Identifying your target audience is a core part of any marketing strategy. Define and narrow your target market well enough, and you can carve out a particular niche you’re able to dominate.
What is a target market?
First things first, it helps to know exactly what a target market is. It’s a specific group of people you want your marketing to reach, the ones most likely to actually buy your products or services. People outside that group can still buy from you, they’re just not the main focus of your strategy. Your target market needs to be grounded in real research and consideration, that’s what makes sure you’re actually targeting the right people.
How to define your target market
Compiling data on your current clients
Understanding who’s already using your product or service is a key step in defining your target market. Once you know the characteristics of your existing customers, you can focus on reaching more people who share those same traits. Google Analytics is a great tool for pulling demographic details like age, gender, and location. A few data points worth paying attention to:
- Age
- Location
- Gender
- Employment
- Income
Location matters especially, since it helps you figure out which geographic areas to target and the best times to schedule your social ads and posts.
Looking at social media analytics
Social media analytics can give you a sense of when your audience is most engaged with your channels. Every platform behaves differently, so it’s worth looking at your analytics across each one rather than averaging them all together. Instead, pull out the notable trends and peaks in engagement on each platform to sharpen your approach. These analytics also tell you who’s actually looking at your profile and which content is working best for your business.
Using Facebook Insights
Much like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights lets you gather key demographic information about your audience. It’s shared less than it used to, especially since recent iOS updates, but you can still view general details about your audience’s age, gender, and location.
Checking out the competition
Every business has competitors, no matter the product or audience. Keeping an eye on yours can genuinely sharpen your own marketing strategy. Notice how they position themselves, where they advertise, and who they’re actually speaking to in their ads. That gives you something to compare against your own strategy and helps you stand apart from the crowd, rather than simply following someone else’s playbook. The goal is carving out your own niche, not copying theirs.
Identify who your target audience isn’t
This step might sound redundant, but it’s just as important as defining who your audience is. You don’t want to waste time and budget marketing to people who were never going to be interested in the first place. Look back through everything you’ve gathered and identify the gaps, the audiences you don’t serve or have no interest in reaching.
Delving deeper into your audience
Target market segmentation means breaking your audience into smaller groups, so you can craft a relevant message for each one. Here are a few key ways to segment and differentiate your audience.
Purchase intention
This group is actively looking for a specific product and wants more information before deciding. Understanding this helps you direct your messaging more precisely.
Interests
Everyone has different hobbies, and knowing what your audience is genuinely into can shape your marketing strategy in useful ways. Interests reveal a lot about buyer motivation and behaviour.
Subculture
Subculture refers to a group of people who share a common experience or identity, specific music scenes or entertainment genres, for example. Understanding these subcultures gives you a deeper read on your audience and opens up new ways to market directly to them.
Creating your target audience profile
Once you’ve gathered the data and have a solid sense of who your customers are, it’s time to pull it all together into a target audience profile. Include the key details, location, age, gender, industry, and so on, along with anything specific to your brand.
Need help navigating how to market to your target audience? We’ll be covering how to market toward these newfound audiences of yours in next week’s article!
