Audience Research Beats SEO Marketing! with Alison Knott

Episode Summary

You can find Alison Knott at:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonknott/

Alison Knott Podcast Interview

[00:00:00] Kris Ward: Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Win The Hour Win The Day, and I am your host, Kris Ward. And today in the house we have Allison Knott and we’re gonna talk about audience research, not market research, audience research. So that’s a whole different thing, and I don’t think we hear a lot about that too often. So let’s dive right into it. Allison, where do we start? 

[00:00:21] Allison Knott: We start with what our end goal usually is as service-based business owners in marketing, right? We write something, we record a wonderful video. We have this really juicy, deep newsletter, and we send it out to the world. And our expectation is, oh, someone’s gonna comment.

Someone’s gonna DM me, someone’s gonna take this look at the link and go over and book that webinar, that session, that audit. That’s our dream. 

[00:00:46] Kris Ward: Yeah. 

[00:00:46] Allison Knott: And the reality is, I think for folk, no matter where they are in their business journey, the reality is a lot of hard work into our marketing. We put it out.

We don’t get the return we want. We get crickets. We don’t get the resignation. We [00:01:00] get our colleagues commenting on it, replying to us, and we’re like, that’s amazing. But you’re not my ideal customer profile. You’re not my ideal client. And that’s why I like to work with folk around audience research really.

Moving away from our goals, those are important, and figuring out what the goals are of our audience so that they will be more likely to work with it. So that’s audience research’s job, which is different than market research’s job. 

[00:01:28] Kris Ward: Which, but I would think that most of us at a high level have that wrong because I would think isn’t my market research about my audience?

Because wouldn’t I know my audience to put my market stuff out there? I think we all foolishly think we do, but we’re learning every day, every hour. I would see where lot oftentimes people really marketing and branding sometimes get lumped together and then marketing and sales gets a little bit enmeshed.

[00:01:54] Allison Knott: Yeah. 

[00:01:54] Kris Ward: So where, what’s the big distinction between marketing [00:02:00] research and audience research? Because I can see where I get that confused real quick. 

[00:02:03] Allison Knott: Yeah. Yeah. So the audience research is really putting aside our expectations and our wants and needs, our assumption, even our ecosystem or competitor information and getting really clear about what the people we wanna work with, what they’re looking for, that they don’t even consider us.

Our goal in marketing is to take people from not knowing we exist to listening. That’s the first part. And the second part is hopefully they convert, right? They buy the thing, they sign up and they do all of that. So market research. Ideally would cover an aspect of audience research, but it gets pushed aside.

Okay. And a great example of that would be our classic persona. So if anyone’s gone through a rebrand recently, or they’re working with a web designer, graphic designer, brand designer, fantastic folk. They might ask you for a one pager that kind of describes the people that you are attracting. And the problem with a lot of these is [00:03:00] they’re still rooted in our hopes and wishes as the service provider.

It isn’t really full bodied, it’s not robust enough for us to really understand and meet our audience where they are before they even consider us.

[00:03:14] Kris Ward: Okay. 

[00:03:14] Allison Knott: Yeah. 

[00:03:14] Kris Ward: So let’s look at this. So let’s say for my audience, the clients I work best with. I have accumulated that information over time. Yes. So we find, hire and onboard virtual assistants, put them in our leadership program and for entrepreneurs, and these entrepreneurs tend to be people that have been in business five, 10 plus years, and they are the go-to person for a lot of people in their life.

They get a lot of stuff done, they move quickly and they’re really efficient. And so what happens is they start to think there’s just too much work for me to do because I can get more done than anybody else. But I can’t keep up with this. So then they start looking at how they can reorganize themselves or be more disciplined.

It’s really not about that. They need some strategies in play. I’ve also noticed over years that a lot of my clients, [00:04:00] they have a background in sports, they tend to be very impatient with themselves. That kind of stuff. They look good on paper. Maybe they’ve got a podcast or a book. Now, I’ve accumulated this information over time, but.

I don’t know where I would’ve got that audience research. And also even something that sounds harsh, like they’re very impatient, but with, that’s with themselves, not with others. How would I, I don’t know where I would’ve asked those questions or where, yeah, I don’t know how I would’ve done that.

