If your objective is to launch and grow a business online, spearhead a cause or build a following then the #1 factor that you MUST learn is how to capture an audience.
What does that mean?
Quite simply, capturing an audience means getting their attention, drawing them in to something that interests them and then tapping into their desire enough to trigger action.
What action is important?
- Subscribe to your blog
- Email signup
- Podcast Subscription
- Subscribe To Your YouTube Channel
- Facebook Like
- Twitter Follow
- Instagram Follow
- Sharing Content With Their Friends and Contacts
- Share Your Products and Services As Recommendations or Affiliates/Partners
- Provide Positive Feedback/Engage On Any Of These Platforms
The entire process of online marketing today is about capturing attention, turning that attention into leads and eventually into customers…the cost associated with this entire process is known as the “Cost of Customer Acquisition”
Understanding the entire process of planning through developing and then marketing your online business is the focus of InfoMarketer’sZone – knowing our numbers and the role capturing your market has in making your business successful is the difference between many “hobby” businesses and those that get seriously BIG!
The CCA is an extremely important metric in your business, when you know that each customer costs you $10 to acquire you now know a very valuable piece of the “cost” side of your business allowing you to calculate your profitability and plan out how you can scale up your business appropriately.
In other words, if your CCA is $10 per customer with a program that has you generating front-end traffic via ads (to reach and capture the attention of your audience), and if you selling a $47 product where you make $30+ per sale then you can scale that into larger ad campaigns all day long (so long as your CCA remains roughly consistent)
As you notice though, in order for you to get that lead and customer you must first capture your audience.
Here are 5 key ways to improve your ability to capture your market.
Target Your Audience
The shotgun approach does not work here…what you want to do is have a very solid sense of the best target audience for you. You want to not only know their demographics, but you want to know what makes them emotionally attached to your niche market. For example, if you offer a weight loss product, the motivation to lose weight will be quite different for a teen girl than it would be for a middle-age man…so knowing exactly who you target is critical to capturing your audience no matter the platform used
Know Your “Character”
Whether YOU are the primary personality that represents your business or you brand your business more generically, you MUST establish a character for you and your business. Further, that character must be multi-dimensional. Why? The way you capture attention is gaining the interest and trust of your marketplace. Your marketplace wants to see that you are real, that you care, that you understand them, that you have something incredible to offer them and that you are “like them” in that they can relate enough to trust your product will work for them too. Craft a story-line based on how you started the business, what human attributes make you great at it, what the frustrations are of your market (and how you have lived them too) and why you are different (against the grain so you stand out)
Choose The Best Platform For You
How do you best connect with people around you? Is it through writing? Are you good with video or in-person? How about audio? The people who rise to the top in today’s online marketing world recognize their strengths in terms of communication – and then they continue to get better at it. You will get far better capture rates from your market if you choose your strongest communication channel
Give Them A Reason Why
Why should people engage with you? Why should they share your content with others? Why should they return? In other words, view your content marketing as an ongoing journey where you will progressively move people from first-time “lookers” to interested engagement and followers to those who can’t help but invest in you and your products. How? Consistency is a big part of it – knowing you are there day-in, and day-out. Bump-ups in terms of adding value – running a monthly webinar or Q&A (for example) is a great way to offer a “bump-up” in your free content from a follower to someone who takes action to subscribe to your webinar. Your webinar delivers great value – on the back of which you can move them into other offers (another bump-up).
Be Everywhere Your Market Is
I’ve had many people inside InfoMarketer’sZone say they don’t “like” Twitter or don’t “believe in” Instagram…who CARES what YOU like? The point is what does your market like and where are they active? Social networks continue to grow massively in terms of user-base but also in terms of time and attention. You MUST be on the platforms that your market values – it really has nothing to do with what you like or dislike. The more omnipresent you are on these platforms, the more leads, attention and sales you will capture – that is the FACT.
Your ability to accomplish anything online demands that you constantly approve your ability to capture the attention of your market. Use these 5 techniques to improve your results.
Even small improvements in your market capture and engagement can lead to very large gains in terms of follow-on exposure, lead generation, sales and profit.
