How To Build Transparency with Target Audience

The Relationship Between Connection and Target Audience

The Transparency of your brand is the extent to which people feel your brand is open and honest. Brands can increase how transparent people feel they are by working out the segments within their audience, and then changing or expanding their target audience. 

To improve your Transparency through your Target Audience, consider the below: 

1. Do you understand what your current Target Audience cares about? Segmenting the market allows you to understand what makes your target audience tick; what’s important to them and how your brand can align with the values they hold. Google Trends, Facebook Insights, and online communities are all great sources of uncovering your audience’s interests and values. Once you know what they care about (granted that it’s in keeping with your brand), adopt it into your messaging hierarchy. Evaluate whether what you are talking to them about now, matters to them.

2. Am I targeting the right set of people? Understanding what drives your target audience will allow you to uncover gaps in your brand’s offering and positioning. For example, say you’re currently targeting parents with your product based on shopper behavior. If you were to understand them through a behavioral and psychographical lens, you could discover that the end user of your brand isn’t parents at all – it’s their kids! This discovery could inform the messaging you develop and the emotional benefits of your brand you hero in communications as well as the media channels you use to promote your brand.  

3. Does my media strategy aid my Transparency? There is a great deal of controversy around how brands target people in digital media. People can feel like they are being spied on, or chased around the internet. The rise of influencer marketing has sparked debate about the need for openness when it comes to celebrity endorsements. And conglomerates like Unilever and Microsoft pulling ads from Facebook due to the company’s lack of action around hate speech means heightened scrutiny about where brands advertise, and the halo effect it has on their reputation. Make sure you’re buying media in a way that is sensitive to how people perceive digital channel spend.  

What should you do next?

• Use Facebook Insights and other social media platforms’ analytics tools to help segment your target audience. Consider using the Lookalike tool to find similar people to the target audience you are defining.  
• Review your media strategy and the channels you activate to ensure both the medium and the tactics you’re using aid your brand’s reputation as opposed to damaging it. 
• Explore how much you truly understand what your audience cares about. Search for things that they are interested in, and openly show how they are authentically tied into your brand.

How to determine if it’s working.

• Watch your Transparency score rise as you change or expand your target audience to include segments more aligned with your brand’s values. 

• Keep a close eye on what people are saying about you online, as well as in Conversations, as you are likely to see a rise in feedback that shows that people are trusting you more.  
• Consider a ProQuo AI Custom Question for a more granular understanding of how open and honest people feel you are. 
  
  
  Guidance from:
  Katie Wrightson | Head of Content, ProQuo AI
  
  Katie has spent her career working in communications. Whether it's for Sainsbury's, charities or in agencies, she knows where brands should talk to people, and how.