Understanding Target Audience and Driving User Engagement

What We Discussed with Jason

On this episode, host Eric Dickmann interviews Jason Sherman about understanding your target audience and driving user engagement. Jason is a successful entrepreneur, award-winning filmmaker, published author, tech startup expert, and journalist. Here are some highlights of our conversation:

• [00:03:41] Everybody can be a content creator! - Jason Sherman shares that he is blown away by the film industry's paradigm shift from bulky DSLRs and expensive film equipment to mobile phones. You can create a simple script, shoot in nearly any location you want, and create content. In fact, his latest documentary was just shot on his iPhone!
• [00:06:14] A common mistake of entrepreneurs - The number one mistake Sherman sees in many entrepreneurs is that they think their target market is everybody. Instead of focusing on a specific niche where they can be successful, their fear of giving up any business pushes their focus too broadly which slows growth and increases marketing expense.
• [00:09:05] Businesses do not do much A/B testing  - Jason explains that many entrepreneurs invest too much of their advertising budget on one campaign without doing any testing and experimentation. It is better to try small experiments to see what messages resonate best with your target audience than to plow ahead with a large scale campaign that hasn't been tested.
• [00:12:26] In any business, iteration is key!- You can't skip a step or take a shortcut just to save money and time. It's important to follow a process to be successful in your business. The steps are there for a reason. Follow the steps and iterate as needed to find something that works.
• [00:13:28] What can businesses do with a small marketing budget ? -Jason shares the three ways to impact the market even with a small budget: engage your customer, be a subject matter expert in your industry, and create a simple website to bolster your brand. 
• [00:22:00] How can I stand out in the market? - There are many businesses that offer similar products or services to what you are selling. If you are an entrepreneur who truly wants to stand out and be revolutionary, Sherman urges you to find the ultimate pain point faced by customers, dig deep and come up with a unique way to be the first one to solve that specific problem. 
• [00:29:09] What works online? - Jason shares that it's tough to predict what will happen in the future. The market has seen a move from a lot from  paid ads to the rise of influencers creating their own content and publishing it on their websites or social media accounts. However, Jason encourages companies to get a mix of both paid ads and organic content for lead generation. Getting a celebrity on board is always going to help but that's not always very practical. 
• [00:31:25] Stand up and be productive! - The pandemic and tight restrictions have caused many of our schedules to be disrupted and has hurt productivity. Jason encourages you to get up off the sofa, put down the bag of chips, and create something...anything! Creating valuable content can make a meaningful impact on your business for months to come.