Let’s talk about how to speak to your audience so they will LISTEN..,

We start by understanding what they want & need at deep-dive, scuba gear level - and then convey it with clarity.

Our job is to share examples, stories, & words that speak directly to what your audience NEEDS & WANTS to hear…

Sure, sure, Ok ok. But how do we do that?

In this episode of Content Creation Made Easy, you'll learn:

1. what to do to know your audience even better
2. what they need to hear from you
3. ways to turn that info into content marketing GOLD

 

What Jen unpacks today in Content Creation Made Easy helps you attract the right people -, repel the wrong ones, and make marketing work a HELLUVA lot easier.

You also get access to a priceless tool that Jen uses with all of her clients:

Don’t miss out on the vitality you'll infuse int your marketing when you understand their thinking - it helps you increase marketing EASE, reduce confusion, and stop overdoing it!

And it helps them feel seen, supported, and understood in your content - so they connect and can eventually convert!

SUBSCRIBE TO THE CONTENT MADE EASY PODCAST ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST PLATFORM

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Watch The Full Video! 

 

Full Transcript

Hey, welcome to episode 173 of the Content Creation Made Easy Podcast. I am your host, Jen Liddy. Today I'm talking about how to market to your ideal client, what that really means and why it's important.

You obviously have heard of this before: I remember the first time I heard of ICA, or niche or audience member, and they kind of all get lumped in together.

You've probably done that ideal client exercise where you've created a fictional character. I'm actually not talking about niching. 

Today, I'm not talking about ideal client or ICA, I'm actually talking about messaging to an audience of people who are your dream people, and how to do it and why to do it in a way that's a little bit different than maybe you've ever considered before.

If you have been struggling with your messaging, getting clear, or your messaging landing with people or people kind of glazing over, when you talk about who you help, I think today's Podcast can really help you. Let's get going!

About two or three months ago, I was in Charlotte visiting my sister, and we were talking about her hobby business.

My sister is very creative, and has several different things that she does.

She's got this superpower that she actually gives away for free to friends, family members, and neighbors.

Basically, she helps high schoolers get into their dream college. She kind of does it in a simplistic way that really takes them by the hand, breaks down all the research and helps them make decisions all the way through high school so that when it's time to go to college, the college application, so much easier for them.

It's amazing what she can do. Every time she talks about this with me, I'm like:

“Tracey, this is a business waiting to be born! People will pay you for this kind of support and clarity, because you know, something that they don't know”.

She's like: “I know, I know, I know, but I don't really want to do the marketing”.

I was like, “Marketing is my jam. I love talking about marketing, I love talking about messaging.”

We started just dreaming and scheming about what it could be like with her expertise and my expertise and what it could look like and how it would go. I got to the point where the fun evaporated because I realized I’d have to learn a lot about her people, in order to understand them to the degree that it would take to actually be able to market successfully for this business.

She's got a double audience because she has to work with teenagers. She also has to really market to parents.

There's kind of like two prongs here. There's a lot to understand about this ocean of people!

I really want you to think of the people out there, who you need to dive in & know SO deeply!

I don't think I don't have capacity, because I'm at the point in my business where I'm scaling and growing.

I’ve spent years learning everything about marketing, and content creation and strategy and all of the things.

I've spent years coming to know my audience really deeply.

I thought, “I don't have it in me to start over. I just don't have the capacity!”

Could I? Sure, I have the tools. I'm going to talk about some of those tools with you today. I really don't want to break off and start another business.

Why? Because knowing your audience as deeply as you need to know them takes an incredible amount of time, focus and energy.

You want to know your audience so deeply and really thoroughly that you can easily rattle off how my ideal client avatar or my audience see themselves & how they describe themselves.

What resonates with them?

Second, how they talk about their struggles. They have to connect with my words, I need to use words that they understand and connect with and use.

It has taken me years to figure out what are the exact right words that my audience needs to hear from me.

Third, you need to understand your audience's desires and goals. What do they want? You can't think you know what they want.

You have to know what they want and why it matters to them.

Those are the three things that you really want to be able to rattle off like that.

I don't have the time to dive into my sister's audience, especially since it's a double pronged one.

I'm wondering for you, when somebody asks you about your audience, or your ideal client or who's a buyer for you can you easily rattle off the deep knowledge about your people?

