How to define the ideal target audience for your business

One of the key things for a business to understand is its audiences. When communications professionals talk about audiences, we don’t mean everyone, but specific and targeted stakeholders who can have a positive impact on your business.

Businesses can’t afford to be targeting every person with their product or message, so it’s important when developing your business strategy to define a distinct target market to focus your marketing dollars and brand message towards.

Here are some tips to help clearly define your target market:

1. Develop a profile on your current customers

The first place to start is identify who is currently using your product or service and define their characteristics to develop a profile for that type of customer. Once you’ve defined your audiences, this will help you understand key trends and averages, by looking at like-minded groups of people who could also benefit from your business.

Key information to include in your customer's profile is their age, location, language, spending / purchasing patterns, interests and what economic group they fall under. When it comes to selling a service or B2B products, you might want to consider gathering information on businesses that buy from you and learn who makes the final business decisions.

2. Take a leaflet from your competitors

Once you’ve established the profiles of the type of customer that is interacting with you, look at who’s engaging with your competitors. You won’t be able to gather the same data or insights you have from your own clientele; however, you can get an idea on how they’re approaching their customers and look at what is / or isn’t working for them.

Things to keep an eye out for is whether your competitors are directing their marketing towards the same target audiences you are, how they are positioning themselves, and if they are approaching markets you haven’t considered targeting before.

3. Target specific demographics within your ideal audience

After you have established customer profiles and identified other types of segment markets you may need to target, analyse your product or service. Look at what your business offers and note which element of your product or services can benefit each of your customer profiles.

Determine how your business’ product or service will be used by your target audience, what appeals to them the most and how they consume their information (whether it is through the media, social platforms or through events).

At Elevate, we have a wealth of experience conducting communication strategy discovery sessions, where we help businesses determine their target audiences and develop tactics to strategically reach their stakeholders.

If you’re interested in defining or refreshing your target audiences, give us a call today on 07 3180 3666 for a free non-obligatory quote.