[00:04:29] Allison Knott: I think there’s like most things in business, there’s no, if we do every step right, we’re gonna get the end result. My question to you would be, you provided me such a deep, wonderful list of what their world is like. My question back to you is how did you prove, you’ve said this to me and I agree with you.

How did you know that when you talked about what happened, when you talked about these specific situations in your marketing? What was the reaction that you got from your ideal [00:05:00] audience? 

[00:05:00] Kris Ward: I don’t know. ’cause now we’re going down another road, meaning, just because I know this doesn’t mean I market it well, doesn’t mean I’m sometimes talking about the wrong thing.

So I think that gets very muddled. Yeah. And then I also think that my people look really good on paper, and they also tend to have secrets, like when they get to know me a little bit, then they lean in and they say, oh my gosh, you know what, Kris? I actually am working these crazy hours, but they don’t want anyone else to know, so they’re not gonna be chiming in wholeheartedly on my post.

[00:05:32] Allison Knott: Yeah. Yeah and that’s a tactical thing we’ll get into of like how especially my my area of expertise are folks that work in nuanced, complex, or sensitive topics and long sales cycles. Okay. So how do we work with this? But I’m getting back to, I think we have the capacity, especially in service space.

We’re fortunate, we work very close with our clients. What I’m inviting is not to only think about their world once they chose us and what’s happening in the world. Then we have some [00:06:00] tactics we’re gonna talk about today that helps us research their life before that moment. And it is a combination to your point.

The longer we are in business, ideally we’re taking notes and we’re keeping tabs on trends. A lot of service-based folk are doing that. So they have all this information about how the attributes of their favorite clients, but their marketing never talks about that, what I see. 

[00:06:24] Kris Ward: Oh, okay. Okay. 

[00:06:24] Allison Knott: He talks about when you’re in my course, when you’re in my thing, this is a big topic, but they’re leaving out the audience that experience. So audience research gets us out of our shell as the service provider at how touches are made, it puts us back out to understand their language. I would argue you’ve done a very good job over the years of this, Kris and I see the kind of content that you put out. Some folk know how their client, their audience operates, but their marketing doesn’t say the same thing. So I hear them talk very deeply and passionately about what their clients are going through. But when I audit their marketing, I’m like, [00:07:00] I don’t see any of this in your marketing. I see this very, once we’re working with us, we’re so proud. Here’s what you can do. And it’s missing that component.

Yeah. 

[00:07:09] Kris Ward: Okay. So hold on, let me jump in. So I think in one hand. At high level, I think isn’t that just market messaging? But as you were talking and kindly complimenting me and saying, I do a good job, I was arguing in my head thinking, oh, I could see now where there’s holes. So I may put out a post that talks about.

Here’s the thing. You finding a v good VA is one thing, but keeping them is another. And if your whole approach is the shadow method and you just expect them to run around after you and keep up, they, the best they can do is collect loose ends that you throw over your shoulder. And that’s showing about the pain of.

Because most people think that’s their pain, right? It, yes. But so that’s showing about that pain. But you’re right, the personality of these people who look at it on paper, who have been in business a while, who do get stuff done, and are traditionally the most organized person that they know, I don’t talk about that a lot.

You’re [00:08:00] right. Okay. All right. I don’t have a, I don’t have a conclusion. I just, I’m having No, 

[00:08:03] Allison Knott: This is it. 

[00:08:04] Kris Ward: I’m just having realizations. Everybody listen. Everybody listen while I think out loud. Okay. I don’t have a point. 

[00:08:10] Allison Knott: No. But this is because this is a mind shift, right? We service providers. I like again, I’m biased, I’m also a service provider, but I think what we do is pretty dang special because we are giving of ourselves and we have systems in place to grow us. But like you can’t order an extra 10 hours in widgets tomorrow. There are some things, but in consulting, in coaching, in advisory, there’s some aspect of us showing up.

So we are so fortunate to get an inside look on the attributes and the experiences with our clientele, but we tend to get so focused on when they work with us. And marketing can’t bring people in if they don’t have a sense that you understand where they are now. Okay. Not when they work with you. Yeah.

