Know your Audience

It was hot, very hot. 9 pm on a Saturday night in Chennai. Max temperature was 38°C and Min was 34°C.

The worse timing is that the air condition did not work.
It is month of May, and period of agni natchatram (Fiery star)..

A time when the sun is closest to the earth and directly above equator. if you google this you will get a name of a movie. but look deeper in to the results, you will get a reasonable explanation.
The heat in Chennai during summer is overwhelming, sometimes it brings out the devil in you.

Usually in the evenings the temperature comes down by about a few degrees and you get some cool breeze from the sea. But today, of all days, no air condition, no breeze, just heat and sweat.

But it did not stop me from attending the scheduled internship class.

The session started with the Learn - do - teach.
Think about it. Makes sense.
We learn many things - either audio or visual, or both.
We apply these theoretical concepts into practical applications.
We gain experience.
We know the pitfalls.
We know what to expect. We do it better.
After a certain time, there is a void - with all the experience you have gained, a natural instinct is to pass it on.
We need to teach.

When we teach, we expand our horizons, the questions raised from a teaching session, teaches something. That is when you grow. Your students are going to remember you for your knowledge, for your wisdom.

Mistakes are future benefits, value is yet to be realized.

When we make mistakes, we learn something. How not to do it.
Your benefit – mistake has taught you something and you get better at it.
Mistakes are like the road signs for the future ; they guide you in the right way.
There hasn’t been any inventor who has not made mistakes.
Mistakes add to your experience. Makes you wise.

Marketing is about good conversation

If you cannot converse well 1:1, you cannot converse well 1: Many
Marketing is all about building trust.
You build trust with a lot of people.
Having a good conversation is a way to build that trust.
Sales happen when your prospect trusts you.
Chose a conversation mode in a way that though you are addressing a large gathering, you still make that single person feel that you are communicating to him directly.

Be authentic to communicate better

People are, myself included, are tired of show offs – mostly they are shallow.
When you are being yourself, people are attracted to you and want to listen to you.
Just be yourself, do not try to be someone you are not just that you think you can be socially acceptable.
Be honest, accept your shortcomings or flaws and be OK with it.
People are implicitly connected with you when you are honest about yourself.
Authentic people are connected to other authentic people. That is how you connect to your audience.
The more genuine you are, more people are drawn to you and chances are, you make more sales.

People with life experiences become better marketer.

Meeting new people, travel new places and learning new skills gains you experience.
Be comfortable when your beliefs and assumptions are challenged.
Be flexible; do not hold any strong opinions.
People with experience can relate better to other people.

If everyone is your audience, then no one is your audience.
As a marketer you need to have a target audience. Better yet, you need to know your audience.
When you converse with people, lot of people, We need to reach almost all the audience, and then we may not reach anyone at all.
Let us say, you have children’s nutritional products – you cannot target everyone to make a sale – especially not single bachelors. Your target audience are the ones who have kids - the parents or grandparents.
A medical representative doesn’t go around talking to everyone, including patients. His target audience is the doctors. The doctor in turn prescribes to his patients.

Define your target Audience.

Though you have a large audience, everyone is connected with their device, alone.
Connect with them 1:1 communication.
Join mental conversation that people are already having in their mind, which is how you connect.
Email/ message is more powerful than social media
Write to one single customer at a time. Direct your article towards that single reader, appealing to their dreams and ambitions.
Your simplest use of simple words is the most powerful.
When you write an email or a blog, use simple pronounceable and meaningful words.
Your objective is not to show off your vocabulary skills, your objective is to reach an audience, who in general, appreciates your simple usage of words and sentences.
Headline -> First sentence -> Second sentence -> Third sentence -> Fourth sentence
The headline should draw attention to the first sentence and that draws attention to the third and so on...
This process should be the link between your article and your reader. If you lose it somewhere, you lose your audience.
You are only as strong as your weakest link.
Address your target audience on a personal level. Address by their first name.
Focus on the Centre, not on the border.
To become a great marketer you need to reach an unbelievable depth
Our target audience is derived from demographics and psychographics.
The dictionary defines that demographics is statistical data relating to the population and particular groups within it.
The dictionary defines that Psychographics is the study and classification of people according to their attitudes, aspirations, and other psychological criteria, especially in market research.

Awkwardness is an indicator of learning.Challenges what you already know and creates new beliefs and way of thinking.

If at some level you felt discomfort when you were learning, it means that it is challenging existing assumptions.
Get comfortable with awkwardness.
Customer Avatar is derived from a set of data collected, usually in surveys or some other form of database.

Customer Avatar

In my survey , my idea was to market a financial package that will result in customers getting the returns. My niche here is financial freedom.
Here is my survey https://forms.gle/rgJ1ZMdHz4KvG1JW6