Best Way To Communicate With Your Audience

To tap into the needs of your target audience and ramp up your marketing results …

Communication is the key.

Of course, there are many ways to “talk” to your prospects, clients, and customers.

Are you aware of how your target audience prefers to communicate?

Figuring that out is the cherry on the ice cream sundae!

Your audience may prefer to communicate with you by:

  • Email
  • Phone Call
  • Text Messaging
  • Hard Copy Newsletter
  • Social Media
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Ezine
  • Direct Response Mail

A “best practice” for marketing your products or services is “Test Before Invest” – and that could mean an investment of either time or money or both.

Before you spend your marketing dollars on a postcard campaign, for example, you need to make sure people want to receive communications from you in their mailbox at home.

Before you decide that social media is the best way to communicate, you need to know if your audience is hanging out on Twitter, Facebook, or any of the other social media venues.  If not, you’ll be wasting valuable marketing minutes with no return on your investment.

So how do you find out how your target audience prefers to receive communications from you?

It’s simple.  Ask them.

Send your audience a survey!

Most survey/poll sites online are free to use and very easy to navigate.

Read this blog post from my good friend, Fiona McEachran of Abnormal Marketing: Easy Market Research With 12 Great Poll Sites

Fiona covers a lot of territory on this subject and offers you lots of great resources.  You can also choose to listen to her post – just scroll down to the bottom and look for the ipadio box.

Have you figured out your target audience’s favorite means of communication?

  • I am really impressed together with your writing skills and also with the layout on your weblog.
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    • Thanks for your kind words and for the visit!

      Not sure what you mean by “paid subject matter”. Would you like to expound on that?

  • Hello Max Blogger – and thanks for taking a stroll on over to my blog today!

    My best “communication” tip for you in regards to staying in touch with your potential customers (your target audience) would be to craft a rock solid freebie offer to use as a lead-generator on your blog. Put an opt-in box on your blog and start communicating with your prospects through email marketing.

  • Hello, after reading the post I have got some questions and some ideas. If my blog is my main business, what could be the most effective ways of keeping in touch with them?

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  • Your blog is so engaging! I will have to visit often just to study the way you put it together, let alone the terrific content. You are so right to focus on the audience and how they want to receive communication. It’s easy to get caught up in the ease of online communication, but if nobody’s listening it really doesn’t matter! I agree with you about the value of face-to-face communication. There just isn’t any substitute for that close personal touch. All we can do online is try to come as close as possible.

    • Thanks for knocking on my door, Cynthia – really great to see you here and thank you for your kind words!

      Glad you found some value in this post and you’re absolutely right … online communications are much more of a challenge than face-to-face. I’ll be delving into this topic much deeper on November 8th as a guest speaker at this free event: http://bit.ly/SuccessTelesummit

      Grab a seat if you’re interested and I hope you’ll stop by my blog again soon,
      Melanie

  • Well, you got it right down to the basics….ask them, and test.

    Just because everybody else is doing something does not mean that it is the most effective thing to do.

    I know some bloggers have a huge RSS subscriber list. But that does not work for every niche.

    In order for message to be a communication you have to have someone that is willing to receive the message. Then they have to get the message. It is up to us to make sure the message is sent and can be duplicated. And sending it on the right channel goes along way to getting your message duplicated.

    • Three cheers for you, Sheila!

      I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve tried to tell people that just because Joe Blow has had success with XYZ does NOT mean you will, too. Internet marketing just has way too many temptations and all the latest and (supposed) greatest techniques for success are shoved under our noses every day. I say stick with “ask and test”.

      Your points are very well taken – beginning with the all-important “you have to have someone that is willing to receive the message”. And I’m so glad you mentioned a huge RSS subscriber list. I’ll be posting on that subject real soon. That’s a biggie.

      I’m wondering if you might want to share some comments on the surveys you’ve sent out to your target audience (if you use surveys) and the kinds of results you’ve gotten. Or better yet, write a post about it and let me know when it’s published so I can link to it and send my readers over to you. 🙂

      As always, thanks so much for your input,
      Melanie

  • Wow Melanie – I am honoured to be mentioned here 🙂 You are spot on about figuring out the best ways your clients would like to communicate with you.

    In my previous company, clients preferred to deal with everything over email, and I didn’t even speak to most of my clients until after they had bought.

    There’s an old stigma that clients want to deal with someone personally, and on the phone. When really you can use email with such a unique approach. Email is just having a conversation, but in writing. It is nothing like formal letters. And when clients are planning on buying something, they like to be able to read over your words and absorb them, without any pressure for an immediate reply.

    Regardless of my previous experience though, you cannot just assume your target market prefers email. You’re correct – you have to ask them, and the poll is a great start. 🙂

    • Very well-deserved, Fiona! And, thanks to you, I am able to send my readers to a reliable, awesome location to get more info on this topic and a boatload of other topics, too. I don’t know of another solo professional who’s as good as you at researching resources and giving people tons of examples and options. I’ve said it before … You Shine! 🙂

      Back to communication …

      I think the bottom line is that WE may enjoy communicating in a particular way BUT our target market may prefer something totally different. So it’s super savvy to take a poll and find out!

  • SheilaAtwood

    RT @MelanieKissell: [New Post] Best Way To Communicate With Your Audience – via #twitoaster https://www.melaniekissell.com/2010/10/be…

  • I’ve been experimenting some with offering my blog posts as audio, as well as asking readers in a survey and it was very popular.

    • I know you have, Michelle, because I jump at the chance to fill out any surveys you send my way! 🙂 You’re going about this the right way … and the smart way. I remember when you put up audio posts during this summer’s 30-day blogging challenge and they were a big hit. You’ve amassed a lot of business experience under your belt and we could all benefit from following your lead.

      No blowing smoke here …

      But I’ll give you an A+ on your communications!