It is a common practice for business owners first to find or develop a product and then find buyers.
This is where most business owners make a mistake. They think they know who their key audience is. Unfortunately, their assumption is often based on nothing.
Knowing how to connect with your target audience online is critical for achieving your brand’s digital strategy.
The quickest and easiest way is first to target a niche market and then find out what they need before you provide a product or service to satisfy that need.
Defining Your Target Audience
Your target audience is the person who pays you and the person who influences the person who pays you.
And unless you are Google, your core audience cannot be everyone! You need to be specific. You need to identify your niche so you can understand how to dominate it.
Define the specific group of people you want to reach with your marketing message. These are the people who are interested in your products and services and will buy it.
You need to be laser-focused on discovering your core audience, i.e. those people who are most likely to make a purchase after viewing your ad.
Start by looking at a broad group and then narrow down your audience from there. Build your consumer or buyer persona i.e. a generalised representation of who and how your ideal buyers would be like.
Determine who is already using your services or products by inspecting your competitors or your existing customer base (that’s if you already have customers).
Analyse the data from social media channels, Google Analytics or any other analytics software you may have at your disposal.
Also, take a critical look at the results from previous advertising campaigns.
Study the age, location, language, income, behavioural characteristics, demographic markers, interests, position, and more of the of your customers.
These are all important information that will help to reveal some common characteristics, that unites them.
Don’t be afraid to get highly specific and go into great detail with your consumer or buyer persona. Good target audience research will allow you to get into much finer detail.
You can use the power of social media influencers to reach your target audience more effectively.
Determine who is already using your services or products by inspecting your competitors or your existing customer base (that's if you already have customers). Click To TweetA word of caution, though. Don’t get carried away and become a creep in the process or do anything illegal. Nobody likes a stalker.
Use Data to Determine Your Target Market
It would be difficult to reach your target audience if you aren’t sure who they are.
Playing a guessing game isn’t good enough; you need to have data to make informed decisions for your business and know exactly who you’re catering to.
Otherwise, you’ll waste time, money and resources marketing to the wrong group of people with little to no success to show for it.
Use data from your website analytics and social media analytics to determine and define your audience.
This data will tell you your audience’s demographics, what content of yours they consume the most on social media and where they’re most active e.g. Instagram and LinkedIn.
Google Analytics is your best bet for narrowing down your target.
The benefits of using data are innumerable. For instance, Statista found that in 2018, 52% of website traffic worldwide was generated through mobile phones.
The Importance of a Target Market
If you market your product to the wrong set of people, you’ll end up wasting your time and money.
Though it is possible to sell to everyone, your marketing message has to be directed to a particular group in other for it to be meaningful and effective. Content marketing plays a major role in this area by helping you generate leads and conversions.
Your marketing message cannot speak directly to your customers and speak to their kids, parents, spouses and work colleagues. You need to be specific, especially with content marketing.
You need to understand your customers and address them at the right time, through the right channels and in their own language. As mentioned earlier, you can do this by building a consumer persona.
With your audience in mind, you can create a digital marketing strategy based around creating relevant content for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and other platforms.
Use your knowledge of your audience to create content that resonates with their needs and interests.
Using your blog or creating videos are other ways to create content that matters to your ideal customer.
Otherwise, you'll waste time, money and resources marketing to the wrong group of people with little to no success to show for it. Click To TweetYour Target Market Is What Defines Your Product
When choosing a target audience, it is important to think about what they need. What can make their life easier?
A good way to find answers to this question is by surveying some of your audience members within your ideal market.
For instance, if your target customer is new mothers, think about the day-to-day challenges of new mothers and how can your product or service help.
Then you can market your brand and products or services only to these new mothers, who are most likely to be genuinely interested in them.
Figure out Your Target Market Before You Focus on Your Product
Below is an infographic with questions that will help you figure out your market. These questions can give insight into what kind of product can be useful for your market.
Answers to these questions will help you develop a solid marketing strategy to reach your customers whether they are on Instagram, LinkedIn or where ever.
Be sure to figure out your target market before you focus on your product or service.
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Demographic
Who is most likely to use your product or service and who is not? Do you know what demographic to attract and what specific demographic to avoid?
Needs
Who are your current customers, and why do they buy from you? What requirements does your product or service fulfil in the life of your customers?
Hangout
Where do your potential customers hang out online? Any website or blogs attracting the target audience that you can use for advertising purposes?
If you can’t see a clear way to reach your market efficiently online, it isn’t the right market for you! Click To TweetData
Which of your existing customers bring in the most business? How do you gather marketing data from your customers?
Competitors
Who are your competitors targeting and who are their current customers? What’s their market positioning? How about their pricing?
Growth
Do you feel there are enough potential customers within your target audience to start a brand new business? Will they come back repeatedly to purchase?
Conclusion
Don’t go after the same market but dig deeper to find a niche market. If you can’t see a clear way to reach this market efficiently online, that isn’t the market for you.
Now over to you! Have you figured out your target market before you focus on your product or service? Need help? Schedule a marketing consultation session now!
So in conclusion, don’t try to appeal to everyone, especially on social media. It doesn’t make sense to try to make your product or service appeal to everyone.
Your time, energy and money are better invested in your target customer.
The more in-depth your knowledge of your target customer, the more you will be able to narrow your focus to get your marketing message out to clients.
The more precision you can also put into your advertising especially on social media.
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Related Article(s)
- Reaching Your Target Audience Through Social Media
- Content Marketing Tactics to Increase Your Audience Engagement
- How to Market on Social Media
- Why You Must Be Thinking about Content Marketing
- What Is More Important: Product or Customer?
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