Or do you maybe do what I see a lot of people doing, which is create a very long, technical, in-depth explanation?

The other person's eyes kind of glaze over or roll back in their head?

Do you speak your audience's language? If you're not sure, this is something you really have to dive into.

This is a big reason why your content doesn't land with people; you're not speaking their language.

You may be speaking industry jargon or insider language that you’d use with other people in your industry.

Are you speaking clearly in your messaging?

Like I get you, I know why this matters to you. I'm going to help you achieve it so you can have the goal that you want.

Really be clear about what that is, because it's different for everybody.

I'm not trying to be a jerk about this. Honestly, most people think they know their ICA very well, but they actually don't know them deeply enough.

This creates unclear marketing, fuzzy messaging, murky messaging. Basically, it keeps us all in eternal hell when we don't know our audience crystal clearly!

Creating clarity in this exact area is where I begin with every one of my clients, whether you are in my membership, or my mastermind, or even a private client.

Everybody who's begging for marketing to be easier and to work for them, I make them start here.

If you think, “Well, I did this three years ago, I did this five years ago, Jen.”

Or, “I already know, my people, because I was my people”, I’m asking you to hang in with me today.

Here's why. After going through the pandemic, and then 2021, and we're halfway through 2022, people are different, what they want is different, what their pain points are, is different.

What they're saying about this stuff is different.

If you’ve been relying on some old marketing information, old interviews, old research that you did in groups, I'm telling you, if you have not done the work to know your clients, right where they are right now, you're doing your marketing, and then of course, your business, a disservice.

What can you do to create some marketing ease?

I've got 3 questions to ask yourself. If you can't answer them, don't freak out. I'm going to break it further down for you in today's podcast, so don't worry.

Now to be able to market to your audience with more ease, you've got to be able to access your response to these prompts easily.

First, when you describe who's in your exact right audience, or who your exact right audience member is, if you're describing that to somebody, does that other person go:

“Oh my god, you need to meet my sister. I know exactly the kind of person you're talking about.”

Or do they go “Oh my god, that's me! You've just nailed me. How did you know that? Get out of my head?”

That's what you want people to be saying. Either it's them or it's somebody that they know or they're nodding because they really get it.

Instead of that slow nod, unsure brow furrowing, eyes glazed over, the response that you might be getting…

Maybe you're getting a lukewarm reception when you talk about your audience.

That's the first thing that you want to do to make your marketing easier.

The second thing you want to do to make your marketing easier is when you are speaking about the struggles of your audience and what their challenges are.

I'm not saying we only need to talk about their challenges, but we need to know their challenges.

Are you using their language?

What I find is a lot of people are using really generic terms that don't mean anything to your people that they are not Googling…

ALSO, you might not know it, because you might be so immersed in your own language or your industry language, or you’re using a very special-to-you kind of language that nobody else knows what it means.

Your content might be flying straight over their heads.

Yes, your audience is smart, and they are savvy.

Your examples and your stories and your words and all of your messaging needs to hit them right between the eyes, because if they don't see themselves in your marketing mirror, your marketing is going to stay hard and make you miserable, and it's going to be ineffective.

The second thing you want to do is really understand the words that you're using and how they resonate or don't spend time on that.

The third thing that you want to do to make marketing a lot easier with your audience is know why these solutions are important to them.

Do you also speak to that in your marketing?

You know you want to make content creation easier so that you can have more time to work one on one with your clients rather than spend all your time creating content.

Do you speak to how it actually benefits them further down the line?

I promise you; your people do not care about your process, they do not care that they get 12 sessions with you, they do not care that they get three one-hour videos with you, or that they get a lifetime supply of candy.

People don't care about what they get in your process.

What they care about is the solution that you can provide them, how you will make their life, their work, their relationship, their business, better, easier, simpler, faster, quicker.

Whatever it is, that's what you need to be talking about.

You need to be talking about why it matters for them.

What I mean by that is, are you talking about the ripple effects that your work helps create in the life of your audience members & ideal customers?

For example, if you didn't have to spend all of your time creating content, like waking up every day and thinking, “Shit? What should I put on Instagram today?”...

