3 Ways to Make Sure You’re Targeting The Right Audience (so you can grow your business)

Hey Friend!

Do you want to grow your business as a podcaster? One way to do this is to make sure you are targeting the right audience. You need to know who your market is, who your person is, and what your micro-niche is.

I am going to give you three ways to ensure you’re targeting the right audience.

1. Grow Your Business By Building an Avatar Profile

Grab a sheet of paper and a pen and go back in time to when you were your avatar.

My avatar’s name is Lola. If I went back in time to when I was her, I was frantically trying to make money online.

I was extremely frustrated with everything I was doing that didn’t seem to be working. I was a little bit all over the place. My stuff was definitely not professionally done. Basically, I was trying to duct tape everything together from my website to my messaging. (Who am I kidding – I didn’t even know what messaging was back then!)

I was not necessarily profitable. Making money was what I perceived to be successful. I was spending 5 to 8 hours a day building an Instagram following instead of long-form content.

I was a Christian but I wasn’t really yoked with God. Getting my mind right with Him every day was not a priority. I was married and had two really small children and I wanted to be present for them, but I felt that in order to be present for them I had to build a successful business.

This is my avatar profile based on me and who I was. By the way, did this just define you? I hope so because you are my Lola. If this resonates with you right now, it’s okay, I used to be there. But you don’t have to be there anymore. That’s why you like the content I create.

How to Draft an Avatar Profile

First thing you need to do is draft out an avatar profile based on who you were and what you thought to be true. I would then do a brain dump and let it flow. Then I would turn pull from those notes the major identifiers. For example, the major identifiers from what I mentioned about who I was would be: 5-8 hours online but it’s not working and not profitable. Christian – wants to be present with her kids but can’t.

Pull out the main core things that you wrote about yourself. Find 5 to 10 core tactical identifiers. These can be labeled as pain points, excuses, things they are trying but aren’t working, or problems that they are experiencing.

Also, name your avatar and put a bit of demographic behind it. How old are they? Do they have a family/ no family – single/ married? Middle class? This will help you get in the headspace of serving your person.

2. Research to Validate What You Think

This step is a whole thing. In my 6-month podcast coaching program, Podcast to Profit, I teach you how to do this well. We spend 1-2 weeks on validating research to ensure we know who our person is and what their pain points are. In essence, you need to meet with some of your Lolas. There is a specific number we meet with and specific questions we ask. Girl, it’s a whole process.

A free way to research is to find a few people who are your Lola and validate the things that you wrote down about who you used to be, or who you think your person is. Get open-ended questions and conversation flowing to figure out if this is what they are truly experiencing.

What I discovered is that as I grew in this business and I started to become more successful, I started to not face the financial pressure that I used to face. So I began to pivot away from my Lola. I started to talk about things that were a bit more advanced.

I did a huge market research project about 4 months ago, where my team and I filtered through thousands of lines of data. We discovered that my listeners are in the starting phases of building their online businesses and the number one desire they have is to make money online. They want to be able to provide for their family through podcasting.

Why Validating Things is so Important

The best thing you can do is constantly validate what you think to be true especially as you grow and learn to get right back to where your person is. One of the things you all will face as your podcast scales and as you come up with your signature course/ product, there will become a wider gap between you and the person you are serving.

It’s critical to ground yourself by coming back to home base every 6 months. You need to remember and sit in it, reflecting on what life was like when you were your Lola. How did you feel, what was going on in your mind and life and what were the pressures you were facing? All of these things are priceless when it comes to making sure that you’re targeting the right person and you are speaking to them where they are. This will help you grow your business.

So talk to people and pull out those inconsistencies. Either throw some stuff out that you thought to be true in your avatar profile or highlight it because 3 people said the same thing.

3. Review Your Own Content Analytics

Your content analytics will leave clues. If you have started your podcast, one of the places you should be going is inside your podcast analytics to find out what your audience is loving and what is being consumed the most. What are your highest downloaded episodes and why? If you have a Facebook group, what are your most clicked or commented-on posts and why? Do you have an email list? What is your most-opened email? If you post on social media of any kind, which one has the most activity?

Analyze why they are the most heavily loved by your audience and what that says about your audience/ Lola. Then think about you can do more of that and you can compare what you have found through analytics with your avatar profile.

Know Who You Serve and How

Your avatar profile is important to refer back to, to remind you of who you are serving in order to create a profitable business. You cannot have a profitable business without knowing who the one person is you serve, the one problem they have, and all the other “ones” that come along with it. The number one excuse, the number one setback, the number one roadblock to their breakthrough, the number one solution they desire.

You need to get so laser focused and super clear on that in order to have the breakthrough in your business. Your business is not about you; your business is about your person.

I hope this has been helpful in making sure you are targeting the right audience. Knowing your avatar, validating what you think with research, and reviewing your content analytics will ensure you are speaking to your audience effectively and will hopefully grow your business.

If you want me to hold your hand through this entire process and more, join me in our new Podcast to Profit 3.0 6-month group coaching program. If you have started your podcast and are wanting to make money from your show, this is the program for you.

I pray this blesses you!

Xo,

Stef

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Before you go, be sure to watch the free workshop!

This free workshop is for you if you want to grow an online business in less time.

It will teach you how to explode your audience without the social media hustle, make consistent sales using a podcast, and plan, record, and launch a podcast with ease!

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6 Ways to Build a Podcast Audience & Get More Podcast Downloads

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Understand Your Podcast Analytics and Rankings! How to Pour FUEL on the FIRE! What You Need to Know About Your Podcast Stats, Sis!

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