Finding Your Target Audience
Your Target Audience Isn’t “Everybody”
Sadly, that statement is very hard for a lot of small businesses to believe. There isn’t one single business in the world who targets absolutely everybody, and none should be. A great example of this is the auto industry. Think about it: everyone drives cars (especially here in LA), they come in all sorts of budgets, and there’s something for everyone. You’d think given all that information that car companies’ target audience should be everybody.
But, that is not how car companies market themselves. They market their car models individually. Someone who is driving a sports car is much different than someone driving a pick-up truck, and they need to market as such. That’s why it is so important to use your marketing efforts and money as effective as possible. This means: do not advertise your sports car to pick-up truck lovers.
Connect With Your Audience
When you put out marketing for your business, such as commercials or even as simple as social media posts, it is in an effort to connect with the audience. You have to give your audience something that they can relate to and interact with. You need to look at your target audience and where they shop, what their buying habits are, what they like to talk about, and much more.
Someone who owns a cat does not want to see ads served to them of dog products or videos of dogs shown to them, nor would they follow social media accounts about dogs. Rather, they want to see things they can relate to and eventually purchase for their cat. Getting specific into your niche will easily weed out all the people who will never purchase your product or service, no matter how great it is.
Target Audience Personas
An easy way of obtaining all this information to gain an idea of your target audience is to have a Target Audience Persona performed. A target audience persona outlines a typical member of your target audience. It is fictional representations of your audience, rooted in demographic and behavioral data that we gleaned from the Audience Insights report. At Navazon, we create 3 audience personas to represent 3 different audience segments. We give them names, faces and a clear background so you know exactly who to market to.
We learn a lot about your audience or your potential audience from the Audience Insight Report. However, there are still a lot of unknowns. If we are to relate to them at a deeper level, we need to understand their feelings, pain points and aspirations as related to your products or services. We use a creative process called Empathy Mapping to dig deep into your ideal customers psyche. With empathy mapping we learn how your audience perceives their world as related to your products or services. You can then design products, brand messaging and ads that connect to your audience at a deeper, more personal level. It’s something marketers love doing most!