• What could you do with that time? 
• Would you have more free time? 
• Would you have more self-care? 
• Would you be working IN your business more? 
• Or would you be working ON your business more?
  
• It's your job to paint the ripple effects in your content. 

Your marketing needs to speak overtly to what achieving that goal will get your audience - not spend time talking about your process.

Those are 3 vital questions that when you know the answer to, marketing starts to come easier and is more effective for you!

What if you can't answer those questions?

You might be like: “I get this, it makes a lot of sense, but I don't have the answers”.

This is then where you need to focus your time and energy because it's a complete game changer when you know your ideal client or your audience member or your perfect buyer incredibly well.

You have to be able to describe their problems and the potential, the promise and the outcomes that they're looking for.

You have to do it in a way that's almost better than they can do it for themselves.

Now, this is going to be the foundation, it is not sexy. It is not fun, necessarily. It does take time but it is the hinge that everything rests on when you understand this stuff so deeply.

You can describe to them how they are dealing or feeling or wanting better than they are able to do it for themselves.

Again, you get that result of like, Get out of my head. How did you know?

How did I know? Because I talked to my people. That is what it takes to have this information.

This is the one thing that almost nobody wants to do to get out of marketing hell is talk with your people, talk to them directly.

I am not talking about using your own experiences. 

I'm not talking about you going back to your step zero or your step minus 10 and saying, “Oh, when I was back there, this is how I felt.”

No, because so much has changed since then, for you and for your audience. In fact, it's really hard! If you've noticed that even the big gurus who talk about this stuff, they don't remember what it was like to start out in marketing, or start out in building a business.

What makes you think that who you used to be is enough information to talk to your audience today in 2022?

We're not talking about making any assumptions, or even reading things just in Facebook groups.

If you want to understand your audience so deeply that they are like, “Oh, my God, she gets me”, you have to talk to them, directly, with the words come straight from their mouths.

Those are going to be the words that I call “Marketing Gold” that wind up in your content and helps people nod

and stop their scroll 

and open their emails 

and press play on your videos 

and listen to your podcasts.

This is also how you eventually are able to nail down your STAND OUT message.

When you know what their words are, your messaging becomes so much clearer.

When you know what you stand for and your messaging becomes so much clearer.

Your messaging happens when you understand yourself so deeply and your place in this business, and what your audience wants, and you meld those two things together.

I don't care what you call it. 

Target Market research is what it is. You could call it a Listening Session.

You could call it a chat; you could call it a conversation.

It's target market research and it is not sexy.

You know me, I'm not lying, I'm not going to blow smoke up your skirt.

This is what it is. It doesn't have to cost you any money. 

It will cost you time and it will cost you energy. 

You want to make sure that you do it effectively, so that it benefits your business, across every marketing asset that you have.

What we want to do is speak to your people who are sitting in your market.

Let's talk about the steps needed to do this so that you can attract the right people, repel the wrong ones, and make marketing just be a lot easier.

First, you're gonna get voice on voice action with people you feel might be the kind of people that you want to work with.

They don't have to be perfect! Actually, when you're doing your research, it’s really great also to talk to some people who you're like, “Oh, no, that person's not for me. Oh, no, that person is not going to be an ideal client.

“Oh, no, this person said this and this and this. I don't want to go toward that.”

“I want to talk to these five people who are more perfect for me who are what I want to go toward. I know I can let go of X and move toward Y”.

That is fantastic information. Ask the people that, you know, it could be like in your immediate circle, but it's even better if it's not.

There are so many ways to do this stuff.

Basically, you want to start with asking the people to get on a phone call, or even zoom, which is even better, because you can record it or gasp, even an in-person!

You're just going to ask them lots of questions to find out what they're thinking about the problem that you solve, the industry you're in, the realm you work in, and what they want.

You're just asking questions. That's the first step: voice on voice action.

Once you have 5,10,20 people, 20 is a lot but 20 is an amazing number to do this work with.

Once you have those people, then you can pick apart what they say. We have to do something inside these conversations.

That is step two, which is just listen to what they say: you ask a question. You don't fill in the blanks, you don't prompt them, you just listen to what they say.

You don't fix, you don't coach, you don't offer advice, you don't give feedback.

