It is 59 days away till the end of 2024. 

The past couple of podcast episodes have generated a barrage of questions from you all. So, tomorrow’s podcast episode will be a Q&A in an effort to respond to all of your questions. And speaking of questions, there are 15 that you should ask yourself when you are in the audience cultivation phase.

Let’s start with:

1. Who are our current customers, and what do we know about them?

You can collect this information through Google analytics, your email marketing list, through the past purchases data, so on, and so forth

2. What demographic characteristics (age, gender, income, education) define our target audience? Same as above, but you can also conduct surveys when someone purchases from you to gain more clarity.

3. What psychographic traits (values, interests, lifestyles) do we believe our audience possesses? Social media is good for access to psychographic information. By seeing what a person likes, posts, comments on and who they interact with you can gain insights to personal preferences.

4. How do our products or services align with the needs and preferences of our potential audience?  You’ll know the answer to this question by analyzing the data you have on your customers including the pain points. Your products, and services always has to solve a problem for your customers. For example, in the short term maybe you are seeing your audience is stressed out because of the elections here in the U.S.

A quick solution can be providing humorous non-political content, merch or products. Help them escape for a little while.

Long term problem, your audience is complaining about zippers on hoodies. They always break, get stuck or frayed.

Solution, provide options like the button down hoodie, a velcro hoodie, a lace up hoodie, a pull on hoodie. See what I mean?

5. How do your competitors identify and engage their audiences?

That’s easy, sign up for the newsletters, marketing lists and anything else your competitors offer. Follow them across all their mediated platforms, and set up google alerts on them. It will become very clear how they are engaging w/ their audience.

6. How can we gather direct feedback from consumers to better understand their motivations and preferences? Surveys, polls, and review sites are some of the best ways to answer this question.

7. What online or offline communities do our potential customers engage with?  Social listening should help you uncover this information. Swarm, which use to be foursquare, is an app where people check in where they are at, and that might help you see if there are patterns offline. For example, if you notice a significant group of people that talk about your niche or similar products as yours are going to /starbucks on Wednesday every week. There might be a reason for that.

8. What are the common objections or misconceptions potential customers have about our brand? Active observing. Monitoring comments, reviews, and surveys can help you understand and expertly address the concerns that surface.

9. Are there seasonal or temporal factors that affect our audience's purchasing habits? Depending on what it is that you are offering, the holiday season can be great or horrible. Analyze the buying behaviors in your brand as well as the competitions.

10. How does our branding resonate with our perceived audience, and what changes might be needed? Again this is gleaned through social listening, purchasing data, and reading reviews and comments.

These questions can guide brands in refining their approach to audience identification and engagement.

So, what’s next?

Brand positioning..

Brand positioning is a critical aspect of any marketing strategy, determining how a company's brand is perceived in the minds of consumers relative to competitors. To effectively position a brand in the market, businesses must understand their target audience, competition, and unique value proposition. The unique value proposition is what sets you apart from your competitors.. What makes you different?

Is about standing out, differentiating yourself from the rest and being memorable in a space crowded with your competitors.

Your brand positioning helps customers understand why you're the best choice in a sea of options. It's the difference between being the life of the party or just blending into the background.

Brand positioning is a broad topic, and so we will talk about it in greater detail across the next episodes. The areas I want to touch on lightly today is defining your unique value proposition.

A unique value proposition is a statement that clearly communicates the benefits that a product or service provides to customers and why it is better than the competition. In order to create a strong and compelling unique value proposition, businesses must consider several key factors.

Since you already know what your current, and potential customers are looking for in a product or service, you can now tailor the unique value proposition to address the specific needs and desires of your target audience. It’s also important to understand your strengths and capabilities. A unique value proposition should highlight the unique advantages your brand has over its competitors. 

These advantages could be related to the quality of the product or service, the pricing strategy, the customer service experience, or any other aspect of the business that sets it apart from the competition. Ask yourself, what can I provide that my target audience needs? What can I provide that my audience wants?  You have to be able to answer that question before you can craft a value proposition. Don’t barrel through this step as it will form the basis of your marketing strategy.

Another important element of defining a unique value proposition is identifying the key benefits that your product or service provides to customers. These benefits should be clearly articulated in the unique value proposition and should be easy for customers to understand and relate to. By communicating the value that the product or service provides, businesses can effectively showcase why customers should choose your brand over that of competitors. Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of competitors, can also help you better position your brand in the market and help you identify opportunities to differentiate yourself. This could involve offering a unique feature or service that competitors do not provide, or it could involve emphasizing a particular benefit that is more important to customers than that of competitors.

Defining a unique value proposition is a critical component of brand positioning. By understanding the needs of the target market, leveraging the strengths of the company, and communicating the benefits that the product or service provides, businesses can create a strong and compelling unique value proposition that sets them apart from competitors. By regularly reviewing and updating the unique value proposition, businesses can continue to stay ahead of the competition and attract and retain customers in a competitive market.