Are you wondering how to get more customers for your business?
For many companies, getting customers to their website and then prompting them to make a purchase is the ultimate goal. If you’re like most business owners, though, you may be missing a key factor in your strategy that will help increase your revenue: target audience.
When most people research digital marketing, they come across one term repeatedly: target audience. Defining your target audience and orienting your advertising towards it makes a huge difference in the sales of your company.
But how do you define who your target customer is? And how should you market to them?
Keep reading to learn more!
What Is a Target Audience? Why Does Knowing Yours Help?
Before we get into learning how to reach a target audience, let’s define the term. So, what is a target audience?
In marketing, a target audience refers to the primary demographic a company or institution tries to reach. Usually, this involves a company defining the exact age, gender, and perhaps socioeconomic background of the people to whom they are trying to sell. It usually includes their geographical area as well.
But why is it important to have a target audience? Wouldn’t it be better to just advertise to everyone?
Many beginning business owners falsely assume that it’s best to cast their net wide and hope they can draw in customers. This isn’t necessarily the case.
Why doesn’t it work? Target marketing informs businesses on how to sell their products and services. If you don’t have a target audience, you won’t have as much directive when it comes to your marketing strategy. Not everyone is alike or is interested in your products or services, so why would you market to everyone?
To reel a customer in, you need to pique their interests and make them feel as if they need your product. The more you know about them as a person, the greater the likelihood you will be able to catch their attention and increase your revenue.
How to Determine Your Target Audience
But, if you’re like most people, you’re probably wondering how to define your target audience. How do you go about identifying target audience parameters? What aspects do you need to consider?
Determining your audience boils down into one thing: need. Ask yourself who needs your products or services. Is it a middle-aged man in the suburbs? A 20-something-year-old woman who just rented her first apartment? Expecting mothers? College students?
Do these people have families? Which way do they lean politically?
Write down everything you can think of concerning the type of people who need your services. That, right there, is your target audience.
Now, define why they need it. Do you sell baby carriers to expecting mothers? Is the middle-aged suburbanite in need of someone to cut his lawn?
Knowing why your audience needs you goes a long way. It demonstrates the hole you’re filling and gives you a point of entry into these people’s lives. Now, you have the opportunity to tell them how you fulfill what they’ve been looking for all along.
Example of a Well-Defined Target Audience
Still not sure of what a well-defined target audience looks like? Fortunately, companies that target their customers well tend to succeed, so there are quite a few good examples out there.
Take, for example, SinglesSwag, which has a success story that demonstrates the power of knowing your target market. This successful subscription box sends monthly packages, brimming with excellent self-care items, to single women. The company’s target audience consists of women ages 25-34 and has raked in $1.5 million.
The founder of SinglesSwag, Jonathan Beskin, actually began the box by noting his own desire to receive gifts while he was single. He started out wanting to target both men and women, but when he researched the typical subscription box subscriber, he discovered they were almost all women.
As a result, he decided to target women specifically and began following social media influencers and the products they featured to get an idea of what these women would love.
Then, he took a basic need–loving yourself when you’re single–and advertised his company as the solution. The tagline of SinglesSwag is “#LoveYourself.”
How to Market to Your Target Audience
By now, you’re probably asking yourself, “How do I reach my target audience?”
Take some time to carefully consider your answer to this question, and don’t just jump to the conclusion that using one method will be just as good as using all others.
The first step to coming to a solid conclusion, though, is to determine what platforms your average client uses the most. For instance, does your target audience use one social media platform way more than any other? Do they prefer e-mail, text messages, or phone calls? Where can you consistently get in touch with them?
Once you’ve figured out which platforms your target audience frequents, make sure you’re equipped to communicate with them. If they mostly use Instagram and Twitter, set up accounts on those platforms and familiarize yourself with their advertising options. If your audience checks their e-mails often, come up with more detailed e-mail campaign plans.
Always Assume People Are on Mobile Devices
At least half of all internet users access the web through their smartphones. They log on to check their social media pages, read e-mails, shop, and chat with friends.
As such, you need to make sure that your ads are mobile-friendly. It’s not enough to just make an ad on your desktop and assume it will show up just as well on a mobile device. You also should optimize your website to become mobile-ready, as sometimes nice desktop displays do not translate well.
Failure to account for mobile users could mean you end up losing customers. Once you launch your ads, always make sure to study the mobile user analytics to make sure people on their phones are having no trouble accessing it and clicking through to your website.
Want to Get More Leads?
Now that you know how to determine target audience, you’re ready to start getting more out of your content marketing journey.
After all, once you know your target persona, you’ll be able to create personalized ads that become the answer to the question, “How to get more leads?” This form of lead targeting, in turn, will give you more revenue and grow your client base!
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