Do not want your business to merge into such sad statistics? Then your goal is to get to know your target audience so that you can measure your potential buyers’ needs and work out efficient content for promoting your brand. This guide is to help.
Why Identifying Your Target Audience is a Must
Customers who would be interested in buying your product make up your target audience. The product this exact company sells determines the circle of potential clients. When knowing them well, the company can create a client-centric site, fill it with proper content, etc. And this is a major component of its future success.
You may think, “What can be easier than defining my target audience? If I sell children’s clothes, my target audience is children.” However, things are a bit more complicated here. Most likely, parents will purchase your clothes. OK, today’s kids also can do this. However, the key question you should be able to answer is not even who makes up your target audience but what exactly your target audience needs.
Target Audience Segments
In our example with kids’ wear, we have rather defined the company’s target market. That is, we have identified a large group of consumers to whom we would like to sell our product. Alternatively to your target market, your target audience comprises more specific groups that can be classified by the following characteristics.
- Demography
You analyze your customers’ age, gender, family status, incomes, and other similar factors.
- Geography
Where do your targeted customers live? Here, everything counts – country, region, city, etc. Knowing this will ensure your means of communication with these people.
- Lifestyle
When you can say which activities your target audience does, you can choose the right ways and places to advertise your product to them.
- Role
Finally, you should be able to segment your customers according to their behavior towards your product. How fast do they purchase your brand? Do they actually have the ability to do it? Questions like these should be answered.
Making audience research like this can significantly improve your marketing strategy. You will know for sure:
- how to reach your customer;
- what promotion means to use;
- what budget costs are required, etc.
Having a clear plan with these issues solved is of paramount importance, especially when you start a business or launch a new product or service. Surely, you will have to deal with SEO optimization today anyway. But having your website at the top and addressing the wrong audience will mean a financial suicide for your business.
5 Steps to Learn Your Target Audience
So, you know how different target groups in marketing can be singled out and why they are important. Now, let us observe the most efficient ways of defining your TA and analyzing what this audience needs.
#1 Define Your Ideal Customer
That is, you should inquire into your potential clients’ demographic, behavioral, financial, and other traits. As a result, you will have the so-called buyer persona at hand. This information will serve as a starting point at initiating communication with your customers.
#2 Explore the Market
We can put this another way – interact with your customers, both prospective and ready-existing. Today, there are multiple ways for communication with the audience, which do not require anything overwhelming. You may launch various polls, surveys, interviews, etc. At your disposal are social networks, video sharing platforms, such specialties as LinkedIn, etc.
Of course, the role of your digital content in this mission is difficult to overestimate. However, you have much more options than text-based articles today. You can create highly-entertaining videos, webinars, and such likes. Think it’s impossible to do a terrific video quickly and creatively? Suppose it takes ages to upload one to a platform? Click here to revise your opinion and start creating your appealing content right away.
#3 Study Competitors
You can assimilate the experience of your competitors and make it work for you. Analyze their marketing strategies and adopt the most effective of them. Focus your attention on their activities on social platforms. Which ones do they actually use? What do they post there and how often? Where do they have the maximum of reposts? Answer questions like these and you will know what your next step will be.
One more point is evaluating the areas where your competitors undergo difficulties. Knowing this gives you the ability to predict possible problems with your own audience. You can work out an innovative approach to them beforehand.
#4 Extend Understanding of Your Target Audience
In chase of new buyers, do not forget about your existing customers. You have enough means to read the data you have gathered so far. Are there any patterns? Then study them and build new concepts into your marketing strategy.
The good news is that we have Google Analytics. That means you can decode target audience groups as well as have a profound analysis of your existing customers for free even today. It will give you enough info about your clients’ age, gender, buying habits, etc.
One more source of crucial information is CRM. Using it will not only help you to organize an effective interaction with your customers but also supply you with important data about them. These include their contact info, products of their interest, etc.
#5 Rethink Your Marketing Strategies
When everything is done, you can proceed to apply game-changing ideas to your general marketing strategy. Focus on the most promising areas and do your best to provide them with proper promotional campaigns. Define how your content should be improved, which social platforms are more likely to bring you new clients, and so on.
Instead of the final word, one more recommendation. Be aware that pursuing audience research is not a one-time procedure. Markets are changing so rapidly, so not only may your audience change – your audience needs may change even more quickly. So, make it a rule to analyze them at least every six months. This mission can cost you time and effort, however, it will form the backbone of your business’ success.
