"I have a theme that permeates all of my business building and my marketing ethos - KNOW WHO YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE IS"
I read this somewhere, just the other day. It seems simple enough, but just how many of us business minded entrepreneurial souls actually do KNOW WHO OUR TARGET MARKET IS?
Time and again, we are seeing numerous business people neglecting to address the 'getting to know' their target audience. The knock on effect being that their business success is less favourable and in certain cases the business ends with failure... Such a shame!
So, how do you define your target audience?
Well, first and foremost you need to have the understanding that your target audience are the group of people who have an interest in or will benefit from what you have to offer and are ready and able to buy from you.
All too often we are blinded by these big fancy words, the likes of Demographics or Psychograpics. Of course they do play their part, quite an important part in fact, but more often than not they give cause for 'bury your head in the sand' syndrome.
So, to move forward in defining your target audience, you need to be thinking about the type of people your offering would appeal to. Think about factors such as:-
- Male or Female
- Age Group
- Particular Income level
- Certain area of the country
- Professionals working in a specific industry/sector
Once you have distinguished who you should be targeting everything, and I mean everything, will get a whole lot easier!
Focusing on one particular group rather than every Tom, Dick and Harry makes it so much easier when it comes to your marketing communications. Rather than it being a broad sweeping attempt to catch all and sundry, you are actually able to structure your communication with much more clarity and indeed be sure that the type of communication you choose, for example, e-mail, social media, direct mail and so on, is the most fitting for who you are trying to reach.
I've seen people procrastinate over defining their audience, anxious that they might lose out on those that don't necessarily fit their audience definition. Well it may be that one or two do slip through the net. But in really focusing on those that do 'fit' and hitting them right between the eyes with what you have to offer, will mean that you'll be so busy meeting the needs of those that are ready and able to buy that you won't even give the small scale number that do slip through the net a second thought.
Furthermore, you don't have to be limited to one target audience. The key is to define each audience and be sure to shape your communications specifically to favour each group.
Let's think about an activity that could appeal to multiple audiences - say Line Dancing... You are in business offering a service, you teach Line Dancing!
So, when you begin to look at defining your target audience you'll be thinking about the following:
- You need to find people who want to learn to line dance - So, forget those who already know how to groove on down in a linear fashion. Forget those who have no co-ordination (that'd be me!)
- Refining your target audience - who may wish to learn. Could be children, Singletons, or even Grandma down the street!
- What language does each group use/understand - Teenage Slang/Queen's English.
- Where do they spend their time?
- What communications would best suit them?
Those groups I mentioned just now come in the various age categories, communicate at various levels and probably 'chill out' in different ways. So, although all may have an interest in your offering of line dancing, unless you define each group, your marketing communication is likely to be wasted.
So, I'll leave you with this question....
Do You Know Who Your Target Audience Is?
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