CHAPTER 3
Knowing (Your Audience) Is Half the Battle
Shane Johnson © 2011.
I need something that really says me!
Principles
1. Identifying the right target audience is pretty easy. Your focus should be on understanding who they are, how they operate, and what motivates their interest and behavior.
2. People tend to follow some basic patterns. By recognizing and analyzing those patterns we can begin to predict how people will act in the future, and what influence we can have on their behaviors.
3. The most important organ in the decision-making process is the brain, and our understanding of how the brain works—and how that influences our work—is growing daily.
4. The idea behind the long tail is as relevant today as it was back in 2006, and likely growing more relevant still.
A few years back, when writing Media Rules!, I coined the term transactionalization to describe the challenge that organizations face when developing relationships and serving their audience. I wrote:
Transactions take place when any kind of good or service is exchanged for something of value. Typically, that is thought of as an exchange for money—the purchase of a product, for example. With online and offline organizations, and businesses in particular, competing for the attention of the audience, the expectation for many is that transactions will be exactly the same no matter the venue. The result is ...
