It’s so easy think that that to grow you must increase your reach.
This isn’t always true though. Far too often organizations try to reach so wide that they lose their core audience. In the effort, organizations can overextend and focus too much on the people they are least likely to engage and not enough on the people who are the true backbone of their organization.
It’s easy to get distracted thinking it’s necessary to get people back who came once and left. These people are not your ideal audience. Let them go. You want the people who have stuck with you, who have watched you grow, and those who have given you the support you need. There are two main audience groups that you want to focus on: your Lovers and your Likers. When you can identify and understand the qualities of these groups, you can focus on finding more people like that rather than just more people.
Lovers
Lovers are those people who are take desired actions frequently. They donate when you ask, they volunteer for events, they show up when you need them to. Your Lovers are necessary to expand your mission and achieve your goals.
Likers
Likers are very close to your Lovers. They may not take every action you desire, but they have taken a few and seem to be interested enough to come back. They are essentially the beginning stage of the lovers. Likers are the hidden gold in your database, and typically the most overlooked group when it comes to audience targeting.
It is a common misconception that you should focus on those who love you and those who don’t know you. The ones who love you deserve your attention and respect, use what you know about them to identify your Likers. If you want your message and reach to expand, without having to be everything to everyone, find the values these two groups share. You can then use those qualities to identify new, emerging audiences to target for growth.
If you need help deciphering your audience, give us a call at 267-468-7949 or drop us a line at info@iriscreative.com!
