Identifying your audience will help you determine the direction of your entire marketing strategy. You may ask yourself, “Well, who is my target audience?” This simple question has been at the center of marketing campaigns for decades. If you want to optimize your product’s success, you must develop a satisfactory reply to this question.
You can ascertain the identity of your target audience by assessing their replies to a variety of questions. These questions can be posed using targeted research methods.
At Upward Engine, we understand the importance of identifying your target audience. We want business owners and entrepreneurs to ask the right questions. With that in mind, we have created this comprehensive guide to identifying your target audience.
Using the following targeted questionnaire framework, you’ll obtain invaluable information to help get feedback from both employees and customers. Every reply will yield valuable data that will refine your marketing strategy. Once you have identified your target audience, we can help you take your marketing efforts to the next level.
The Importance of Identifying Your Target Audience
When asked who their target audience is, the reply of many business owners is usually something like, “My audience is every consumer.” While any motivated entrepreneur wants to generate sales, this way of thinking is highly flawed.
A product marketing strategy should not just involve throwing everything you’ve got at consumers and hoping for the best. Virtually every product has an ideal target audience. For example, consumers that live in an apartment complex have no use for lawn equipment or gardening tools. While this is an oversimplification of the marketing process, the same concept applies to virtually any industry.
As noted above, identifying your audience will help you determine how to effectively market your product. By asking questions and assessing the reply of each customer, you can tailor your sales approach and generate greater success.
Unfortunately, far too many companies overlook the importance of identifying their target audience. Instead, they tend to devote the lion’s share of their resources to product development. If any of these companies would stop asking questions instead spend more time listening to feedback from consumers, their product development efforts would find much greater success.
After you have clearly defined your target audience, then you can effectively market your product. You can curate ads, marketing campaigns, and product showcases to speak directly to your target market. Your sales team will be formatting material in a way that connects with consumers in your core demographic instead of aimlessly trying to reach everyone at once. This applies to everything from branding to paid advertising and SEO efforts.
Target Questionnaire Framework for Every Business Owner
As discussed above, it is impractical to think that a business can target every consumer with dollars to spend. Very few companies have the resources to launch such a broad marketing campaign. Even if your business could do so, it will likely be an unfruitful undertaking.
Instead, you should focus your efforts on targeting your core audience. The best way of identifying this group is by asking questions. With each reply, you will gain insight into the minds of consumers. Some of the key areas to explore include:
1. Does My Target Audience Engage with Competitors Online?
When setting goals for your company, it is always a good idea to assess the performance of your competitors. Doing so will give you the ability to gauge potential success in the market. An example question to explore is:
Question: Do my competitors leverage social media effectively?
Potential Finding: Yes, my competitors regularly engage users, publish consumer contests, and provide frequent updates.
If you find that other companies in your industry are successfully leveraging social media, then you should consider if it’s right for you, too. Utilize this and other similar questions when looking into potential audience engagement.
2. Where Is Your Target Audience Most Active?
Not all online platforms are created equal. That is why it is essential to conduct market research. Ask people in your core demographic what sites or platforms they use the most. Assess each reply and use this information to gauge where you should devote the most resources.
When researching, you might explore questions like, “What online platform do you spend the most time browsing and why?” A consumer might reply by stating, “I use Instagram the most because it is interactive and engaging.” Despite its simplicity, this is one of the most important questions that you can ask to identify your target audience’s habits.
The type of product or service that you offer will also influence where your target audience spends most of their time. For example, if you gear a product toward mothers of young children, then Pinterest might be relevant. Targeting a slightly older crowd? Facebook might be a better fit.
3. Who Is Your Product Helping Currently?
Not every product has to solve a pressing issue in the lives of consumers. However, every product or service must “help” potential clients in some manner, offering value or fulfilling a desire.
If you want consumers to buy your product, you must demonstrate how it will improve their lives or meet their needs. During the research and planning phase, ask consumers about your concept. Even if the reviews are overwhelmingly positive, take an honest look at any negative reply that you may receive. Reviews are critical if you are entering a crowded market.
During the research, be sure to gather demographic information about the participants. If a particular “type” of participant frequently provides a negative reply to questions about your product, then they may not be part of your primary target audience.
For instance, if most users over 45 years old respond negatively to your product, they may be outside your target demographic. That is okay. It can help you more clearly define your audience.
With that said, your product must be filling a void or satisfying a need in the lives of consumers. If it is not, then you should reevaluate your product or service.
4. Does Your Target Audience Currently Buy a Similar Product?
Part of your market research must include an analysis of current purchasing patterns:
- Are the clients in your projected target audience buying a similar product from a competitor?
