When talking about potential customers you often hear the phrase ‘target audience’, as if these ephemeral people exist just out of reach and all you have to do is create a product and they will appear. The reality? It takes far more than hoping for the best. It takes work.
If you are struggling to both identify who your audience is and attract them to your website, read on to learn all about target audiences and how you can best resonate with them…
What is meant by ‘target audience’
The phrase ‘target audience’ in its simplicity refers to the people that you are hoping to, or are most likely to sell your products to. They are the ones that you have in mind when designing or creating your products, that you gear your marketing towards, and that should become the core of your customer base.
This doesn’t mean that only your target audience can buy your products, or that anyone who does buy them becomes the target (unless you alter your strategy). Instead it means that these are the demographic or type of people that you expect and want to buy from you.
Your target audience will often share traits such as:
- Age
- Location
- Gender
- Socio-economic status
- Whether they have kids
- Whether they have pets
- The need for your specific services or products and so on.
How do you ‘find’ your target audience?
You can approach the idea of a target audience in several ways, but the best one is to think about your product and what it actually offers. Your product should fulfil a need, so work out what those needs are and who needs them solving the most.
For example, if your product is insurance for pets, it wouldn’t make much sense to target people who don’t even own a pet!
Some products are more general and as such you may find it tricky to identify an exact target audience / buying persona. In that case working with a high-quality social media marketing agency in Dubai can help you to research who is most likely to buy your product and how best to resonate with them.
Ways to connect with your target audience
Once you know who your product is aimed at, it is time to work out how to best connect with your target audience. There are many methods and strategies to do this, including:
- Email marketing – sending out emails either to gain new customers or re engage and reward existing customers
- Create targeted content – your focus should always be on your intended audience and you should be as specific as you can with high-value information
- Utilise the right platforms – discover where your target audience spends most of their time and reach out to them there. For example, if you are targeting a majority female audience aged 16 to 24, TikTok could be the place to go!
- Use questions and strong opinions to drive engagement – once you are on the right platforms, engage with your target market by asking the right questions. Some audiences respond well to controversial opinions; others prefer less ‘serious’ content.
- Utilise the expertise of your marketing agency – again, if you are struggling to connect, there’s no shame in hiring the professionals. Dedicated agencies who work with a multitude of clients and are forever finding innovative ways to connect with people via social media can bring you so much value.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, ‘target audience’ simply refers to who you wish to target when marketing your products or services. The best way to identify this audience is to think carefully about what kind of problems your products or services solve and what type of demographic is most likely to need them.
When you conduct thorough audience research, you may discover that your ideal demographic is actually very different to who you first imagined. It can be a fascinating discovery process – and one that is critical to the long-term success of your online marketing efforts.