Who is your target market?
How do you find them?
And why are they important?
Billions of dollars are wasted every year on advertising that fails to engage and captivate its audience. The core reason for this lies in a lack of understanding of just who the target audience is. As a business owner or marketer, whether it is a broad or niche audience, you must understand this specific group of people and use this knowledge to underpin every aspect of your marketing and advertising strategy.
What Does “Target Market” Mean?
Your target market is the consumer audience who is most likely to convert and become customers or clients for your unique product or service offering. This specific group of people will usually be united by specific demographics or motivations, for example:
- Location
- Age group or stage of life
- Gender
- Education level
- Income level
- Interest/passion/philosophy/ethos
- Religion
- Marital/domestic status
- Cultural background
- Occupation/Profession
- Purchase intent
The better you can define your target market, the better your understanding of them, their needs, and their wants will be.
Target Market = consumers you intend to reach or sell to via marketing activities
Target Audience = a specific subgroup within a target market to be serviced with specific advertising
The Importance of Your Target Market
Who are your existing customers or clients?
Who is most likely to enjoy your brand, share your content, buy your product or service, and contribute to your profitability?
A marketer’s top priority is generating leads[1]. Savvy ad placement and audience targeting are the best ways to drive demand[2].
For business success, your target market forms the basis of your entire marketing strategy, including:
- Your brand identity
- The development and naming of your offering
- Your chosen marketing channels (including social media platforms)
- The tone and composition of your content
- Your focus while expanding your reach
No matter what kind of business you run, your target audience does not include “everyone”. As such, you must identify, understand, and define who they are – otherwise much of your marketing and advertising efforts may be in vain.
Knowing and positively exploiting your distinct target market with a focused approach will help you build your brand and enjoy a greater return on your marketing investment. Your audience themselves must be your priority when it comes to marketing, including social media marketing. You need to research, identify, and find your target market on social media before developing and implementing your social media strategy and setting up any Paid Social Ads.
7 Ways to Find Your Target Market
Ask yourself: “Who most wants to purchase what I am offering?”
You need to base your definition and understanding of your target market on legitimate research which means a gut feeling or idealistic notion is not enough. You also need to break your target market into smaller segments to enable you to tailor the most relevant messaging and content for each sub-group.
7 ways to find your target market include:
- Analyse your Existing Customer Base – who already buys your products, uses your services, or patronises your business? Who are the people who already follow, like, and share your social content? Where are they located? How old are they? What are their problems and their passions? What are their interests, hobbies, and routines? Who are they themselves influenced by? Why do they love your brand? These people will provide a big step forward in your journey to identifying your target market.
- Analyse Your Competitors – there is so much to be gained by looking at what your competitors are doing in terms of advertising and marketing, as well as how their customers engage with them. For example, which digital channels (including social) do they use?
- Identify Industry Trends – up-to-date market research is extremely valuable for identifying consumer pain points that you can solve, product trends, and other industry insights. Who will most benefit from the solutions you offer?
- Create Buyer Personas – different consumers have different needs, spending patterns, ways of engaging, etc. Buyer personas are based on surveys, data, and analysis of digital engagement, and marketers need to develop several buyer personas for each campaign.
- Understand Who Your Audience is NOT – who seems like they should belong to your target market, but fail to engage with your messaging? This is an important insight that will help you better spend your marketing budget for improved ROI.
- Revise and Refine – hone and optimise your target market and audience personas on an ongoing basis as you understand them better and analyse the outcomes of your existing campaigns.
- Avail Google Analytics – this free-to-use tool provides a plethora of data about the people visiting your website and it can be leveraged to understand where your audience comes from, what content they engage with online, and where they engage and connect. This helps you to plan better and make data-driven, informed decisions.
Talk to a Digital Strategist
The more clearly and distinctly you define your target market, the more successfully you can understand them and reach your highest potential in creating effective marketing strategies to capture their attention and convert them in the purchase journey. It also allows you to communicate with them better and to build lasting positive relationships.
Do you need help with any aspect of your digital marketing strategy? From identifying your target audience to creating, planning, implementing and managing every part of your digital strategy, we can help!
Dot-to-Dot Digital is a full-service digital marketing agency – we are here to connect the dots through strategy, creative content, and digital marketing to drive traffic to and growth for your brand.
Talk with an expert strategist – and say hello to better outcomes for your business in terms of online visibility and connection. We look forward to working with you!
