Using Human Design Principles to Connect with Your Target Audience

hayleegaffin
Jun 30
14 min read

Do you really understand your target audience? Many small business owners skip crucial steps when it comes to understanding their target audience’s goals, pain points, and behaviors.

In this episode of the EverydayExpert Insights podcast, marketing coach Christina Hunt explains the importance of target audience research and how human design work can help you connect with your audience on a deeper level. She also shares how her personal growth journey has made her a better marketer and teacher.

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Christina: Hey, Christina, how's it going today? It's good. How are you, Sandra?

Sandra: Good. I'm, I was excited to talk to you because obviously both of us being in marketing and have done a lot of communications, we have a lot in common. I also kind of wanted to talk a little bit about all the amazing courses and things that you've been doing, uh, just to kind of give the audience a little bit of a sense of the incredible breadth and depth of marketing that you teach.

And then maybe dive into two different specific comments today, which would be identifying your target audience and setting objectives, which sounds like a no brainer, but there's so much like strategic reason behind it. So let's start with, um, what you've been doing, just the courses like lately. I know you're doing, doing a lot of things, but Yeah, like lately,

Christina: lately what I've been doing is a bunch of new courses actually.

So what I'm known for is my building your marketing strategy course. So it's a six week course that I give and I work with a nonprofit out San Francisco, but I also do stuff for Verizon. I dunno if you've heard of their, um, digital ready program.

Sandra: No.

Christina: So I give courses. Yeah, so I've kind of been shifting depending on what the market wants, and a lot of it lately is building marketing for retail and storefront businesses, expanding your brand globally, which I think is really interesting given the state of our economy and tariffs.

I'm not sure anybody wants to expand globally right now, but we're doing it and then I'm.

I've, the feedback I've gotten is that six weeks is too short. Um, so I'm gonna expand it into 12 weeks and really, really dive deep into everything because like target audience like that could be its own hour and a half long class.

Sandra: How, why is that so, I mean, I know why, but I'm thinking some people will be like, well, you know who you wanna target.

There you go. I'm done.

Christina: So target audience, there are a lot of assumptions made and I. Assume too much. And here's an example I got in like a low key argument with someone on Reddit because he has a coffee shop and he's trying to increase his foot traffic. And his question was about increasing foot traffic via Twitter and why is it not working?

And I was like, well, have you checked in with your target audience? Does your target audience want to see you on Twitter? The answer is probably no if it's not working. So setting up your target audience and understanding them from a psychological level, from, you know, their behavioral. You want to know what their obstacles are, what their pain points are, what their, um, goals are.

Because if you understand that you can come, you can craft a communication strategy that works.

Sandra: Otherwise you're. It's research like you really do have to research. Yeah. And I feel like we benefited from this being in tech because we had tools and systems at the companies that we worked at where you could go deep and you can get reports.

I don't know if you remember back in the Forrester days, there was that Forrester tool. Mm-hmm. Where you could literally plug in, this is my service offering, this is the GL that I wanna hit. And then it would pump out what they read, where they read it, how long they're reading it, what the demographic, like, had all that information.

But that's not easy for small businesses to get these days.

Christina: No, but you know, the San Francisco library system has a bunch of resources for free, like, I think statisticals on there. Um, they've got census data, so there's a bunch of different, I wouldn't call them expert networks, but they're like industry reports that are available through the library and people don't think about that.

Sandra: I was just thinking that could be a service like, because people don't have time. Like you're busy running your business every day, you don't have time to go to the library, check things, go online, double check back, check, all these kind of things. Is there a service like that right now where people can get just baseline?

I don't

Christina: think so. But if they were smart, they would use chat GBT and ask for sources, right? Because chat GBT is one of those things that people love to use, but we always have to fact check it.

Sandra: Chat. BT GBT is only as good as the information in there. So there's a lot of information about businesses that might not even be in there yet.

Christina: And so target audience is a whole class in and of itself because I like to do the work in class. I don't like to teach at people. I'm like, let's work together so that we can come across any obstacles together and jump together, right? Like I can be your person that you brainstorm with. Have you checked this?

Have you looked at this? And so that you can really nail down your target audience. So that you can come back to it later, because if you don't write it down, you're gonna make decisions later on the line that you have nothing to fact check with. You always have to come back to your target audience.

Would this person, this buyer persona that we create, would they want me to be in this place? Would they want me to be on Twitter or do they want me to be somewhere else? Am I addressing their concerns? Yes or no? And this kind of links with objectives too, is that I find a lot of people. Have what I like to call shiny object syndrome, where this is the new thing, let's do it.

But does your target audience want you to do it? No, it's so true. I find that that has to be something with branding, right, in your experience too, right? Because what's the new thing?

Sandra: Yeah, I mean that's, that's the whole thing of brand marketing is you have to establish a presence, but the presence has to be built on a strong foundation that's consistent.

So it's like an example would be like a bakery. It's great if you have specials on croissants every now and then, but if your whole business is really about organic flour, you know, killer ingredients and a solid piece of bread, like that's what you should be marketing. And then the croissants come every now and then.

