Have you been wondering what the target audience fuss is all about? Why is everyone suddenly talking about it? Do you need this knowledge to take your business to the next level? Stick around to find out.

The first question to be answered in the production process of any product/service is “What?”. The answer to this question then determines “Who” the product is for, Why/Where/When they need it, and How the product can get to them. 

In this article, we’ll be discussing the term “target audience”, explaining the importance of identifying the target audience for your business, and how you can successfully identify and reach this peculiar set of people. 

Defining Target Audience

Target audience, as used in marketing and advertising, refers to a certain segment of the target market that has been designated as the audience for a given message or commercial. Target audience is usually defined by demographic information (i.e., age, gender, occupation, etc.) of people in a particular geographical area who have a similar interest or need your product(s)/service(s).

For example, if you are a content writer that’s niched in writing about technology and marketing, your target audience could be start-up technology companies that are based in Nigeria, or marketing agencies that need an online presence. Another very practical example is this site you are on, you would agree that the target audience for this website can be deduced (from the blog posts, resources, and services offered) to be beginners in the content and marketing world.

Target Audience Vs Target Market

It is very easy to confuse these two terms/concepts but they are very distinct from each other.

Basically, the Target Market is the umbrella under which the Target Audience stands (or sits). In other words, the Target Market is the group of customers that a business hopes to sell to or attract through marketing initiatives. 

Following the example above, your target market is the technology & marketing industry while your target audience does not include all the tech brands in the world, but specifically start-up brands in Nigeria. The same goes for this site, the target market is the SEO content & marketing industry but the blog post and resources have the target audience to be beginners in the content writing and marketing industry.

We can say that the efforts of identifying your target market are for the purpose of marketing your brand, while the efforts directed towards defining your target audience are concerned with the advertising and reaching the people that need the products and services that your brand offers.

Importance of Identifying Your Target Audience

1.  Focus

It may seem like you are missing out by not targeting everybody but that is far from the truth. Identifying your target audience enhances your chances of coming up with a more creative and effective marketing strategy.

2.  Cost-effective

Having a target audience narrows down your marketing expenses. Instead of budgeting for 2 million people with almost no hope of an actual impact/interest, you can just direct that effort to a thousand people which would result in customer conversion. It is easier to run your campaigns on a smaller and more focused scale.  

3.  ROI

By targeting a well-calculated & focused number you can be sure about the return on your investment to reach them. Instead of selling a writing course for everybody, you can be sure to see profitable results when you target a certain group of people, some of which are beginners, advanced, marketing, agriculture, creative, arts, etc.

How to Identify Your Target Audience

The process of identifying your target audience is one that requires the skill of patience, critical thinking, and research & analytics. Some of the ways you can determine your target audience are:

1.  Create Personas

This entails building up the character of your audience just like they do in the movies, it is an imaginative process. The information you need to create this persona includes;  

• Age 
• Gender 
• Location
• Hobbies
• Income
• Education level
• Occupation
• Relationship status
•  Interests
•  Frustrations, etc. 

If you are a content writer, then you’d create a reader persona with certain questions answered; e.g., who is this reader? Why would they need this article? This would help you to provide value with your content and reach your preferred audience. Having a personality/character at the back of your mind while building your brand, product or service would enhance the quality of your marketing effort.

2.  Analyze Competitors

One of the reasons you’d refer to any brand or organization as a competitor is that you are both after the same thing. In this case, you are both offering similar services which would mean that your customers/audience are also similar. Sometimes, in order to be a step ahead of your competitors, you have to study them, understand what makes them better, and use them to your advantage. In the business world, this strategy is known as benchmarking.

3.  Look at Social Media Analytics

Social media analytics go as far as telling you what time your followers are online, how many people are interacting with your page and posts, the gender of these people, and even similar accounts that they interact with. Facebook and Instagram do that, leverage these analytics and use them to understand your target audience and why they do what they do.

4.  Check on Website Performance

This is almost similar to social media analytics. Understand who interacts with your website and posts, which posts have the highest engagement, and how long people stay on your site. All of these would guide you in deciding how to strategically reach your target audience going forward.

5.  Use Google Analytics to Learn More about your Customers

Image credit: Unsplash

There are also analytical tools, one of them is Google Analytics is great for learning about the demographics of your audience and their interests. You may view website insights broken down into categories with Google Analytics, such as age, gender, and geography. The dashboard clearly identifies these areas and offers readable, colorful graphs for each one.

Steps to Reach Your Target Audience

1.  Define Your Target Audience

According to Jim Jarmusch,

“it is impossible to get lost if you don’t even know where you are going”.

In order to reach your target audience, you have to be able to identify them. Remember what we discussed above? Any effort targeted at reaching your preferred audience without proper identification would turn out to be a waste of time. So, create that persona, monitor those analytics, and use them wisely.

2.  Digital & Content Marketing

The world is a global village. This is a factual statement because of the existence of the internet and technology. Having an online presence regardless of the form of product or service you offer cannot be overemphasized. But, not just having an online presence alone but also providing quality value to your audience would fast-track the process of reaching your audience. Quality is loud.

3.  Targeted Ads

With the help of Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other forms of social media ads, reaching your target audience is now a piece of cake.  These tools make sure that your ads are directed at people interested in your product/service by providing you with various targeting tools to help you create and run your ads.

4.  Build trust and credibility

Like any other relationship, one with your audience requires trust. Establishing trust in the hearts of your customers should be a top priority for you. 

This increases the chances of them seeing you as their go-to brand for specific products/services you offer and also of them referring you to people in their circle/immediate environment. Some people automatically become your brand ambassador without you paying or asking them to because of your brand credibility. 

Ultimately…

The success of your brand/business is dependent on how quickly you can identify your target audience and how fast you can reach and sustain them. Leverage the strategies and information discussed in this article to reach your audience and grow your business!

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