Defining your Target Audience
'Who’ exactly are your ideal customers?
- Demographics
- Pains and Opportunities
- Solutions and information are they looking for
- Emotional Drivers
Defining your Target Audiences
The first step in building a great marketing strategy is providing the foundations to clarify who you are selling what to. To tap into your target market, you need to get to know them… intimately!
Your target audience is all about defining your ‘who’ (and it’s not female 18-65 by the way!). It needs to be way more specific and should consist of at least 3-5 different segments of ideal customers that encompass all your different needs and wants. These segments won’t account for all your customers, but you want to define them as best you can.
- This is the ‘WHO’ you are selling too!
- You don’t want to be selling everything to everybody
- Don’t define your market as female 18-65 (it’s too broad)
- You must get specific with 3-5 core target audiences
- You know them better than they know themselves
- You know what they need emotionally
We’ve developed a brainstorming template to help you start the process!
Target Audience
The better you know your target audiences, the more successful your business will be. But where do you start?
Our 5-step guide will help you on your way. Try to be as specific as possible when you are completing each step and don’t be afraid to be a little creative!
1. The Who: Start by defining the actual person and their demographics
Things you want to think about is their gender, age, relationship status, location and income. You can even take this further to define their personality, attitudes, values and behaviours. Start to think about how this person would start looking for your product/service. How are you going to find them?
2. The Why: Why do they want the service / product you offer?
Plot out a list of reasons why your target audience want/need your product or service? What problems, pain points, challenges are you going to solve for them? What is motivating them to search you? What have been their past experiences that is influencing their behaviour?
3. The How: How do they go about finding / searching / looking?
Where are your target market seeking you out? Do they prefer to visit retail stores and speak to an expert and see and touch the product? Do they search for you online? Are they influenced by what their friends are saying on social media? Do they ask friends and family for recommendations or do they read online blogs/reviews to form a decision. By answering these questions you’ll start to form a picture of your customer journey.
4. The What: What information, advice or solution are they looking for?
When you think about what your target audience is looking for, try to think specifically about the questions they may ask you. What facts and information will you need? What proof do you need to provide that shows you are the best and most qualified solution? And how will you build trust in order to make them choose you over competitors?
5. Market research: This will confirm and review your current customer base
Okay, you’re nearly there. There’s just one final step. This involves asking questions such as:
- Are there enough people who fit my criteria?
- Will my target audience really benefit from my product?
- Do I understand what drives my target audience to make decisions?
- Can they afford my product and can I reach them with my message?
Customer Personas
Now that you have a clear picture of your target audiences (including key segments), you can create your customer personas. A customer persona is basically a fictional representation of your ideal customer. It brings together all of the information captured above, painting a picture of who and where this person is, what they like and dislike, and where and how they like to search and shop.
It helps you and others in your organisation understand them better and is a tool that can be referred to in the future, ensuring all your marketing and communications efforts are still on track and are as targeted as they can be.