[00:08:54] Kris Ward: Okay. So is this I often compare things to fitness ’cause everybody’s wanting to lose five pounds at some point. So [00:09:00] is this okay, I’m a fitness person and I’m telling you, fitness instructor, oh, I’m gonna help you lose all this weight and by summertime you’re gonna look good in your bathing suit.

But then I’m not talking about the fact that, hey, you’re really struggling to lose weight ’cause there is no time for you. You got three young kids and you’re wondering how could you fit this in? That’s the difference between those two worlds. 

[00:09:19] Allison Knott: It is. Yes. And the finer point would be the audience research.

The way we go about it helps us understand who will amplify this and why and where. 

[00:09:32] Kris Ward: Okay 

[00:09:32] Allison Knott: so you may still have a piece of the puzzle of, I know my audience wants to express or communicate this idea. But where is the most appropriate place to do that and how would I go about it? So typically what I hear a lot of service-based is, my ideal audience is on LinkedIn.

I’m like, awesome. What are they trying to achieve on LinkedIn? Da. How does that fit into what you offer? Oh when they do this cool, but if they don’t know if they’re not ready to buy yet. You are [00:10:00] suggesting, not you, but the, in this example I’ll see that, oh, they’re on I’m realizing that my clientele are on TikTok and I’m like, fabulous.

What are they trying to achieve on TikTok? They use it a lot for finding memes and also to blow off steam about their lifestyle, let’s say. Okay. And I’m like, great, you are coming at this. Your current content is highly educational. Nothing wrong with that, but you’re going to figure out who in your world this is market research would be like, who else in your world is doing this work? Okay, the audience research, what we forget to do is, but did people react to it?

[00:10:32] Kris Ward: Okay. So yeah, let me break this down. And I don’t know how we find this out, but you might be saying, okay, market is a research.

I can look at my competitors and say, they talk about how you can exercise and lose 10 pounds and 10 minutes. I’m just being dramatic. And silly. And silly, right? Yeah, sure, sure. 

[00:10:44] Allison Knott: Yeah. 

[00:10:44] Kris Ward: Wow. And then what you’re, yeah, I’m being dramatic and silly. And then what you’re saying is. Okay. Maybe they’re on Instagram or TikTok for humor.

They’re looking at memes. They’re having a laugh, this is what they do when the kids go to bed. They don’t feel good about themselves or whatever, and they’re looking for a chuckle. [00:11:00] So now you’re saying, okay, then change your content. It, it doesn’t need to come from educational. You better make that humorous if you know what your audience is there for, even if it’s not for you.

[00:11:11] Allison Knott: Yes. Okay. And the audience research component would be, I know my competitors on there and they’re talking about this, and I will say, and what has been your audience’s reaction to it? 

[00:11:22] Kris Ward: Okay. 

[00:11:22] Allison Knott: Because there’s a big difference. I know of brands who have 14,000 followers on any given account, and they get two likes in one comment.

So we can say, sure, they’re putting it out there, but what can we find as evidence that not only of who this is and what they’ll amplify, but when you see your competitors ecosystem out there, audience research is this part we forget to look at. We’re like, I have to write something and put it out and get a result.

Pause and see what other people in your area have done and figure out what your audience is picking up and what they’re not picking up at all. And double down on that. So people just start creating content. Yeah. 

[00:11:57] Kris Ward: So are we looking at their comments or if [00:12:00] there are no comments, like what, how do we do this?

[00:12:02] Allison Knott: Ah, there we go. So we have lots of ways to achieve this so there’s no straight answer. ’cause if it was, everyone would go through marketing school, you get the pitch and it’d be done. But I wanna talk about a couple of ways to do this. That’s good. And I think feel good and appropriate for people no matter where they are in their marketing journey.

And so the first one, let me see here, just because this fell on me. There we go. So there’s a couple of ways to do this. I would start with your best fit clients now. Okay. So I would literally get on the phone and have a conversation with them. 

[00:12:35] Kris Ward: Okay? 

[00:12:35] Allison Knott: And it’s amazing how many amazing service providers.

