How to Find Your Target Audience

Do you want to know what makes marketing 10X easier? Knowing your target audience. There’s a huge benefit to reaching people who need your products/services. For starters, your marketing campaigns are likelier to generate a higher ROI.

Consumers are less willing to buy from you until they know, like, and trust your business. Technology has triggered a rise in the number of small businesses out there. More companies are also positioning themselves as “solutions to our problems.” As a result, consumers are pickier with their purchasing decisions.

To convert a consumer to a customer, you must break down their emotional walls. Establishing a deeper connection with them is the best way to do that. But first, you have to know who you’re trying to attract. That’s what target audiences are for.

1

What Is a Target Audience?

A target audience is a specific group of people who can fit the profile of your “dream customer.” The benefit of understanding your target audience?

You’ll have better guidance on:

• How to spend your advertising dollars
• How to appeal to your dream customer
• What products and services to offer

Demographics, psychographics, and behavioral characteristics embody the qualities of your target audience. They include:

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Income Level
• Occupation
• Interests
• Lifestyle Choices
• Values & Motivations
• Purchasing Habits

Your target audience plays a vital role in formulating your marketing strategy. It’s also one of the secrets to success with your advertising campaigns. When you target your ads to the right audience, the results are rewarding.

Many advertising platforms offer custom audience targeting, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. With this feature, marketers can split their audience members into segmented groups. These groups are also known as buyer personas.

Buyer personas may differ by location, generational cohorts, and more. Audience members with shared identities can oftentimes relate to the same pain points.

Let’s use car insurance as an example.

Millennials and baby boomers have different pain points when it comes to car insurance. It is a known fact that younger drivers usually pay a higher premium for coverage. Their pain point? Finding affordable insurance that matches their budgets.

Although baby boomers have access to lower premiums, finding the best deal is a pain point. These are two different personas we’re dealing with. In a perfect world, a marketer would create separate ads for the different personas.

This level of targeting can do wonders for your campaigns.

2

How to Find Your Target Audience

Anyone can see that Disney’s target audience consists of children and families. Why? Their films, TV shows, and merchandise collections usually cater to these groups. The question is, are you tuned into your target audience?

If not, data and analytics can give you the clarity you’re looking for. Here are three things that you can do right now to find your target audience.

Step 1: Use Google Analytics to determine your target audience’s demographics.

Google Analytics is a goldmine for target audience research. It especially provides a wealth of insight about your audience’s demographics. In order to retrieve this data, your website must be connected to a Google Analytics account.

Step 2: Leverage social media analytics.

Social media platforms can also offer quality data about your audience. In addition to demographics, these platforms have better insights about consumers’ interests. Facebook Insights alone are packed with valuable psychographic and behavioral data.

Step 3: Create a market research survey.

There’s no better way to learn about an audience than to go directly to the source: your customers. As a business, we encourage you to send an occasional research survey to your existing customer base. Use it as an opportunity to ask the good questions about their needs, wants, desires, and preferences.

3

Attract the Right Crowd for Your Business

High-quality leads are a product of accurate audience targeting. You maximize your chances of reaching your target audience when you know:

• Who they are
• Where they hang out
• Why your product (or service) is the best solution to their problems

If you feel that your marketing has missed the mark lately, it might be time to reevaluate your targeting. Don’t waste another ad spend on the wrong audience. Let our marketing experts help you. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.