Where your customers hang out : Mastering the art of being in the right place online

Finding Where Your Customers Hang Out

Imagine throwing a party but sending the invitations to the wrong address. That’s what happens when you advertise where your potential customers aren’t looking. It’s not just about the message; it’s also about where you share it. The key to effective marketing? Knowing where your customers like to hang out.

Digital Footprints: Tracking Down the Hangout Spots

In the digital age, everyone leaves a trail—likes, shares, comments, or follows. These are clues to where your customers spend their time online. Do they scroll through Instagram, or are they more likely to engage in discussions on Facebook? Perhaps they prefer the professional setting of LinkedIn or the fast-paced world of Twitter. Use some simple investigative work, hang out on-line and see who is surfing each channel. Deep dive a little more and use analytics to uncover these digital footprints, guiding you to the right platforms. This isn’t as complicated as it sounds, for example you can go on your website and look at analytics where it will tell you where your website visitors are coming from. You can simply reverse engineer this and start investigating those areas. So for example if 25% of your customers are coming from Instagram, start surfing.

More Than Social Media: Exploring the Marketing Landscape

While social media is a hotspot for customer activity, it’s not the only place they hang out. Some might prefer reading blogs or articles, others subscribe to email newsletters, and a few might still enjoy the tactile feel of a magazine. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Diversify your marketing efforts to cover a broader spectrum of channels, ensuring you’re present wherever your customers might be. I personally work with both digital and analog marketing channels, and I can tell you newspapers and magazines are a great way to build trust. Editorial coverage doesn’t have to cost money.

Crafting Platform-Specific Messages

A one-size-fits-all message won’t cut it. What works on Instagram—a visually driven platform—won’t necessarily resonate in an email. Customise your message to fit the platform. An Instagram post might need a captivating image and a few hashtags, while an email could require a more direct and detailed approach. Tailoring your message ensures it speaks the language of your audience, no matter where they are.

Joining the Conversation: Engagement is Key

Online trust is everything, to reach your customers you need to hang out where they hang out. You need to become one of them, part of the tribe. So, finding where your customers hang out is one thing; engaging with them is another. The more you engage, the more you become friends, build a relationship and meet more customers just like them. Active engagement—be it through comments, direct messages, or shared content—builds a community around your brand and finds even more customers. It transforms your marketing from a monologue into a dialogue, encouraging feedback and fostering loyalty.

Beyond the Click: The Power of Targeted Advertising

With the insights gathered on where your customers spend their time, targeted advertising becomes a powerful tool. It allows you to reach specific groups within your audience with messages that resonate deeply with their interests and needs. Targeted ads ensure your marketing budget is spent wisely, reaching those most likely to engage with your brand. I’ll use the party analogy again, imagine if you were planning on a party and you ordered enough food for 10 people, if you send out 10 invitations and all 10 people come, isn’t that easy? But you know from experience it doesn’t work this way even among friends, if you want 10 people to come to a party you should consider inviting 14 or more. So the same is the case in business, if you know who your likely customers are and where they hang out, when you invite them to your party(to buy your goods and services), you know your success rate will be much better.

Understanding where your customers hang out and tailoring your marketing efforts to these spaces is crucial. It’s about being present in their world, speaking their language, and engaging with them on their terms. By doing so, you’re not just reaching out—you’re connecting, and in the world of marketing, connection is everything.