Ecommerce businesses are beginning to realize the importance of the target audience when it comes to building and maintaining a brand. Most websites offer some form of demographic information that allows you to narrow down your target market, but ultimately, these choices can feel somewhat abstract.
If you’re not able to spend time on your target audience, how do you know if it’s working?
When it comes to building a brand, one thing you want to keep in mind is that your target audience is key. Always choose a demographic that aligns with your business culture and the message you’re trying to share with them. For example, if you are opening up a children’s clothing store, chances are the products and packaging will be geared towards kids rather than adults.
What is a target audience?
The target audience is the group of people that you are trying to reach with your marketing efforts. They will be the ones who buy your product or service, so it’s essential that you know how to define your target audience.
With a clearly defined target audience, you can focus on those people and make sure that you’re communicating with them in ways they understand and appreciate.
People in your target audience will have certain characteristics in common. These characteristics fall into three broad categories:
Demographics:
They may have the same:
- Age
- Gender
- Household income
- Occupation
- Education
- Location
Interests:
They may share interests in certain products, topics, or activities.
Behaviours:
They may read the same publications, visit the same online destinations, have certain hobbies, or play the same sports.
Types of audiences
Primary target audience
Your primary target audience will typically get most of your attention, as you expect them to become your most valuable group of customers.
Secondary target audience
Your secondary target audiences are other groups of people with common characteristics who may be interested in your products or services but are unlikely to become your most valuable customers. Secondary target audiences can help you structure your marketing efforts. Especially if you sell more than one product or service, or if you feel your products or services may appeal to distinctly different groups of people.
Create a target audience for your business
A target audience can help you focus your marketing efforts on the people most likely to be interested in what your business has to offer.
Here’s what to consider when creating a target audience for your business.
NEED
What does your target audience need that your product or service provides?
DEMOGRAPHICS
Describe your target audience by age, gender, household income, education or occupation, and location.
INTERESTS
Describe what your prospective customers are typically interested in.
BEHAVIOURS
Describe common behaviors among your target audience.
NAME AND IMAGE
Give your target audience a name and even an image, if you choose. Marketers will often do this to remind them of what their target customer might look like.
How do you determine your target audience?
This is the first thing you need to decide before launching your blog. It will help you determine who you should target as a reader. If you aren’t sure what your topic is, try looking at other blogs in the same niche, or look at magazines or newspapers that are similar to yours and see what they are talking about.
- Start with your current customers – specifically those that buy the products or services your marketing efforts are most focused on. Think about the characteristics they have in common, and brainstorm with your team to describe them.
- Monitor your competition. Get a sense of how they communicate and the groups of people they’re trying to reach. You can also monitor the accounts of important brands in your space on social media.
- Talk to friends – or even strangers – you think may have an interest in your product.
Read: How to find your targeted audience
Understand the customer journey
Three stages of the customer journey
The customer journey (sometimes called the buyer’s journey) refers to the experiences that people have before deciding to purchase a product or service. It can be roughly divided into three stages:
Awareness: When the customer first learns about a business or product.
Consideration: When the customer becomes interested in a business or product.
Conversion: When the customer decides to buy a product or service.
Your marketing efforts are meant to help move your target audience along this journey. Marketers often refer to this process as a funnel. The term “funnel” is used because the number of prospective customers gets smaller as they move from awareness to conversion.
Set marketing goals
Goals can help you stay focused on what you hope to accomplish with your marketing efforts.
Your goal should be:
Specific
Your goal should be clear and specific, and you should be able to write or say it in a way that anyone could understand.
Measurable
Think about the metrics that you’ll use to evaluate whether you’ve achieved your goal. They should be quantifiable things measured in objective terms. These metrics will be reported in numbers, percentages, or on a binary scale.
Achievable
Be realistic. Set goals that are feasible for you and your team, but possible with your available resources.
Relevant
Make sure that your goals align with your wider business strategy.
Time-bound
Your goals should have a start and an end date. This will help you accomplish your goal by a certain deadline and track milestones along the way.
Read: A complete guide to hiring a good Facebook Ads manager
Conclusion:
Ultimately your target audience will determine the purpose of your blog. Once you have identified who you want to reach, it should be easy for you to determine what type of content to create. For example, if your ultimate goal is to drive traffic and leads from your blog, then you might want to write more posts that include leads like resource lists or checklists. If you want to build authority in a specific industry space, then write longer-form content such as educational eBooks.
With so many different types of blogs, it can be hard to know who you want to reach. In order to write a blog post that will resonate with your readers, it’s important to figure out who they are and what they need. If you have any questions about your audience or how to create content for them, please share in the comments section below!
