One of the biggest mistakes early stage business owners run into, is failing to understand their target audience. Your target audience will be the foundation of every decision you make for your brand.
I don't want you to fall into the trap of going to market without knowing who you're selling to, so keep reading if you want to understand your target audience like a pro!
Why understanding your target audience is essential for business success
Knowing your target audience is a non-negotiable for business success. After all, we aren't making a living off of buying our own goods - we want to sell them to others!
Whenever a client approaches me for Brand Design or Coaching, one of the first questions we explore is 'Who is your target audience?'. Now don't get me wrong, most people tend to have an answer, but the answer is usually extremely vague. What does this tell me? It tells me that they will struggle to cater to their customer, because they don't know who their customer is! It's easy to create a product or service in comparison to selling it, but reaching your ideal audience doesn't have to be the twisty maze that it appears to be on the surface.
Having knowledge of the people you want to serve is essential. You need to have a clear understanding of their wants, needs and preferences, otherwise you may find that all the time and money you invest in getting customers through the door is wasted.
Understanding your target audience provides you with limitless potential, but here are some of the key things your new-found knowledge will allow you to do:
Build a brand that resonates with the right people
Tailor your Branding and Marketing strategies
Create or Improve your products and/or services
Improve customer interest and retention
Grow your business quicker
Make more sales!
Evolving Target Audience
It should be noted at this point, that understanding your target audience is not a one-time task. This is a process that you will re-visit over time. The world is changing constantly and there will be factors that cause your audience to evolve. Staying up-to date with your customers, will allow your business to grow with them.
Common mistakes businesses make when defining their target audience
Targeting 'Everyone' -
Anyone who has ever heard me talk about Audience targeting, would have heard the golden phrase "If you're targeting everyone, you are targeting no one" - I say this 100 times a day, simply because it's true!
New businesses tend to fall into the 'money trap', which is essentially when they want to make a buck so bad, they'll try to sell to anything with a pulse. But this only leads to generic and vague messaging, which causes the majority of people to overlook them entirely. Remember, your brand is meant to resonate with specific people, and you can't be loved by everybody!
Being too vague -
There's a reason it's called a 'Target' audience and not a 'Rough ballpark' audience. The aim is to choose a specific group of people who are most likely to engage or interact with your brand. So being too broad or vague, will not benefit you.
The assumption that aiming for a larger audience will bring your more customers isn't necessarily true. It's more efficient to narrow your focus, with the scope to expand later if that's the direction you want your business to go in.
Making assumptions -
Whatever you think you know about your audience, prove it to yourself! Too many business owners are not doing research (usually because it seems quicker not to!) to back up their assumptions. The problem is, this can lead you down a path of thinking you know your audience well, when you actually don't. These days, data is widely available, so find the evidence to back up your thoughts.
Focusing solely on demographics -
Demographics tell us 'Who' is buying (e.g. Age, Race, Income and Gender).
Whilst Psychographics tell us 'Why' someone is buying (e.g. opinions, desires, preferences and interests).
If you only focus on the demographics, this will leave you with a huge pool of people, and very little information about what motivates them to engage with a brand. Focus on both, and you will be able to create a quality buyer persona.
How to Define Your Target Audience
Now that you know why you need to understand your target audience, and how not to do it. Let's look at what you should do!
Understand Demographic and Psychographic data:
As previously mentioned, Demographic data tells you who is buying and psychographic data tells you why they buy. Combine both demographics and psychographics to create a well-rounded understanding of your ideal customer.
Narrow it down:
Identify a niche audience whose specific needs align with your products or services. You'll be able to understand their needs once you've identified their psychographics.
Niching down has multiple benefits, but ensure that you aren't being too specific. You don't want to narrow your audience down so much that there are only 5 people in the entire world who can relate to you.
Research and Analyse:
The more you learn, the more you will know. Once you have your research, analysing this data will help you when it comes to strategic planning.
Create A Buyer Persona:
A buyer persona is a representation of your ideal customer built on research and real-life data. Your personas will allow you tailor your strategies to those who are most likely to engage with your business.
Stay up-to-date:
Study purchase patterns, gather feedback and stay up-to-date with changes in the market that could effect your customer base.