Don’t do any sort of exit conversation when an engagement is done. They’re not checking in with their clientele mid project just to talk about them. It’s not about your product or your service. Okay? This is a tour to ask them a series of questions. Since they’re who you want. Okay. And you know about them a little bit when they [00:13:00] came on for your onboarding or discovery call, and they know even more about them when they’re working with you.

We ask certain questions that help us fill in that gap of what made them go from not caring what you were talking about to being interested. Okay? The lot of marketing is tied to, they’re already interested, they’re going to convert. And I’m over here like we gotta ask some questions that go, what was happening in your world?

They made you decide it was time to start looking for a solution. 

[00:13:26] Kris Ward: Okay. 

[00:13:27] Allison Knott: We can ask questions like what does success regarding having a VA look like to you? So we can do that. We can ask what else have you tried? And this one’s very powerful because often we assume that our ecosystem and competition are just like us, but our audience is not in our world.

They’re not nerds about organizations or government relations or change management. They’re trying to do a particular thing. Yeah. And they might let you know of something that you had never known was actually in your competitive space, but because we’re [00:14:00] removing the, when they work with you and we’re asking beautiful questions that ask them about what led them up to choosing you, that can be a great way to figure out what you can be talking about.

And we have the questions about like, where do you go to learn more about this? Are they reading books? Are they on podcasts? Are they on YouTube or are they on Reddit? So the gold standard is getting used to talking to your clientele that you want more of about things that aren’t related to the service you offer.

It is all about figuring out the istic moment that made them go from not giving a hoot about you to getting interested. ’cause we want more of that. 

[00:14:37] Kris Ward: So would we have a questionnaire? What books do you read, whatever, that kind of thing. 

[00:14:42] Allison Knott: Yeah. So I myself work with a series of seven questions.

Okay. People, again it all comes down to what you’re offering, but they’re open-ended questions that are more about what was going on in their world that made this important and less about how great of a service you produced or what the outcomes were.

[00:14:57] Kris Ward: Okay, that makes sense. A lot of people I [00:15:00] work with have more often than not, a lot of them have burned through a couple VAs and they’ve tried VA agencies, which we are not.

‘Cause the VA agency takes money from the VA and then you’re tied into this big contract and when you leave, you lose the VA. We don’t do any of that. So there is the frustration of the handcuffing of the agency and then mostly because they were not set up properly. The entrepreneur, they have burned through often three or four VAs before they come to us. 

[00:15:26] Allison Knott: That. That’s just it. And 

[00:15:28] Kris Ward: yeah, 

[00:15:28] Allison Knott: I think you had alluded to earlier of like topics that like, they understand, we’re both agreeing here that is in fact true, which I, yeah, I know because I’ve seen your work. So then we have this other component of that’s great Alison, but I’m addressing something that people aren’t going to say publicly.

I have that problem. Yeah. And I think this is, again, part of audience research is understanding who has approached these topics and did we see evidence of them being very public about it. That helps us as business owners really regulate our own expectation. If [00:16:00] everyone in my field talks about this topic and they’re getting a lot of likes and a lot of comments, I’m gonna stop getting hung up and I’m not getting comments ’cause that’s what my audience acts towards.

But I get curious. I would say, oh, but if it is important, I’ll give LinkedIn as an example. It might be something they won’t say publicly as a comment in LinkedIn, but if you notice that they’re checking out your profile or they’re liking, I say that’s really prime time to go into your dms in LinkedIn. ‘Cause DM is a safe place for prospects to talk about things that they’re not gonna elevate publicly. 

[00:16:33] Kris Ward: Okay. All right. All right. 

[00:16:35] Allison Knott: Yeah. 

[00:16:35] Kris Ward: Okay. Alright. I’m, this is all very interesting to me. My brain is going around in circles. Okay. So what else can we be doing for audience research? 

[00:16:45] Allison Knott: So the clients we like the most, I always find easiest ’cause they’re folk we know, right?

