Understand Your Audience – When You’re Not Sure Where To Start

Do YOU really understand your audience? Gilbert Tax is a small tax firm that’s successfully grown through word of mouth, due to Roger Lamberson’s stellar work and reputation in Gilbert, AZ. Like so many other business owners, Roger was interested in growth but wasn’t sure where to start. This article explains how researching and understanding your audience can help guide you when your not sure where to start.

Getting Started

During our initial phone call, BuyersGap found that Gilbert Tax had no real marketing strategy. It had a great name, URL, location, AND reviews. But without a marketing strategy Gilbert Tax couldn’t possibly reach its full potential.

The BuyersGap Analyst explained to Roger that most referrals, web visitors, or social followers will go through a process when evaluating your brand: Discovery, First Impression, and Experience. From there, the potential customer typically tests your response by making contact. This entire journey occurs in moments, and a simple gap in that journey can quickly put an end to that person’s research.

Finding the Gaps –  BuyersGap Process

So where do you start, and why ask your audience?  Understanding your audience and what makes them have a positive experience will help bridge the biggest gaps in the buyers journey.  Improving user experience can lead to more engagement, more opportunities, and more business.  We start by identifying our customer’s ideal customer.

Speaking with Roger, BuyersGap identified and created his ideal customer and quickly researched their opinions of his company.  “We asked people to check out our ‘Tax Guy’ just like you would ask a friend.” Explains Phillip Tuckwiller, BuyersGap CEO.  “This tells us how his target audience researched, what they found, and what needs to be fixed for Gilbert Tax to get what it wants: business growth.”

Gathering the Research

The BuyersGap analysis showed that his audience primarily used Gilbert Tax’s website, but also looking at his Facebook and LinkedIn profiles.  So what did this part of the analysis tell us?  Here are a few examples from the actual BuyersGap Analysis:

• Almost 50% of his audience found it difficult to find Gilbert Tax on when searching for information
• “The Facebook page didn’t help information-wise, but it did show a good rating.”
• “The (website) layout made it very difficult to digest the message.”

When asked if they would continue researching this company based on their first impression, 71 % said yes, 29% said they wouldn’t, based on the website.  “I felt as though this company may have been out of business for the last 20 years,” offered one respondent after seeing very little activity.

And while 57% of the people said they were interested, not one of his responses showed an extremely positive response.  While people universally liked Roger, they weren’t impressed with his website or social platforms.  Here are some of the responses:

“When I went to the new client tab, there was a long list of information.  I was anticipating something that would speak to me as a potential client, not a new form.  Practice area pages could use more flare. It is a lot of text, and when I look at it, I don’t want to read it all.  I would prefer to watch a video.”

“There were parts of the brand that were positive, as the individual feels.  Others were not so good: the unsecured website and download pop-ups on the contacts page. Also, Facebook appeared to be virtually inactive since 2017.”

“The website was so poor and not responsive to my tablet, making it impossible for me to conduct research.”

Ask Your Audience

One informative question the BuyersGap Analysis asks is, Why would you choose a competitor?

The answers we received tied directly into Gilbert Tax’s outdated, ineffective, and un-optimized online presence.

“Because I felt like they are in business.”

“If I was not guided with hints, I likely wouldn’t have found roger.”

“I’m a Business Owner as well. Having content that would help educate me would be beneficial. The other sites I researched added value.”

“I wouldn’t…unless I found FB or LinkedIn first. Those make it look like he isn’t in business anymore.”

The Action Plan

After we “understand your audience,” BuyersGap analyzes the information and provides a SWOT analysis based on audience feedback. Included in the analysis, Gilbert Tax received an action plan. An analyst provided recommendations to help boost his online presence by increasing his SEO rank, making his business easier to find. Here are some of the recommendations outlined in the Action Plan:

Build a new, optimized and modern website that is responsive to mobile devices.

Post at least twice a month to social media accounts.

Add one or two blog posts a month to the site.

Produce a video introduction.

Automate email responses.

In addition, BuyersGap introduced him to a trusted partner that could help them execute these on creating a marketing strategy. The Gilbert Tax scorecard showed an overall trust score of 66,” explains Phillip. “With a little investment and execution, I anticipate his Trust Score will be far above 80. He will start to see more leads and achieve his goals.”

Moving Forward

If you’re confused about where to start and would like to understand your audience, request a BuyersGap Analysis by clicking the link below.  What does a quick internet search say about your business?  Request a BuyersGap Analysis today!