If you have no idea who your target audience is, you could be wasting a lot of valuable marketing resources, both time and money.
The basis of all your marketing efforts whether they be online or offline stems from your target audience, the clients that you want to work and the customers you wish to serve in your business.
Marketing to the masses
Marketing to the masses does not work long term. I have in fact been guilty of this myself. When clients say: "I offer everything to everyone". I reply with “How’s that working for you? Are you getting the clients you desire, or the ones you don’t? Are you making the money you want to, or not?”
These are very important questions. When you stop to consider your target audience and answer these questions, you can take your business to the next level.
Your target audience will come
You do not have to market to everyone, set your target audience and they will come. I know it takes a little faith (ok maybe a lot), but for those of you who run your own business really, do you want to be selling your products or services to people who you enjoy working with or ones that you don't. Isn’t that why we set up our own businesses in the first place so we could enjoy what we do?
Five questions to consider when defining your target audience:
What are their goals, and values?
Consider your goals and values that are relevant to the products and services you offer and how these meet what your target audience is looking for.
You will use this information in your copywriting, content marketing, product creation and email marketing.
Where do they get their information from?
Is it online, is it magazines, books, social media?
This will determine the best places to market on, both with targeted paid and unpaid advertising.
What are their demographics?
Consider their age, gender, marital status, location, income level, education level, occupation, job role, children, sports, quotes, and hobbies.
Demographics will help you get in the head of your target audience and can bring your marketing graphics to life. This type of information will also be used in copywriting and content creation.
What pain points are you providing a solution to?
What do you offer that will alleviate your target audience pain? Think what will drive your target audience to action.
Again, this forms your copy points as you clearly show how you provide a solution to meet needs; it is also useful when developing a new product or service.
What objections and concerns do they have?
Why would your ideal target audience NOT want to buy your product or service? These objections or concerns need to be addressed. For most people the main objections are time and money, think further than this.
Understanding your target audiences’ decision making process and addressing their concerns when developing your marketing content is critical to success.
Working out your target audience
- Get out some big sheets of paper and create your template with these five questions as starting points.
- Start answering each question for each of your products / services. You may find that some overlap and others do not.
- Think about why you want to work with this target audience, and if there are any negatives on your paper, or you are just doing it for the money, take another look.
- Continue to fine tune until you are happy.
- Remember you can change your target audience at any stage and as your business evolves so too will your offerings and your target audience.
We are here for a good time, not a long time so why not have a target audience that enhances your business, brightens your life, and builds your career.
If you would like assistance with working out your target audience, please get in touch.