Audience: Use Their Language

Once you’ve figured out who your audience is and a bit about their demographic, why not start to use their language? There are many ways to determine if you’re using the correct language and these are just a few hints. If you still don’t know who your audience is, a survey is one way to get to know them. On social media, each platform has a different language as well.

Get Focused on Your Audience

So let’s imagine for a moment that you have figured out that your audience is mostly women who love athletic shoes. What could you assume about this athletic-shoe-loving woman? Maybe she thinks about what she’s going to have for lunch and dinner while she’s working out. She might be more willing to eat a salad than a pizza, she might love to watch sports on TV, and she might also be interested in athletic wear. She might be interested in ebooks about health and diet, buy pricey bottled water, and take lots of vitamins.

Charm Your Giraffe

Charm Your Giraffe

If you were a zebra trying to market to giraffes, it’s entirely possible that you could succeed at that. Finding out what giraffes talk about would be a start: where to get the freshest leaves, how far the nearest and best trees are, and where the carnivores are hiding could be some big topics for a giraffe. However, having a giraffe on staff who could keep your giraffe client in mind would greatly help with your marketing efforts. Because it’s not about you! It’s about the giraffe! You know what I mean.

Don’t Use Jargon

Acronyms abound in marketing materials, and you don’t want to make your potential clients guess what those acronyms mean. If your brand is in high-tech or the medical field, be very careful to explain everything so you don’t alienate your audience. Sometimes you’ll see a brand with a social media page and have no idea what they do. When you create a page, why not ask someone from a different industry to take a look. That is, unless you only want to appeal to those in your industry.

Use Emotional Language

Find out how you can access the inner life of your audience. Using friendly language can make your brand more accessible, especially on social media. You can go farther and stand for ideas like freedom, romance, or compassion when you use emotional language in your marketing. And images can speak even more loudly than words.

Male Versus Female Lingo

If your audience is mostly men, your language will be different than if your audience is women. You can do a little research about gender differences in language. Keep a particular person in mind if you’re a woman addressing a male audience, or vice versa. And remember that the images should also reflect that gender bias.

Do You Target Your Audience with Language?

How have you changed your style to fit your audience? Or, if you haven’t, why not?