Find Your Target Audience
Defining your target audience is crucial to brand recognition. Why? Imagine the time and money you’d waste engaging with people who have no interest in your brand. To avoid squandering resources, take these simple steps to find, and retain your target audience.
What is a target audience?
Generally speaking, your target audience is that specific section of people most likely to engage with and purchase your product or service. You may be tempted to design your digital marketing strategy to reach as many people as possible, but this will only result in your message being drowned out in a busy online marketplace.
Your target audience will influence the language of your brand, its tone of voice and its ethos and values. It will also determine the marketing platforms you choose and how you visually represent your brand.
There are different types of target audience categories; some are defined according to age, others to geography, interests and personality.
To ensure cost-effectiveness and the best use of your time whilst you find your target audience, we recommend grabbing a pen and notepad and sketching out an ideal customer profile.
How to create your ideal customer profile
A lot of businesses neglect to think about who they’re trying to sell to. Some adopt a ‘throw it all at the wall and see what sticks’ approach, which is not only a waste of time but demonstrates a lack of strategic thinking. However, we recognise that running a business is really hard work. Addressing the minutiae of marketing is overwhelming and something that gets added to the ‘to do later’ list.
This is why we want to stress how easy it is to create an ideal customer profile. This simple exercise can have a dramatic effect on the success of your brand. And it’ll save you time and money; so surely it’s worth looking at?
Demographics
Jot down the characteristics of your ideal customer. You can compile this information from your current customers and from followers on social media:
– Age
– Gender
– Where they live
– Education
– Profession
– Personality
– Interests and aspirations
– Problems and worries
– The social media platforms they frequent
– Where they shop and why
There may be other factors to consider depending on the nature of your business, products and services. If you sell baby products your ideal customer will be a parent; if your business specialises in cosmetics, your ideal customer is most likely to be a woman over the age of twenty-five.
Give your ideal customer a name and create a bio you can refer to when crafting copy and content. This could take the form of a short paragraph that outlines who your ideal customer is, what motivates them and what problems they are currently experiencing. Use your bio to define your brand tone of voice; imagine that you’re engaging in conversation with your ideal customer. Many products have a natural demographic which will make your job easier.
Business to business
You can apply the same principles to your ideal business.
If you’re selling directly to other businesses, think about the businesses you wish to engage with: are they freelancers, start-ups, SMEs, non-profits or corporations? Participate in social media channels like Linkedin and connect with companies you want to do business with, specifically with the person who makes buying decisions.
Once established in your business, consider your niche: who do you really want to work with? This isn’t always feasible in the early days of setting up shop, but with time, you will discover who your ideal business customer is.
How to Find Your Target Audience on Social Media
Social media platforms are fickle beasts so it pays to know what platforms are going to best serve your business.
Get to know your followers and the people who engage with your posts. Immerse yourself in a spot of social listening: following hashtags related to your business, following what your competitors are doing and ‘listening’ in on what your followers are talking about. This data can be incredibly helpful with zoning in on your target audience.
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In today’s economy, a well-defined target audience is more important than ever. By creating audience-specific marketing messages you can enjoy a higher return on investment than those companies who employ the scattergun marketing approach.
We can help with all aspects of digital marketing, from helping you carry out a digital audit to creating a successful social media marketing strategy. Get in touch with us for an informal chat.