Yeah. And most people wanna help the next level would be. What we would probably typically call like a prospect. Okay. Someone we’d like to have as a client, but we’re not gonna sell to them. Okay. And we’re [00:17:00] not gonna talk about our product. We’re going to do audience research, which would be more the classic listening tour is how I like to talk about them.

And that’s a, so what I will do is I’ll give a classic example. I was thinking about creating a SEO course specifically to nonprofit. People, so I’m going B2O now, right? Business to business to organization. And I thought they really needed it. So I did not. I talked to some folk that I did know in that space and then I put out a call on my social.

So I said, I’m looking, I’m doing audience research, or you can do market research. Some people just understand that notebook are easier, so that’s fine. I’m doing marketing research on the goals that nonprofit marcom directors have for 2026. Regarding communications and I got a couple of people that were interested in it and I said and asked, thank you for my time.

It’s only 20 minutes, and as a thank you for your time, you can ask me any questions you have around marketing communications as my thanks. So that was the exchange. I had no intention in that meeting to ever bring up that I was selling a [00:18:00] course. I wanted to go around SEO, but I needed to really understand what their goals were.

’cause I thought SEO was the answer. Search and optimization. 

[00:18:08] Kris Ward: Yeah. 

[00:18:08] Allison Knott: And what I got out of that, these are actually generally the same questions you would ask your one-to-one client. They’ll just give you, they don’t have that added history with you, but they could still point to what they tried or didn’t.

And what I learned in that work was while everyone I talked to that were like a second or third connection away from me, they’re willing to have a conversation. They knew they weren’t gonna get sold to. They knew I wasn’t gonna go on and on and do a pitch at them, but all of them said the same thing.

They said, Allison, as much as we recognize that SEO is important, I will never get signed off or that budget and it’s just not priority in our nonprofit. And I was like, thank goodness I didn’t build it. Thank goodness I didn’t start talking about it online. So the two of ’em are similar. I just start with people we know.

Then you could even do in your client one-to-one, you could say, I would love to speak to other people like you. Now that you’ve known the kinds of questions I’ve asked, would you be [00:19:00] willing to put forward a name so I could continue on with this research? So there’s your next step. 

[00:19:04] Kris Ward: That is a good point.

’cause you would’ve been all up in it saying this, just ’cause it is important and you think it’s important And they said, agreed with you, it was important. Yes. It doesn’t matter. They know it’s important. They know it’s not gonna happen.

[00:19:15] Allison Knott: Yeah. And I also asked them one of my series of seven questions is like, where do you go to learn more about this topic?

And they were all like, I don’t. I was like that’s gonna make my marketing hard, because generally what I’m looking for is, oh, 

[00:19:27] Kris Ward: that is a very good point. Okay. 

[00:19:29] Allison Knott: But it’s so we go backwards. Yeah. I get it. We’re like you gotta start somewhere. It’s oh, I’m really comfortable listening to podcasts, so it makes sense that I will be, I will run my own podcast.

I’d be like, look, your horses, go do the research first and see if more people get more alkalde or more, or they’re talking more about other, yeah. 

[00:19:47] Kris Ward: Okay. So I think, here’s what I did really well, and first of all, I’m gonna make a note here. Come back, circle back. I’d like to know what your seven questions are.

Sure. But here’s the thing. When I started this podcast what I wanted to use it for is a [00:20:00] platform that I would get to meet amazing people and build and network and do have really strong relationships with people and have a reason to connect. This whole virtual coffee thing never really flew with me like, I have a virtual coffee for what?

What do we, I don’t know. You, I don’t know if we’re gonna jive and I don’t get to spend enough time as I want with people I love, and I don’t even know you. So this I thought could be a great tool for my business as far as I have something to offer. People that I would normally not never have any really relationship with, but I was smart enough I think to know, look at me, giving myself accolades here.

That I made it a broad topic. So anything from sales to social media. Yes. It was not what I do, not about hiring, finding, onboarding, virtual assistant, not about productivity, not about streamlining your business, not about scaling, not about any of that. Because here’s what I was thinking. People who are fit and love fitness, listen to podcasts about fitness.

