How to reach an audience
This week our focus is about how to reach an audience.
We’ve all heard it: when it comes to audience building, content is king. But what happens if the king can’t be found?
Unfortunately, even brilliant content can’t reach an audience without a practical and strategic plan.
Anyone who’s ever made a piece of content and published it has worried about it reaching its intended audience.
What if no one sees, hears or reads it? Imagine putting all that work in for …. “cue the crickets”.
But if you can figure out who your audience is and where they are online before you start, – and you craft your message into a great story that will interest them – you’re already half way there.
Firstly, who is your audience?
If there’s anything we can teach you it’s this: you must know who your audience is. You simply can’t reach the right people if you’re not tailoring your content for them.
Uncovering who your audience is will ensure you not only create terrific content but also the content that answers their pain points and establishes you as an authority in your industry.
Of course, this is not what we’re discussing today. So, if you’re still trying to identify who your target audience actually is, we recommend reading this post on How to Master Your Message.
But from now on, we’re going to assume you know who you want to talk to – you’re just struggling to give them what they need.
Get your audience interested and give them a reason to listen
Reaching an audience is a huge part of what we do at Moonshine Agency. For more than a decade, we have been experimenting with all kinds of different ways to connect with people through film. From hosted screenings, to 60 second videos for Facebook or Instagram, eDMs, magazines, newsletters and everything in between. We’re pretty sure there’s nothing we haven’t tried to reach and captivate an audience.
Here’s some advice to live by: people will only tune into information that they are interested in hearing when it is shared on the platforms that they’re comfortable with.
What we’ve found is that no matter the topic or desired outcome, ensuring your audience actually absorbs your message and considers your perspective, always comes down to the delivery method.
And sometimes you might have to consider a myriad of ways to share your content.
Let us share an example with you.
How Moonshine Agency reach an audience
In 2019, we were approached by the Queen Victoria Market (QVM) in Melbourne to remind locals and tourists alike that it was still open for business.
QVM is one of the largest and oldest markets in Victoria – it’s a destination for many travellers and people who live and work in the city of Melbourne
But the Melbourne CBD has experienced enormous growth over the past several years and the market has often found itself in the middle of a construction zone or shrouded by new developments. Which is not ideal for maintaining a steady flow of foot traffic.
QVM wanted to find a way to attract the community back to the market during this relentless period of change. They needed to remind visitors what they loved about it; from the food and the craftsmanship, to enjoying time with friends and family in a vibrant and diverse environment.
Of course, the market’s diversity was perhaps its biggest challenge – some people come for the fresh food, others for the clothing or souvenirs. How could we communicate it all?
But when the QVM marketing team approached us, they were adamant about showing all the different avenues of the market. So what was our approach?
Hidden Stories of the Queen Vic Market
QVM has been part of the fabric of Melbourne for more than a century. It’s a historic site bursting with 600 small businesses, and many have been trading at the market for generations.
It was important to convey the frisson, connection and sense of community that the market imbues but is often missed if you’re just stopping by to grab a bunch of grapes.
To capture the buried thrill of QVM , we produced 10 ‘hidden stories’ in English and Chinese, to remind locals and tourists that the market was so much more than a landmark or green grocer.
The ten films were released via the QVM’s website as YouTube embeds.
Shorter versions were also released on the market’s Facebook, Instagram and Weibo (with Chinese subtitles) pages.
We also included closed captions for each of the films, which not only made them more accessible but also supercharged their performance on Facebook and Youtube.
What were the results?
In 30 weeks, the videos reached more than 600,000 viewers. Yes, that’s right – 600,000 people were reacquainted with the Queen Victoria Market through the Hidden Stories series. The films boosted trade and created a new buzz around the market that is still being felt today.
Reach, and keep reaching
Thanks to social media platforms, streaming sites and the internet more broadly, we’re able to connect with an audience in more ways than ever before. And with the comprehensive analytics tools available, it’s also much easier to test what’s working and tweak your strategy accordingly.
Reaching your audience always comes down to who they are and where they are.
We have spent many years creating online content that connects and resonates with audiences all around the world. We’ve had to think through strategies and conduct research time and again to ensure that the content we make really does reach an audience.
To learn more of our insider tips and tricks, listen to (or watch) this episode of the Moonshine Moonshot podcast. We’d love to know what you got out of this episode too (it will help us create the content you want to hear) so please share any takeaways in the comments section below.
As always, thanks for listening.
If you’re short on time and just want to skip to the episode highlights
00:34 Why do you need a release strategy?
01:58 You’ve got to know your audience.
02:38 The Queen Victoria Market case study.
08:19 What is versioning and why do it?
16:44 Facebook and YouTube – why use both?
22:05 Why analyse the reach?
Thanks for joining us and once you’ve watched or listened, please let us know what you thought? Have you tried any of these techniques before?
Your feedback will help us make more useful episodes so please and we love to know what are audience is thinking. So please, share your thoughts.
And if you want more info on messaging or storytelling for impact, you can find those topics and many more on the Moonshine Moonshot Podcast and YouTube channels.
Your feedback will help us make more useful episodes so please, share your thoughts.
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We look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes,
Sue & Mike
Learn more about Sue and Mike here