Find Your Perfect Target Audience

Although launching a marketing campaign can be an investment with tremendous returns, its effectiveness is limited by its ability to target the right people. Before developing a marketing strategy, it is important to identify a business’ target audience – the population most likely to want or need the product. Establishing a target audience allows a marketing campaign to be designed or modified to appeal to that cohort.

Identifying a Target Audience

There are several descriptors of a target audience that should be identified. The general demographics, including age, gender, and average income, can be important in determining what marketing resources are most likely to gain exposure. Description of a population can also help to delineate a target audience’s needs and wishes. Another necessary step is to determine the most frequent source of purchases: are most customers online shoppers, in-store visitors, catalogue orderers, or members of a specific organization? Collecting this data will allow marketing campaigns to utilize the media most likely to attract interested groups.

Expanding a Target Audience

There may also be potential customer groups with whom a business has not yet connected. By analyzing the strategies of successful competitors, new markets can be revealed. Businesses can use social media marketing to collect data on what demographics follow or interact with a page most frequently and begin a dialogue with a customer base to gain feedback on campaigns. Even interacting with dissatisfied customers can be an opportunity to build communication with an alienated group, giving businesses a chance to make their marketing strategy more inclusive.

Identifying a target audience is the first step toward developing, and later expanding, a customer base. Attracting the right people is key for the success of a marketing strategy, and collecting data on demographics and feedback is critical for a campaign to reflect the needs of its customers. For more resources on how to find the perfect target audience for a business, please contact us.