What is a market?
For media it is an audience – a great unknown mass of strangers. Maybe you have demographic data. But how much does knowing the average age of your audience really tell you? How do you really get to know them? During my time with BFM 89.9 and IMAN Publications I developed a systematic research process which I now offer as a consultant.
I conducted targeted interviews with members of our audiences, and collected information about our audience members to try to make them into more than just numbers. From this information, I constructed ‘Personas’ – fictional audience members representative of the audience.
These personas allowed for a deeper analysis. What are their hopes? What do they think stands in their way? If you find an audience’s pain points, then you can make content which addresses their concerns.
Of course, an audience is a dynamic thing, and your publication has to move with the times. Once you know your audience, you need to project market trends and anticipate how your audience’s pain points will shift.
If your content can do this, address pain points and shift with the times, then consuming your digital content will become a consistent habit and an active part of their lives.
For BFM, this meant managing a shift from radio to online, and finding a way of communicating to the younger audience that came with the new platform.
Young professionals in Kuala Lumpur were navigating new opportunities, but still insecure. My video team was able to make content which spoke to this, especially the video series Rumit.
When I came to Iman Publications, all of its eggs were in the print-publication basket. It was time to start building a new model.
Through my leadership, we built an ecosystem of content outside of printed books.
Podcasts to give writers a space to expand and speak casually on the subjects of their work.
Video series to put faces to the names on our books.
Online courses to give the readers a chance to systematically learn.
In person events, to build community after the pandemic.