Totally. And that's the thing that I feel. You get, I get, and I would love us to be able to help other small businesses get that. Is that really zoning in on who you're going after and really making sure that your objective doesn't just switch by the fly of whatever sounds good and fun because everybody else is doing it.

Let them do it. You don't need to do that. You can just be solid and the, the consistent framework that's in the middle all the time.

Christina: Can you bring up a good point? Because one thing that I have in my marketing strategy that I don't like to cover is competitive analysis. It's only in there because when you go for a loan, when you go for investment, people wanna know that you've looked elsewhere.

But I find that when people start to look elsewhere, they start to base their marketing and their messaging on what everyone else is doing. And you lose your authenticity.

Sandra: Yes. I mean, have you noticed this? I, I kind of, I thought it was kind of funny, but there were some words that I was using in my marketing a couple months ago, like some specific words, and then I started noticing that.

Some services that are not similar to mine. 'cause there isn't really anything that's completely similar to mine, but that are in the marketing space. Sort of using the same words. And I didn't get these out chat, GBT, 'cause I, I don't use that for my messaging. Right. I didn't get it out of there. So I was thinking, that's interesting.

So then I changed the words and I've been kind of trying to keep it fresh that way. And so what I'm trying to get at here is when you're setting your objectives in the audience. It is really important to just speak plain language and, and just say what you need to tell them in the terms that they understand, that they think that they're gonna get value from.

You don't need to use crazy words all the time, like, you know, enlighten, transform, oh my God. Um, all of the usual words that, you know, I'm talking about. I

Christina: know exactly what

Sandra: you're talking

Christina: about. I mean, but this is what gets me about a lot of marketing services, period. Because I get a lot of these targeted ads on Instagram myself about, you know, these, it feels really get rich quick.

Or if you do this one thing, you're gonna make X amount of money. What drives me nuts about that is that none of it is about the foundations of marketing and branding. That's why the

Sandra: work that you do is so important. Thank you. No, it really is. Yeah. Not to cut you off. Continue.

Christina: I'm really crap at marketing myself.

I know that sounds crazy, but you probably don't

Sandra: need to, I mean,

Christina: well,

Sandra: word, mouth, do you know what I mean? Word. Like you don't need to meet you. You've been teaching courses for so long. People come to you because they know that they're gonna get something great. What I was telling you before we got on the call, right?

I've just, in the last week, I've had three people tell me how much they love coming to your courses because you're really authentic and you teach the basics in a way that actually is helpful for them as they're starting a new business or even exploring. What's your secret? What's your secret? What, what's like a couple things that that you would say makes you different?

Because obviously you do your market research and you're in the mix. You do, you're everywhere looking out, you're talking to lots of people, so what makes you different?

Christina: Yeah. I think what's helped me a lot is I've been on a personal growth journey for a long time, and this is gonna sound so cringe, but the more that I learned about myself, the more about how I work, how I want to work, how I want to communicate with people.

Has really helped me shape my offering and how I approach my offering. So, you know, that started with some professional development things I did when I was working in London. I did something called the Forum. By that started it, then I became a yoga teacher and then I started doing human design. And once I found out my human design, it really helped me zone in on what my gifts and how I.

I think that's a big thing. So like the more I knew about myself, the more I was able to present myself authentically, but then also see other people where they are and help guide them to where they need to be.

Sandra: That human design work is what's really fascinating. No, I mean that's a societal people interaction thing that a lot of us.

We just go off our gut instinct, but there's like a whole process and

Christina: well, what I love about human design is that it's not like astrology where it's just like this is what's gonna happen to you. What it gives you is like, oh, ways that you need to make your decisions, right? How you are emotionally, what your energy levels are like, um, what your gifts are, how you can work with other people based off of their human design and recognizing their gifts.

And so it kind of helps you move through life. In a way that feels better, and that's why I wanna integrate that with marketing, because I find that entrepreneurs, small business owners, you are your business. There's no way to separate the human from the business person. So for you to work on your business and show up for your business, you need to work on yourself, right?

And find those strategies that help you show up more authentically for your business. Because not everybody can do the same thing.

Sandra: If you think about it, the places that we frequent, like in our neighborhood or the local stores, are probably the ones that we really like the energy of the people there.

Right. Totally.

Christina: And a lot of that is instinctual.

Sandra: Mm-hmm. There. Okay. Interesting. I mean, human design, I feel like we could have a whole conversation on that alone. Like that could be like an hour Yeah. Of a conversation. But no, that's interesting. 'cause your approach then I think is what people are feeling when they're with you.

Like they're feeling like you get them and that you're starting your courses thinking about where they are.

Christina: Yes. Yes, and, and having that patience, you know, because one thing I also, I wrote this in one of my latest LinkedIn posts that I think you, you read is especially working for this nonprofit, a lot of people have never worked in business before.

They're starting a business because of some other circumstance that has led them here. Whether it's losing a job, whether it's immigrating to this country. So I have to go in understanding that people need a baseline knowledge. They need patience and kindness. A lot of people are speaking a language that isn't their native language, so I have to communicate marketing in the complex topics of marketing in a way that they can understand.

And I, I think you've probably heard this saying too, like the, oh my God, this is such an ego hit for myself. But you really know someone knows their stuff when they can explain it in the simplest terms.

