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Why is it so important to define your target audience?

Defining your target audience is key to success. And that goes for any business. If you focus your efforts in the wrong places, it’ll be tricky to progress any further. A common mistake for a business is to aim at as many people as possible, without specifying who it is their business targets. There’s a common saying; If you try to sell to everyone, then you’ll end up selling to no one. But why is it so important?

Targeting a specific market will enable you to put your message across to the right people, and reach the most valuable individuals for your business. Not only that, but it also gives you a much better chance to push your way through the millions of messages and sale pitches that people are bombarded with every day. Narrowing down the demographic you think will work best for you, is the most effective way to move forward and improve as a business. The information and language your business uses may not connect with certain people, and may not be effective. Defining your target audience will help you to grow as a business, find your own voice, and guide you to building relationships with customers.

How do I define my target audience?

You might be wondering… how do I know what type of people fit into my target audience? You know your business better than anyone. Common factors that come into play when trying to narrow down who your targeting include age, gender, income and job title. There are so many aspects that are also vital, but in order to start somewhere, focus on the less daunting characteristics. Location is also a great aspect to help you narrow down your audience. Whether you decide to target an audience who is within a 20-mile radius, or whether you target an audience who are in the same county as you. It’ll help you out a lot to specify this.

You also need to identify what your audience may need. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What do they want? How would a product/service like yours benefit them? Checking out your competition is also a good way to learn more about who your target audience is. No need to copy them, but there’s no harm in doing some research into what they’re doing, and also what they’re not doing. See what works for them, and how their audience responds to certain things. For example landing pages and social media posts. All of this is beneficial research and hopefully will lead you in the right direction.

Are there any tools that can help me on the way?

In this day and age, there are a million and one tools, that can do a million and one things. An example of a great tool is Google Analytics. It provides you with the data you need to analyse what’s working and what’s not. For example when people are visiting your website, what they do on your website and many more in-depth details. It provides valuable insights that can help you progress and shape your business to your customer’s needs and wants. Knowing what your audience is searching for on your website is a great piece of information to know. You can adapt and make the necessary changes to the performance of your website.

Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are also great tools as they provide audience insights. They can help you to learn more about your target audience. Such as the size of your target market and any noticeable trends. Facebook audience insights can give you additional demographic data to help you define your target audience even further.

How can I take these new tips on board to find my target audience?

Here’s an example of a wedding photography company. They’re a small business and new to the market. The best option for them would be to target newly engaged couples that live in the same area. Social media would be a great place to start with a company like this. Getting their name out on social media, and then following up on that by researching into any engagement. They can do this through their Facebook audience insight tool; seeing what age their audience is. Realising that you have a younger/older demographic will enable you to alter the tone of your content. Finding out where they’re located and what they do is also good knowledge to have.

If they have a website, they can go into more depth by using Google Analytics. Find out what it is people are looking at on their website. Are they looking at prices straight away and then leaving the site? If so, this could suggest the viewers are young couples, trying to find a cheap/ average priced photographer.

And just from those couple of steps in the right direction, you’ve figured out a huge part of who your target audience is, and what they need. As long as you research, and keep on digging to find out more about your future customers, you will get there. You know your business better than anyone.

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