Earlier in the week, I was asked why I encourage questions and don’t mind sharing my knowledge.

It is a question that pops up quite frequently. The answer is simple.

The more questions I am asked the more I understand my target audience.

I want to know who is my audience and what do they want from me.

Knowing your audience is a critical part of marketing. Perhaps the most important part is the realisation that your audience is not “everybody”.

It’s quite crushing to know that everybody is not interested in your services and products…

When you are working online you do need to be thinking about your audience. That’s the whole point – to produce content that attracts potential clients.

Who is your audience?

Here at My Local Business Online I have 3 main types of reader, you may find it is similar for your blog too. I’ve given mine names, it helps I promise!

Meet Guy (or Guyetta!)
A middle aged business owner who gets the benefits of being online but doesn’t understand it at all. He’s a busy guy and just wants all the fuss sorted for him. Guy doesn’t want or have the time for a huge learning curve.

He pops along to see if what I say makes sense to him and get a feel for who I am and what I do. He doesn’t particularly want specific questions answering but wants to know that I know what I am talking about.

After a few reads he will pick up the phone and continue to get to know me that way. He’ll rarely comment and often doesn’t “do” social media.

He’s a potential client.

Meet Jo (and Joe!)
Jo is usually a new business owner or is self employed. Budgets are very tight and she prefers to try to do things herself.

That raises it’s own problems. She heard that being online is the bee’s knees and tries to be everywhere because that is what she “should” do. Unfortunately, she spends a lot of time online – fighting with technology or chatting on social sites and gets few results.

She pops along to get answers to questions after searching and will often follow along on Youtube, Twitter or Facebook too.

Jo is also a potential client, but will take a little longer to see the benefits of working with someone like me.

Meet Bob (and Bobina)
Now Bob is a “competitor”. He’s in a similar line of business and keeps an eye on what I am up to. That’s fine. I do watch him too! You see, there are no secrets online regardless of what some would have you believe.

I don’t see Bob as a competitor.  He is a peer, a source of inspiration and potential partner.

Why does knowing your audience matter?

I’ve highlighted my three main types of visitor. I’m a business person, my aim is to generate leads from sharing my knowledge and thoughts on my blog and social accounts.

Believe it or not, that is your aim online too.

There are more people who pop in and out and never say a word. They lurk, read or watch and disappear off to the next thing. Perhaps you haven’t addressed their particular issue or maybe your style doesn’t suit them.

That’s okay!

You can’t please everybody and shouldn’t even try.

The great thing about blogging and producing content for your particular audience is…

people who search for an answer related to your business find you. It’s the start of the relationship building process.

These are people who wouldn’t know about you or your business otherwise.

You can call the process whatever you like, give it a fancy name – content marketing, attraction marketing and more. Who cares about names anyway? It works!

Who is your audience?

It’s a win-win situation when you start to understand what people want from you and share your knowledge and thoughts with them.

Can you answer the question,  “Who is YOUR audience?” and do you produce your content for them?