How to Find Your Target Audience

The success of your business hinges on knowing who your customer is, and giving that customer exactly what they want. If you can exceed the customer’s expectations, all the better – you’re well on your way to success. 

So how do you identify your customer, the person at the top of the list in your target audience, who ticks all the boxes? It’s quite simple: He or she is that person already buying your product or service.

If you’re a new business and don’t have customers yet, it’s a little more difficult. You need to identify the person who wants and needs your product or service, the one whose needs the product meets.

Defining Your Target Audience

The ideal customer enjoys a personalised experience with your product that makes it stand out from the crowd of products lining the shelves; it’s like a beacon, demanding a person’s attention because it’s exactly what they are looking for. You need to find your target audience and know them intimately so you are aware of what they want and what product will grab their attention.

What is a Target Audience?

• Marketing success depends on knowing who your product will appeal to, who will buy the product, and why.
• The first step is to define what you want to sell, whether it is a niche product that caters to a specific group of people or something with mass appeal. Once you have decided on the product, you will know which audience to target and will have to work out how to target that audience. Niche products cater to a very specific audience, while products that appeal to the masses need to have something special about them to stand out. (Read our informative blog on The Definition Of A Niche Market.)
• A defined target audience is a specific group, comprising men, women, teenagers, children, or some of each. These people have something in common, a love of a particular sport, or they have the same passion, e.g., art, design, music, etc.
• Check out demographic information regarding the target audience, like gender, age group, location, marital status, income, and other factors.

Benefits of Defining Your Target Audience

1. When you know everything about your target audience, you can easily reach them through advertising, because you know exactly what type of people they are and how to communicate with them. You would have a good idea of which magazines and newspapers they read, what they watch on TV, their interests, and what they like to purchase. Let’s say your company designs and manufactures activewear. You should target people who exercise regularly and do yoga, Pilates, or weight training at the gym a few times a week.
   2. By knowing the different types of target audiences and who your specific audience is, you can design your products to suit them. In the example we’re discussing, that would be people who exercise regularly and wear activewear. You would likely research different types of activewear fabric, perhaps garments that keep you cool in summer and warm in winter. Or stretchable items that fit like a glove and stay in shape even during strenuous movements.
   3. When you know who you’re talking to, you can speak directly to those people in a language they understand. You can design products that appeal to them and target them. Marketing statistics reveal that 80% of consumers are likely to do business with a brand that personally communicates with them.

4 Steps to Find Your Target Audience

Step 1

Research your current customer base to find out which people would like your products. Once you know who these people are, you can work from there to ensure you give that target audience exactly what they want.

Step 2

Create an avatar or persona of this customer. Work out who they are, what they like, where they live, what they do, and what makes them perfect members of your target audience. 

Step 3

Look at your competitors. See how they are marketing their product to this audience, and work out how to make your product stand out and offer more. Also, check what they’re doing correctly, and what you could do better to attract customers.

Step 4

Now reassess which products you offer and how to improve these products to make them more attractive to purchasers. Also, consider how you can improve your customer service so that your customers become loyal and stay loyal to you.

Your Target Audience Has 2 Different Personalities 

Once you’ve compiled a list of what type of people make up your target audience, you should consider that although these people may have the same interests, they could buy for different reasons. You should know how your products and services fit into different market segments.

1.  The Person Who Buys

Who decides what to buy in a family? The person who will use the product, or someone else? Sometimes the person who buys the item doesn’t fit into the target audience – often women purchase products for their husbands, or male friends and family, such as after-shave or fragrance.
Or perhaps these customers are mothers who buy something they know their children will use. Target these people who have the purchase intent.

2.  The Person Supporting the Purchasing Decision

This person isn’t necessarily the person who buys, but they often influence the buying decision. Again, it’s important to reach these people in addition to your target audience.

How to Reach Everyone in Your Target Audience

As you can see, sometimes you need to indirectly reach those who aren’t your target audience, but are those who make the decisions. There are numerous ways to reach the one who buys the item.
These include all the people you reach via a marketing campaign:
• Via email: You would send out newsletters via email, or perhaps send existing or potential customers targeted emails about new products or special promotions.
• Online advertisements: If you run ads on social channels, such as Instagram and Facebook, your existing customers are most likely to view these, although you may also attract customers who are buying items from your competitors and others who have shown an interest in what you are offering.
• Via Influencers: If there are influencers who promote your products, their audience will see what they’re talking about. This is an excellent method of communicating new products, events, promotions, etc.
• Through your website: On your website, you can promote your products through educational blogs, which you create content about regularly, videos, forums, and numerous other great marketing efforts such as events, markets etc.

How to Talk to Your Target Audience

Whether you communicate with your existing customers via email, on the phone, or set up focus groups, the more you know about this audience and what they want, the more likely you can keep them loyal. You need to talk to them as if they are good friends in all your communications. They are part of a community – your community – one that loves your brand.

You need to know what makes them tick, and why they love what you offer them. Is it the brand that resonates with them, or a particular product? The more you know about your target audience, the more you can continue to give them what they know and love.

Ask Your Customers These Questions 

These are the questions you need to ask customers so that you can get the answers and use these responses to keep your audience happy:

• What problem is our product/service solving for you?
• What did you do before you found our product/service?
• Why did you choose us?
• Why do you remain a loyal customer? What are we doing right?
• How can we improve our product/service and make you happier?
• How did you come across our product/service?
• What made you choose our brand and not one of our competitors?
• How would you like us to communicate with you?
• What would you like us to discuss with you?
• What other products/services could we create to make you even happier?

Learn From Your Competitors

You can learn a lot from your competitors. What they do well, and what they get wrong, can set you on a path to success. Don’t be afraid to compare your brand with theirs, the different pain points, and your products and services. Check out our guide to The 10 Essential Business Skills for Success.

The differences are those that set you apart from your competitors, so concentrate on these. This is how you work out your marketing strategies.

What Our CEO’s Book, Design & Grow, can Teach you

Our CEO, Artemis Dupa, wrote the best-selling book, Design & Grow, which has revolutionised design-led businesses by helping their founders reclaim their design time. She developed the STORMS Method, an actionable blueprint that shows business owners how to run and grow their business sustainably. Find out more about this revolutionary best-seller here.

Watch out for more innovative methods and an online course to grow your small business from maakeAcademy!