- Is feedback on the competing product generally positive?
- What are the common complaints about your competitor’s product?
Develop a nuanced reply to each of these questions during your planning phase. By doing so, you can improve upon your competitor’s business model or differentiate your offering. In turn, this will result in a better connection with your target audience.
You will also get a firm idea as to how your target audience may engage with your service. Very rarely does a new product take over an existing market by storm. Be prepared to adjust your strategy based on these insights, which can help ensure that your product will take hold in the existing market.
5. Why Does Your Company Exist?
Asking this question may seem internal, but sit down and take a few minutes to think about this as well as:
- What is your passion?
- Why do you believe that your company will succeed?
- Are you looking to bridge a gap in the existing market, or do you have a deep personal connection to your product?
If you do not know your company’s mission, how will your consumers? At first glance, you may wonder how answering these questions can help you identify your target audience. It is virtually impossible to define your target audience without first identifying why your company even exists.
As you take the time to formulate a reply to each question, the answers will better equip you to connect with your target audience. When composing marketing campaigns and engaging with the media, you will have the ability to voice your company’s purpose.
Now, more than ever before, consumers want to partner with a company in which they believe. Be clear about your company’s purpose, and you will find that building your brand is that much easier.
6. What Problem Do You Hope to Solve?
You should consider the question “Who is your product helping?” alongside “What problem do you hope to solve?” These two questions are closely linked and are essential to identifying your target audience.
Once you have defined your target consumer base, you need to determine what problem of theirs needs solving. How are you improving their daily lives? How can you show them that your product is essential?
Once you reply to each of these sub-questions, you will be well on your way to creating an effective marketing strategy.
7. What Are Your Company’s Target Demographics?
When it comes to defining your target audience, few questions are more important than this one. Your research should aim to identify things such as:
- Age
- Gender
- Education Level
- Occupation
- Geographic location
- Disposable income
- Primary spoken language
- Interests & Hobbies
- Values
- and more
By thoroughly answering this question, you can further refine your social media and other online marketing strategies.
8. Where Is Your Audience Found?
While not quite as important as identifying your target demographic’s characteristics, understanding their location and preferred purchasing environment should still significantly impact your online marketing strategies. As the marketplace continues to evolve, you need to ask:
- Where does my customer live (geographically)?
- Should my product or service be seen in person?
- Are the majority of my customers in a specific geographical region?
- Do they prefer online shopping, in-store, or a hybrid model?
Answering all of these questions is essential if you want to meet clients where they are. Selling your products at a brick-and-mortar store requires additional resources. However, your target audience may require that you take the extra step to get your product on store shelves.
On the other hand, your target audience may prefer shopping online. If this is the case, then creating a high-performing e-commerce store will be the most efficient means of taking your product to market.
9. Does Your Target Audience Engage Online? If So, How?
When creating a reply to this question, the goal is to determine how to allocate your marketing resources. This question goes hand in hand with:
- Do my target audience primarily shop online?
- Where is my target audience most active online?
The first question helps determine the importance of your online presence. The second question guides resource allocation.
For instance, if 65% of your target audience favors Instagram, Instagram should receive significant attention in your marketing resources. If another 25% uses Facebook, then you should also devote time and resources to connecting with customers on that platform. Companies can rarely neglect a major platform completely, but resource allocation should be comparable to the potential for connecting with clients on each platform.
Using Audience Insights To Determine Strategy
As you can see, identifying your audience will help you determine every aspect of your marketing strategy. That is why we recommend rigorous research using a framework like the one above. As you find answers to each question, you will be that much closer to truly identifying your target audience.
You might be surprised at your findings, especially when you document them clearly. This process is an excellent way of gaining insight into your target demographic. In turn, this will lead to a more refined marketing strategy and increased sales revenue.
With that said, creating well-researched answers can be challenging. Underlying biases can tarnish each response if the person doing the research is too close to the subject at hand.
The best way to circumvent this issue is by partnering with an experienced digital media and marketing team. Doing so can help you identify your target audience objectively, work your way through the essential questions, and analyze every reply in a meaningful way.
I’ve Finished Identifying My Target Audience: What Now?
Identifying your audience will help you determine the direction of your digital marketing campaign. However, formulating a comprehensive understanding based on research can be challenging on your own. That is why you should consider partnering with an experienced marketing expert like Upward Engine.
Our team can help you identify your target audience and analyze consumer research. We will create a tailor-made marketing strategy that leverages social media, SEO optimization, and PPC campaigns. With our help, you can ignite your brand online. Contact us today to get started.