Understanding your Target Audience

What is target audience?
A target audience market is the specific group of people you want to reach with your marketing message. They are the people who are most likely to buy your products or services, and they are united by some common characteristics, like demographics and behaviors.

What is target market segmentation?
Target market segmentation is the process of dividing your target market into smaller, more specific groups. It allows you to create a more relevant marketing message for each group.

You’ve got a brand, and you want to market it.

But how do you decide who your target audience is?

Your target audience is the group of people who have a need for your product or service and will be most interested in what you have to offer. It’s important that you know who this group is because it will help guide all of your marketing efforts–from designing ads to writing sales copy.

The first thing to consider is the type of product or service that you’re offering. If it’s something that appeals to everyone, like food or clothing, then it’s easy–you can just go ahead and market to everyone. If your product is more specialized or niche-oriented, however, then you’ll have to do some research into who would be most likely to buy from you.

For example: if you sell dog treats online (and let’s say they’re especially good for dogs with allergies), then your target audience would probably be people who own dogs with allergies; people who have friends or family members with dogs with allergies; people whose dogs suffer from allergies themselves; etc. You could also try targeting pet stores or veterinarians’ offices as places where customers might find out about your brand through word-of-mouth advertising from other customers or staff members at those establishments!

Once you’ve decided on where best to advertise your brand online (or offline), make sure that there are enough people in each group mentioned above so that advertising costs won’t go.

Once you’ve identified these segments, you can create strategies for reaching each one.

For example, if you’re selling high-end watches, one segment might be wealthy men between the ages of 30 and 50 who live in New York City. Another might be wealthy women between 30 and 50 who live in Los Angeles. These are very different groups with different needs and desires; therefore, how you talk about your product will need to be tailored accordingly.

Another way of thinking about this is by looking at what motivates people to buy something:

• What do they want out of life?
• What are their values?
• How do they spend their time?
• What kind of music do they listen to?
• What kind of movies do they watch?

All these things help us understand who our customers are so we can connect with them on an emotional level through our marketing efforts

Here are some more questions to ask yourself when deciding on a target audience:

• What do they look like? (Age, gender, race/ethnicity)
• Where do they live? (Geographic location)
• What do they do for work? (Occupation)

In Summation,

How to define your target audience?

Step 1. Compile data on your current customers on parameters such as:

• Age range
• Location (and time zone)
• Language
• Spending habits power and patterns
• Interests
• Challenges
• Stage of life

Step 2. Incorporate social data

Social media analytics can be a great way of filling out the picture of your target market. They help you understand who’s interacting with your social accounts, even if those people are not yet customers.

If you want to reach your target market with social ads, lookalike audiences are an easy way to reach more people who share characteristics with your best customers.

Step 3. Check out the competition

Knowing what your competitors are up to can help you answer some key questions:

• Are your competitors going after the same target market segments as you are?
  Are they reaching segments you hadn’t thought to consider?
  How are they positioning themselves?

Step 4. Clarify the value of your product or service

This comes down to the key distinction all marketers must understand between features and benefits. You can list the features of your product all day long, but no one will be convinced to buy from you unless you can explain the benefits.

Step 5. Create a target market statement

Now it’s time to boil everything you’ve discovered so far into one simple statement that defines your target market. This is actually the first step in creating a brand positioning statement, but that’s a project for another day. 

When crafting your target market statement, try to incorporate the most important demographic and behavior characteristics you’ve identified. For example:

Our target market is [gender(s)] aged [age range], who live in [place or type of place], and like to [activity].