In my last article I explained some aspects of Audience Building and tried to give a short overview. Because this topic is important to us – and as we have noticed, also to you – here is part two, in which I want to introduce our product “knk365 Audience Building” and go into a little more detail. 

We all want to know our customers, get closer, and inspire them with interesting content and products. But which methods are most appropriate, which strategies are successful, and why is there a product like knk365 Audience Building at all? 

The starting point and the first important question is: what do I want to achieve if I generate and analyze user behavior data for my content or proposal in-house? 

First there are technical and organizational goals such as: independence from Google Analytics, “sovereignty” over the collected data and its further use, as well as the design of the analytical depth and its significance. Interaction with other system components such as “classic” CRM or marketing automation is also high on the list of objectives to be achieved. 

The crucial question is to create the ability for us to see content, proposals, and products from the user’s and customer’s perspective and thus to make content delivery and marketing valuable and interesting for that individual customer. If I know my customer and her needs – her “point of view” – I can build trust and customer loyalty. 

Which steps are necessary? – From identification to opt-in

What routes do your users, your potential customers, and your visitors take? Your audience is identified by assigning a knkID, which becomes a unique key after the transfer of Google Analytics data and IDs. 

Next, knk365 will display audience building personas. Much has already been written on the subject of persona, so here is a very brief summary: In terms of target group and consumer types, the use of personas is by far the most flexible and detailed way to depict your audience, i.e. your customers. They are basically profiles. Personas are fictional individuals with a huge impact: first for the editorial staff (for whom are we actually writing?), for marketing (who exactly do we want to address?) and for sales (for which people will we be particularly successful?). It is therefore worthwhile to include all available data in the company and to be accurate when creating these personas. 

Analysis of the existing data using AI methods then leads to an assignment of the knkID to a specific persona, a prerequisite for targeted content matching and individual marketing campaigns. At this stage you have the ability to see your content / proposal from the perspective of your users, and to react accordingly. 

Interactions and conversion rates increase and with them the chance of an opt-in from your users – as a subscriber, as a member or as a permanent customer. An opt-in shows you have made relevant proposals or content for this customer. A knkID has become a real person who is telling you: “Yes, you may use my data, because I expect an even better and individualized offer from it and I trust you.” 

Data protection, Social media, Technology

Admittedly, this presentation of Audience Building is somewhat cursory, as it requires a lot of effort to really know your customers and to go through the steps described. We are continuing to put a good deal of effort into the development of knk365 Audience Building and continue to learn every day – it’s worth it. As paradoxical as it may sound, it is precisely the “anonymity” of the network that makes it possible to address individual people in a more targeted way. It’s no longer a target group, it’s the individual person. 

To be complete, there are three more aspects to audience building: 

Keyword data protection: When we talk about personas, it’s not about real people, but about profiles, about generalized user behavior. In your CRM it can of course be noted, for example that Mr. Müller can most probably be assigned to Persona 2. This is desirable and is a part of knk365 Audience Building. But the data remains strictly separated, on the one hand because we can’t completely accurately predict behavior, and on the other hand because legal regulations, quite rightly, impose strict conditions and prevent unethical use of personal data. 

Keyword Social Media: knk365 Audience Building covers all social media channels including Google Ads. But: here too there is no direct connection to a personal profile, the probability is calculated with clusters and AI. But you can, for example, make a posting on Facebook that is activated only for Persona 2 with a visit to your website. Anyone who is active on Facebook can see that this can also go wrong from time to time. 

Keyword technology: knk365 Audience Building is a kind of inverted CRM. A lot of data is generated for a few personas, and several million records per day are possible. It goes without saying that the conventional in-house database will no longer suffice. The foundation is Microsoft Azure. 

 Photo by Jonas Jacobsson on Unsplash