People who need to lose 30 pounds don’t usually listen to podcasts about fitness. So I thought, ah, no. The [00:21:00] people who are stressed out and busy and come to me with their hair on fire when they first meet me are not having the time nor the interest to listen to an annoying person talk about productivity in a podcast get outta my way.

Actually, what I think I need is a VA, or what I think I need is more hours in the day. So I did think, ah, that’s not what my people, that’s not what the audience is going to be asking about. Is that a good example of that? 

[00:21:24] Allison Knott: Yeah. ’cause you’re, and you’re putting it in their words, right? We know again we’re gonna do a feasibility audit for them and it’s gonna achieve these goals.

Those folk really don’t care how you make the sausage. They know the goal and they might even be communicating that goal in a different way. And for you, you could have doubled down on that as well and said, not only am I gonna do my effort in marketing for this, but I’m gonna eck out two hours every quarter to go find other people my ecosystem and see what topics are they talking about.

Are they like mine? Are they getting engagement? Yeah. And you’re, and that’s just, I think we’re so excited to put stuff out. Yeah. And I’m like, just [00:22:00] people have already done the work for you darlings. Yeah. Like people could have huge followings and have crickets. Some people could have a tiny thing and you might say, oh, I like the way they talk about that topic, but they’re missing the lens as a queer provider.

Or they’re missing the lens as a semi-retired professional. Awesome, see you found what is already working and you’re gonna add your lens to it, right? So that’s the audience research is what are people responding to? What are they amplifying it, and why would they amplify it? 

[00:22:27] Kris Ward: Yeah. And that’s why we went through a phase a couple years ago.

There was a lot of people running summits, oh, I’m gonna have this summit. And you’d be like, you build up three months of trying to build a list of a summit and you’ve got no individual feedback, no client foundation, no loop that’s shortened, that’s giving you, information and you put all your eggs in one basket to build a summit.

Yes. It’s oh my gosh. And it just, then everyone around them really got destroyed ’cause they’d get so stressed out and cranky that this business model is not working. And they invested 3, 6, 9 months in it sometimes. With, no, no proof. 

[00:22:58] Allison Knott: I would say brand new [00:23:00] businesses that go through classic entrepreneurial cohorts have got one advantage over us who, when these cohorts weren’t really around and have like just found our way through. And that is most startup and entrepreneur cohorts start with customer discovery and that’s before they even know what they’re gonna sell or offer. They make them go out and do between 50 and a hundred interviews with people to figure out what do people want.

Okay. And us who are a little more along our journey did not get to go through that path. We generally find it through effort. Yeah. And sweat, tears, fall tears to try some things, but the flip is, our beauty is we know our audience better. They’re working on hypothesis. We have a bit of groundwork. My argument or my challenge to folk is are you pausing to see how audiences are responding to what you and others are doing?

Or are you stuck on and I’m there too. So and so has 17,000. I’m a LinkedIn person, 17,000 people on LinkedIn. God, if I only had that number. Then I go and I’m like what are they following them for? Yeah. Nothing that I talk [00:24:00] about. What am I comparing? So that audience research just helps us get our heads out of our butts.

[00:24:05] Kris Ward: Yeah. Okay. So what are your seven questions? 

[00:24:08] Allison Knott: My seven questions are. 

[00:24:12] Kris Ward: Dramatic pause. 

[00:24:13] Allison Knott: I know. And let we need, so I’ll say X and X could be one other topic that you’re trying to unearth with your ideal audience. So what are your main priorities regarding X? Okay. And how does it fit into the work you do?

[00:24:26] Kris Ward: Okay. All right. 

[00:24:28] Allison Knott: What does success regarding X look like to you? 

[00:24:32] Kris Ward: Okay. That’s a good one. Yeah. Yeah. What is a successful VA? Yeah. 

[00:24:36] Allison Knott: Yeah. Or like the success to them, to your point is it’s getting more time back, right? Yeah. So they’re not working on the business all the time. Yeah. But we don’t know what a success could be, depending on the relationship with people.

They’re like, I’m doing it for my career. Move. Or I’m doing it because I went through therapy and I’m ready to step into a bolder version of myself.

[00:24:53] Kris Ward: Yeah. Or they’ve got aging parents, they need to spend more time with them or whatever. They wanna start taking vacations with their families, see what the kids look like [00:25:00] now that they’re growing up.

