How to Identify and Market Towards Your Target Audience
I’ve talked before on this blog about why it’s important to identify your target audience, but today, I’m going to take a moment to delve a little bit deeper into the “how” of it all. In this post, I’ll cover all the details that you’ll need to know when it comes to determining who your target audience is, adjusting your social media strategy to fit your newly-identified audience, and considering any final details regarding how your marketing will change based on the wealth of new information you’ll have to work with. So, let’s dig into it!
Picking Out Your Audience
The key to any successful marketing campaign is making sure that it’s heard by people who will be interested in it. The first step to accomplishing this, of course, is to recognise who your services or products will appeal to. I’ve found that the best way to accomplish this feat is to consider the following:
Broad demographics. In the widest terms possible, who are you trying to connect with? To answer this question, consider the age range of the individuals you’re trying to reach, and whether they’re married, have children, or belong to a certain gender or cultural group. As you go through this process, your target audience will quickly shrink from EVERYONE down to a much more manageable collection of people.
Personalities. Picture the individual you are trying to appeal to. Now, try to suss out a little bit more about who they are, as this will have a direct impact on how you will market to them. Consider what their hobbies are, what music and movies they’re into, what they do in their free time – and of course, which social media platforms they’re likely to frequent. This narrows down your target audience even further – but there’s still one more step to go through.
Needs and values. This is where you really start to get a distinct idea of who makes up your target audience, and is therefore a critical step in the process. Reflect on what’s important to your target audience and their families. Are there any problems or concerns that they are facing? What are their hopes and dreams, and what’s important to their happiness?
By dwelling on that last point, you’ll be in the position to directly appeal to those you’re most interested in marketing to, and will now have a laser-focussed idea of who exactly you’re trying to speak to. However, simply possessing this information is only half the battle. The next step is applying what you’ve learned to strengthen your marketing campaign and speak directly to your audience in a manner that they’ll be the most receptive to.
It’s All About Staying Focussed
If you went through the steps above to help you determine your target audience, you probably found that you wound up with more than one type of person that you’re looking to market to. Don’t worry! This is totally normal – and, in fact, to be expected. Time for another exercise: consider each of the target audiences you’ve identified, and determine how much of your business each group accounts for. The numbers you come up with will define how much of your marketing you will allocate to each individual group. For example, if Group A accounts for 60% of your business, and Group B makes up 40%, you’ll want to split up your marketing accordingly by creating 60% of your copy, posts, and strategies to appeal to those in Group A, while allocating 40% of your message towards Group B.
These numbers shouldn’t be set in stone, however. As your marketing campaign goes on, you might want to adjust these percentages to account for a surge of interest from one particular target audience or another, or to leverage a promotion aimed at one specific group. These alterations will see your focus change, which should therefore be reflected when it comes to allocating marketing resources, or when directing certain campaigns and social media posts.
Parting Thoughts
Having a well-defined idea of your target audience will be incredibly useful as you go forth and market! However, be sure to take a minute and circle back every once in a while to re-evaluate your understanding of who you’re looking to connect with. Consider delving deeper into your demographics and analytics to ensure that you aren’t missing a key audience that you should be engaging with. Keep in mind the platforms and mediums that each target audience is likely to engage with, and adjust your strategy as necessary. Lastly, be sure that you’re constantly evaluating your copy, graphics, and overall campaign to ensure that what you’re putting out will be appealing to those individuals you’re trying to connect with.
Identifying your target audience is one of the first steps towards developing a smart, comprehensive marketing campaign. However, there’s lots more to it than that! If you’re looking for a hand when it comes to marketing for your business, service, or products, give me a call – I’ll help launch your marketing campaign to new heights!