They will complain, they will dump it all out. That is what you want: they will tell you all the things that are wrong in this voice-on-voice action, they will say it with colorful language, they will describe things in a way you never even thought of.

That will eventually become Marketing Gold for you.

Between now and then your empathic, sensitive, kind natured heart will want to help them.

That's not what these calls are about. You just have to listen. I want you to understand you're really doing people a service, by letting them tell you what's wrong, like having a set of ears is incredibly powerful.

Third, you want to take notes on every single thing they say.

Do not think you're going to remember it: you're not, you 10,000% will not remember it.

What you learn in these interviews will change your life, change your marketing, will change your offers.

It'll clean up your content, it'll help you with pricing, it'll just help you feel more confident that you're speaking to the right people.

It validates the work that you're doing, too. Like, “Yes, this is a problem. Here's how I can solve it”

or “No, it's not a problem. And I need to tweak whatever I'm going to do in this way to meet this.”

Now let's talk about a warning that I have about doing these target market interviews.

In my first business, which was the brick-and-mortar fitness studio from 2013 to 2017.

Talking to my ideal client avatar was the biggest block that kept us from marketing effectively.

I was totally filled with bullshit reasons like ‘I don't have time’.

My biggest one was, “I was that person, I know this person, I am that person, I don't need to speak with them.”

Also, “I don't want to bother people.” That was a big one.

All of those excuses kept us in marketing hell.

There were so many mistakes we could have avoided if we had talked to and interviewed and known our exact right audience member and our ideal clients even better, we could have served them better.

Getting clarity in this area is Job One in creating marketing ease all the way around, and you can get there.

It just takes knowing your people to a depth that requires a scuba mask and an oxygen tank.

That's where I want you to start thinking about: “If I just know my audience members better, everything in my business will be a lot easier.”

You just ask questions and you listen, listen, listen, and I have a whole guide to help you with this.

Basically, it's called the Get Into Your Audience’s Mind Guide.

It is all about coming from an empathic place where you are learning and listening. You go to jenliddy.com/interview, and you'll be able to download the guide.

There's even a training there. There's a short video training. Literally I give you the steps from everything I said today from one how to get people to agree to these calls through the questions that you can ask: it is a goldmine of information. It's jenliddy.com/interview.

Now, at the start of my entrepreneurial journey, I want you to know that marketing was just like a vague concept to me, I knew that we'd have to do it eventually.

I barely gave any thought how to do it effectively and I barely gave any thought into how to do it in a way that worked for me personally.

I never figured out how to do marketing until I was really deep into the inner circles of hell.

I promise you having these conversations is a game changer and that is why I created this PDF and this training for you because I know the power of talking to your audience and really identifying who they are, not demographics.

I am not talking about like, new moms aged 32 through 42. I'm not talking about demographics; I'm talking about speaking to an audience using descriptive language that helps them see themselves.

It's holding up a marketing mirror so people can identify and say, “Oh, there I am. And she can help me or he can help me.”

What kind of outcomes could you expect?

Well, let's go back to my fantasy about working with my sister. I told you that nope, I'm not willing to abandon the current business that I have. I'm not ready to jump off this ship and dive into that ocean of an audience.

I actually think my sister probably sighed with relief that she did have to work with me. Honestly, this work is not easy.

To know your audience deeply, takes a lot of work. As I've said already, it's totally worth it.

It helps you know, the words to use that your exact right audience will be attracted to it helps you create a clear, standout brand message stand out in your industry, which is what I know you want for visibility, and also ultimately develop a tailor-made content bank, so you never ever have to think about what to say.

These are the foundations to help you create content in marketing with ease, reduce the confusion, stop feeling like you're in marketing hell.

Grab your guide, Get Into Your Audience’s Mind at https://www.jenliddy.com/interview  and find out exactly what your audience needs from you.

This is the foundational work and the marketing goal that will come forward. It's beyond worthwhile, I promise.

I think that if you can hear the passion in my voice, like if you are stuck in marketing, go back and do this work. It is totally worth your time.

Next week, I have an expert coming in to talk about the difference between ideal client and a perfect buyer and your audience or we're gonna really break down this, this niche myth and this demographic myth that we've been fed.

Come back next week, and I really hope that you've taken away something today that can help you and make your life your marketing life a hell of a lot easier!