[00:25:01] Allison Knott: Yeah. Yeah. And it’s very different if our audiences like their own. Like their own boss, or if they’re employees too, you get it’s beautiful depending on what people are offering. Yeah. I love this one. What have you tried? What’s worked, what didn’t? What was your experience like this nurse who your real competition is and what they’re trying?

[00:25:18] Kris Ward: I, these, a lot of these are my questions in my sales process, so it’s somewhere my funnel. Okay. All right. Continue. Yay. 

[00:25:25] Allison Knott: This one could be tough for folk, but it’s, think back to when you first thought about this topic. Okay. Do you remember what was going on in your world that triggered that? 

[00:25:34] Kris Ward: Okay. That’s a good and precise question. Got it. 

[00:25:37] Allison Knott: Okay. And it can be, you ask and you pause, you yell, people speak, and you go, interesting. Tell me more. And you let them. Okay. Wander. And that one’s good because that can be a way that could help you sort out people who are tire kickers or they’re not quite sure.

It could, that some it depends on what you get your answer. Yeah. Some folk will find that question, helps them go, oh, that’s where these are taking what I offer seriously, so [00:26:00] I’m gonna start talking about that more and this other thing less because none of them ever really mentioned that this problem was when we started thinking about it.

[00:26:07] Kris Ward: Got you. 

[00:26:07] Allison Knott: What do you still struggle with? In regards to this topic, that could be a wonderful way for you to have different kinds of content. You could talk about maybe you tried talking about a topic two years ago and it wasn’t relevant, and now that you’ve done this tour that same topic is actually really relevant.

It’s go you, you are ahead of your time. So what? And 

[00:26:27] Kris Ward: also the words that they use. A couple years ago, everyone, we called it outsourcing. Now it’s your va. It’s the same thing. Only we’re calling it if, we have to be mindful the name is changing 

[00:26:35] Allison Knott: that, that’s audience research, right?

Yeah. If you’re trying to attract someone, you need to know what their, like what, what’s gonna make their, what’s to make that head turn. Who’s gonna amplify it and why? This one is, we’ve seen this one a thousand times. If you could wave a magic wand to solve X, how would you feel? Yeah. Because we all know that business decisions are made with emotion.

Yeah. Always rational. Yeah. And then the one that I like that keeps this [00:27:00] audience this audience research going, it could also help me as a founder who’s responsible for my marketing. How I can keep things in a priority. This question is, when it comes to X topic, where do you go to learn more? Who do you look to or follow?

And you want names you don’t want? Oh, I got like what books, what podcasts? What Reddit you know what sub Reddits, all of that good stuff. So you can go and research if they’re telling you that people are on there. What content is resonating and what is falling flat and all the stuff that’s resonating, where do you fit in?

Yeah. And if it’s working for that person who has triple the audience, darling, go do the same with your particular brand, with your flavor, with your lens and your experience. 

[00:27:43] Kris Ward: Fantastic. Alison, where can people find more of your brilliance? 

[00:27:47] Allison Knott: Mostly on LinkedIn, especially if you look a combination of fart jokes and micro B2B marketing support.

[00:27:54] Kris Ward: Okay. All right. 

[00:27:55] Allison Knott: Like to keep it in there. And also I think in the show notes we’ll put down I do have a ungated way of like getting a more. Let’s say more well-rounded persona. So we’re asking some questions that are less about our goals as the business owner and more like what’s happening in their world, who is influencing them, those sorts of things.

And that offer also has just as an extra bonus, if anybody has multiple ideal clients and are thinking, how am I going to create a hierarchy? I put the two of them together. ’cause often in doing persona work that is deeper and more rich, that we have that. 

[00:28:29] Kris Ward: Fantastic. Okay. Share this with the business, but I don’t have them banging around by themselves.

There’s all kinds of takeaways here, and we’ll put everything in the show notes so you’ll get all the goodies. And thank you again, Allison. We so appreciate you and everyone else. We will see you in the next episode. 

[00:28:44] Allison Knott: Bye bye.