Sandra: It's not easy to do. It is not easy to do, especially, you know, in tech, like where, where we came from.

It took years for me to be able to, to unwind that complex way of talking and thinking into simple everyday terms. It's, it sounds easy, but it's not, and so every other industry has that too. Whether you're a lawyer or you're in the hospitality industry, whatever. There are probably terms and ways that you're used to speaking to people that get that language and they're in it, but for others.

It's like Greek, right? So

Christina: yeah, I mean, you're talking to a military spouse who talk and like my husband talks about airplanes all the time, and I'm like, I don't understand what you're saying. Just fly the plane. That's funny. Yeah, yeah. No, and so, and so when I come back to like objectives and target audience, that's my starting point because people need to have a goal, right?

They need to know what their objective is. If they don't have it, everything else that they do is. Kind of random, and I learned this in my time at the media agency, where it's like we need to tie everything to a business goal. If your business goal is to increase revenue, your marketing goal needs to tie into increasing revenue, right?

And what's gonna do that? It's not gonna be going on Twitter to try and get foot traffic. If you haven't. Like if you haven't set up your Google Business page,

Sandra: which comes back to I think, which is something probably you do really well, is. You don't jump to tactics.

Christina: Yeah, so I don't jump into tactics. We jump in understanding goals and direction and I think that's also a sigh of relief, but also a point of frustration because a lot of people are looking for quick wins.

Sandra: I know that's the thing. Nothing's quick. What's the word? Or it's the saying, nothing in life that's good comes easy. It's like, it's not that it has to be hard and complicated, but you, it needs to be thoughtful. Yes.

Christina: And I think a lot of people who come to me, or probably you too, like, let me know if this is true for you as well, but they're coming from desperation.

Sandra: I don't know. Yeah, I, I know what you mean by the word desperation. It's, it's very lost. It's sort of like, I just like, help me, help me. I don't know what to do. Yeah. I dunno what to do. Yeah. And I understand it completely because it's, life is overwhelming. Having a business is overwhelming. Trying to juggle the two is overwhelming.

I mean, right? Like you do this every day, and then com competition is everywhere and it changes everywhere. And then you throw in AI and you throw in all these other things that it just seems like unknown. And it is, it can seem really overwhelming. But I think that the thing that you and I can tell people is it doesn't have to be.

It really doesn't have to be like, if you can sit and, and talk to somebody like you or me or others that we know who are like, you know, trusted partners and and colleagues. It's just about just taking a moment and taking a breath and just taking some time to think about your strategy.

Christina: A hundred percent.

And it's like, again, if you set those solid foundations, just like building a house, you are going to have a strong, a strong business because you have those foundations. If you don't set foundations, everything's gonna be shaky. And you're gonna constantly be pivoting or feeling like feeling anxiety about what's next or why am I doing this?

And, and it's worth the time to set those foundations when it comes to objectives and target audience so that you can create. The right website, the right social media content, the right product flow, right, and customer journey as well. It all comes from those two things,

Sandra: which I will round out our conversation by saying, you and I talked about, we wanted to talk about target audience and upsetting objectives, but it's really only the first stage.

There's so many other stages after this. So I'm gonna wrap up today with you because cutie baby needs some attention. And then let's have another conversation on the next steps, like customer journey, what that's all about. 'cause I think. Baby steps kind of gets people to understand how to it, it all fits together.

Christina: I agree. Let's do it.

Sandra: Thanks for your time, Christina, and have a wonderful day. Bye.

Why Your Target Audience is So Important

The term “target audience” is common marketing jargon, but it’s more complex than most people think. You shouldn’t simply identify the people you want to target and then call it a day.

You need to understand your target audience on a psychological level so you can tap into their behaviors, obstacles, pain points, and goals in a respectable way. Once you understand those elements, you can craft an effective marketing strategy that increases your bottom line.

An overlooked way to find data on your target audience, especially for local businesses, is to use the resources at your local library. For example, the San Francisco library system offers free census data and other resources that can help small businesses understand their local audience.

Base Your Marketing On The Human You Want to Connect With

When you apply for a business loan or pitch to investors, they want to see that you’ve done your competitive analysis. Unfortunately, too much competitive analysis can be your marketing downfall. You shouldn’t base your marketing decisions on what your competitors are doing, base it on the human you want to connect with. Focus on speaking directly in plain English, sharing your message from an authentic place.

As a small business owner, you need to remember that you are your business. There’s no way to separate the human from the business. The more work you do on yourself, the better you’ll be able to craft an authentic message that makes an impact.

Tying Your Business Goals to Your Marketing Objectives

If your business goal is to increase your revenue, then increasing revenue needs to be part of your marketing objectives. You should also connect your objectives to your target audience’s goals.

For example, Christina teaches marketing to people who are not native English speakers, so her goal is to explain complex marketing topics in simple ways.

When it comes to your objectives, it’s important to be thoughtful and avoid quick fixes. The more thoughtful you are, the better choices you’ll make. Understanding your target audience and setting intentional objectives will guide you as you create your website, social media content, product flow, and customer journey.