can branch out if you find, okay, my ideal is some of my ideal clients do exist on LinkedIn, but it’s a small segment. So this is how I’m going to do it instead.

And so that is what having a marketing avatar will really help you uncover. So when I, inside the membership, as well as with my one on one clients, we go through a series of quite detailed questions, actually, that I’ve put together. And it’s something that I think that every business owner should do. So who, who are they? And what does their day look like? So they’re the kind of three segments that I look at to discover the ideal client avatar. And there’s lots of detailed questions that go on, in sight of that, where are they spending their time? What are they reading? What social media platforms are they on? What are their life challenges? So there’s so many questions like that, and if you want to know more about this, I’m super happy to talk to you about it. But it is something that is important to do so that you don’t end up appealing to everyone, because then you end up appealing to no one. I know, it sounds complicated. I’m sure that you’re saying, Hayley that’s, but it’s true. Because when you can align your message, your people that are your ideal clients will come to you. 

So another way, well, in conjunction with how to find your ideal audience, is to have a think about and really sit down and analyze who your current customers are. So if you have an existing customer base of people that buy consistently from you, or people that have come through your business, either, if you have a podcast, they’ve listened to your podcast, they may have bought a product or service from you, then they have come through your funnel, if hopefully, you have a funnel to direct people’s in and through your business. Who are they? 

And why do they or did they buy from you. So if it’s just you know, if you’re thinking I’m so small, or, you know, I’ve got lots of people thinking about that one person. And if you could have, like 100 of that one person look for like common characteristics and interests, I guess, to identify that person and what they are, and then they can give you those really significant insights into who they are, and, and who your ideal audience might be, because of it, but that one person is all you need to build this and more, please. Okay, so that is what you’re asking for. And it is not a hard thing to ask for. There’s so many people in this world. And I’m sure that hundreds and hundreds of people have the same characteristics. So more please. 

Okay. So another thing that you can do is market research. So, you know, immerse yourself into research relevant to your industry, and utilises so many online service surveys as focus groups that gather data, you can really use that to your advantage, look at it, and then start to build, I guess, like a database of where your ideal audience hangs out. And another thing that I find to be really important is to look at your competitors, see who they’re targeting, and how now, competitor, research is one of the most important things you can do because if somebody else has what you are selling, that is a good thing, because it means that there’s a market for it. So don’t ever discount that. However, no one can ever be you. So then that goes into like your brand story and your aesthetic and how you show up and how you position yourself in the market. Right? 

So that’s completely different. But when you do competitor research to figure out how to find your ideal audience where they are, what they’re doing, who they live, I think it’s important to check out your competitors. So with the information that you gather, it can really help to highlight potential niches or segments of the market that you might have overlooked where your ideal clients are hiding. So usually when you uncover one little part of this, it’s like opening a can of worms. So you’ll find more and more of your ideal audience. So that’s another way market research is brilliant. 

And if you haven’t looked at your social media analytics, I would start now. So Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn all have magnificent analytical data, and gold mines basically where you can find out so much about your potential customers, where they’re spending their time, what time they’re spending their time, how long they’re spending their time on social media, and use these tools to gain the insights that you need on who is interacting with your content, when they’re most active, and what types of content resonate with them. So you might be pushing out certain things that aren’t relevant, and other things that are more relevant. So you want to be able to push out the things that are attracting your ideal audience, and more will come right. So that is another way. 

And then I think, a really practical way that works. An absolute treat that I found works for me, too, is to attend events and network in real life. This is beautiful, because this is where people, your ideal clients, really get to discover your personality and your zone of genius. It’s so easy to hide behind a screen, okay, but when you’re out there, when you’re putting yourself out there, this is wonderful. It’s just sort of the same as having a podcast like you’re putting yourself out there, you’re sharing your zone of genius, every week in week out, which is what I do. 

And you just, you know, you want to help people, and then your people come. So that is what’s happened in my world. And I will say from experience as well that networking and attending events has been the biggest game changer in my business and just meeting people, because sometimes it isn’t the people in the room that will have the most impact on your business. It’s the people that they know, outside of the room and those networks, and the wider audience of those people in the room. That could be the game changers in your business, right? 

Because referral marketing, and word of goodness, that’s my alarm. Sorry, guys. At 12 o’clock every day, my alarm goes off to remind me to take my vitamins. Because otherwise I forget, because I have so much going on, you know, with my small children and everything like that is real. So I’m keeping it real. My phone’s just here and whatever. Anyway, attending events, and networking has been one of the most powerful things in my business. So whether it’s industry events, conferences, breakfast seminars, you know, I know that we are embarking on International Women’s Day soon. So this episode comes out in February. So that’s in March, if that’s something that you think would be great to go to try and get a ticket to somewhere near you, with people that you’ve never met before. That is huge. And then, you know, I’ll just touch on slightly targeted advertising, so paid advertising with things like Facebook ads, Google ads, Google AdWords, those types of things. So all are really beneficial. But that’s a whole nother kettle of fish. 

But it is really good to experiment with them to see if they work for your business or not. And I definitely have and they definitely work. So I’m proof. And then another thing to be able to find your ideal audiences is really listen to the feedback that you’re getting listened to what your audience is replying to responding to listen telling you, if you’ve provided a service, and then you’ve got feedback as to how they feel after you deliver it, their words, actions and their purchase behaviours really will help you to be able to put together and reiterate back to your audience. So that’s really important. And be prepared to tailor your strategy a little bit more as you learn more about who your audience truly is. And, you know, I just want to say that finding your ideal audience requires lots of introspection, research, testing, okay, like, this is not the easiest thing in the world. 

However, you know, the only place and I’m just gonna say this, that success comes before work is in the dictionary. So if you want it, you have to work for it. You have to put in the time and you have to do the research. So in order to find your ideal audience, these are the things that you need to do. There is no use as a small business owner just doing things because it feels good. That’s just like throwing spaghetti At the world, it is really important to have a strategy and a targeted approach. Okay, so if this is something that you think Holy shit, Haley, I really need this. In my business, it’s something that has been missing. I would love to talk more with you about how we can tackle this together and what would be the best fit for you. So you can book a free strategy session with me as we speak, you can have access to my diary, and you can do that through my Instagram, there is a link there to book a free strategy session with me. And I would love to have you otherwise keep listening in, because there’s lots of golden nuggets in this podcast of mine. 

And then, you know, join the waitlist to superhero marketing because doors do open on the 19th of March. And there are some beautiful bonuses that coincide with joining via the waitlist, so I’d love to see you there. Otherwise, I’m gonna go take my vitamins, and I’ve got things to do. So I wish you the best day and the best rest of your week, and I will see you soon. Okay, bye. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to this episode. If you have hit subscribe so you don’t miss any new episodes released every Tuesday. And while you’re there, leave me a review. I would absolutely love to read it. Also, don’t forget to tag me at Hayley K. Osborne over on Instagram and share this post with your audience so they can learn to share. If you want more, head over to Hayley osborne.com.au forward slash podcast for today’s show notes and links to catch you next week for another episode of The Hayley Osborne show.

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