Audience-First Marketing: A Conversation With Haris Alisic

How well do you actually know your audience? Digital strategy consultant Haris Alisic helps you get better acquainted with the people who inhabit are in your target market. He sits down with Elana Leoni, CEO of Leoni Consulting Group, to examine the do's and don'ts of good marketing strategy, identifying your audience through their social media behavior, and how to sift through the data generated by those habits. Haris is wise, thoughtful, and inspiring, and we'd like to share some favorite moments from our conversation. Also, don’t miss the social media tools and resources he shares below!

Keep Your Marketing Strategy Real

According to Haris, a crucial element of any successful marketing strategy is its flexibility:

"You can adjust tactics, you can do imperfect things. But if you were to do all the best things you can do, but your strategy is wrong, then all those amazing tactics would be in vain. So it is crucial to revisit your North Star and what your direction and strategy is."

Being aware of your audience's needs seems obvious, yet Haris has seen many startups begin with an echo-chamber idea of their product rather than hard data about what people want:

"If you don't adjust your product or the way you are talking about it to the people you are trying to talk to, your chances of helping them and achieving success for yourself will greatly diminish."

Without key messaging tailored for platforms where your audience is likely to encounter it, you've wasted time and resources on a strategy that doesn't work.

When Targeting Your Audience, Less Is More

Much of Haris' advice comes back to the principle of audience first – earning the attention of the people who matter most:

"With your product, with the problems you're trying to solve, identify first who those people are, or good representatives of them, or good channels where they congregate, or good hashtags they use. And just hear them out, see what they talk about, see what the problem is."

Everyone wants to broaden their reach, but in doing so, they risk diluting their carefully crafted message. As Haris cautions:

"You cannot target everybody. It is technically possible, but your message will not be consistent, because not everybody wants the same thing. You have to choose whom you are targeting."

In the spirit of efficiently using your data and resources (aka "less is more"), Haris suggests following this checklist:

"First, you look at your purpose. Based on that, you identify a target audience and then look at the market. Probably, you'll find a variety of problems. Identify those problems that you can solve the best. When you have this short list, look at your competition and see where is the competition smallest, and where would it be easiest to succeed? Then pick those, and develop key messaging and product. And that has always shown to be a recipe for success."

Don't Get Lost In The Data

We live and work in a data-saturated world, but that doesn't necessarily make us data-informed. Haris assures us:

"Nobody has all the data, so be at ease with what you have. And for a lot of people, data is not enough. Data is just the raw material."

Some of the most useful data come from the digital platforms where your audience lives, whether Twitter, TikTok, or Facebook. Haris suggests a range of tools that identify how your target audience interacts with these environments. With that data in hand, you can learn how to capture their attention with information about how your product can solve their problem. He also reminds us that confirmation bias can be a seductive shortcut to the indicators and results that we'd prefer to see:

"You should have a hypothesis, but then you should test this hypothesis against relevant people in your target audiences."

In other words, data aren't real people with real needs. Data suggest trends and tendencies, and Haris encourages us to respect our audience's humanity:

"Use every tool with caution. Don't use the numbers as absolute, use them as indicators."


Here's the full transcript of Haris’ podcast episode.


What We Talked About

Use this to jump to parts of the conversation you want to listen to more closely.

  • [00:50] Introducing Haris Alisic

  • [05:20] The only consistent element in strategy and tactics: be prepared for change

  • [08:05] The importance of audience

  • [14:05] Making the audience care about your product

  • [17:08] Product authenticity

  • [19:53] Why data isn't the be-all and end-all

    • "It's not about data only, it's about interpretation. And you have to really be honest with yourself and use what you have.

  • [28:15] Keep in mind the fundamentals of marketing

    • "It's better to do less properly than to do more in not such a good way. I'm talking about figuring out what is that you need to say to your audience, your message based on their needs and problems."

  • [30:17] In marketing, less is more; narrowing down to your target audience

  • [34:12] Aligning vision with actual resources and capacity, following or ignoring trends, a checklist for how to proceed

    • "Nobody knows everything, and often we will get questions we are not ready for, and don't feel pressure to say yes or no immediately. Just say, 'Let me look into it,' and then come back with your recommendation."

  • [43:42] Seeking audience attention vs. imparting a message to that audience; the appeal of new platforms

  • [47:29] Haris recommends tools for reaching audiences

  • [56:07] What fills Haris’ cup


Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

Social Media Reports

Tools

  • Tubular, Haris recommends this video tool (not free but worth the price)

  • VidIQ, Haris recommends this free tool

  • Social Blade, Haris recommends this free tool

  • CrowdTangle, Haris recommends this free tool

  • TubeBuddy, Elana recommends this Chrome extension for YouTube optimization

All Things Haris


Elana Leoni, Host

Elana Leoni has dedicated the majority of her career to improving K-12 education. Prior to founding LCG, she spent eight years leading the marketing and community strategy for the George Lucas Educational Foundation where she grew Edutopia’s social media presence exponentially to reach over 20 million education change-makers every month.

Haris Alisic, Guest
Haris Alisic is a digital strategist with over 15 years of leadership, including over ten years in media. Based in Doha, Qatar, he leads multiple teams spearheading digital strategy, content development, social media, and digital marketing across three languages and continents. Most recently as Head of Audience Development and Engagement at AJ+, Haris specialized in managing content distribution and copyright disputes; overseeing strategic content development process; overseeing data science and providing insights and reporting; and managing partnerships with social media platforms. Prior to joining AJ+, Haris worked with Al Jazeera Media Network, Notified, E.ON Sweden, and Ludesi AB (among others), launching multiple digital brands and TV channels in the U.S,, Europe, Middle East/North Africa, and Latin America. He holds degrees in business, communication, and computer science from Lund and Malmö Universities, and previously studied nursing at the Medical School of Banja Luka.


About All Things Marketing and Education

What if marketing was judged solely by the level of value it brings to its audience? Welcome to All Things Marketing and Education, a podcast that lives at the intersection of marketing and you guessed it, education. Each week, Elana Leoni, CEO of Leoni Consulting Group, highlights innovative social media marketing, community-building, and content marketing strategies that can significantly increase reach, relationships, and revenue.


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