Your Target Audience
Hello again. Last month we talked about “Branding Your Business”. This month, let’s chat about determining your ideal target audience. Or in other words, folks who want what you have.
Obviously, before you start any business, you need to make sure there is a gap or something missing in peoples’ lives and that you have the solution. That’s where your unique product/service comes in. What’s the point in having a business that doesn’t fulfill needs? Speaking of fulfilling needs, you must precisely identify who those folks are. The more precise your customers are with your “sharply defined brand personality”, the less likely you’ll waste valuable time, money and resources trying to be all things to all people.
You need to know your customer intimately and get into their heads. Buying decisions are very personal and emotional, so knowing as much about them as possible bridges the purchasing- decision gap. Are they male or female? Young or old? Local or a visitor? Wealthy or just making it by like an ex-councillor/ advertising-design professional? The more you understand their needs, the easier it is for you to connect with them and therefore succeed in making them a loyal customer.
Focus on how you currently communicate with your best customers. As the 80/20 principle goes, 80% of your income comes from 20% of your customers. So, focus on those 20% or even the top 5%. Even better (which I recommend), distill that person down to a single individual. Get to know them intimately and they’ll praise you on your behalf.
Say you’re in the apparel business. Is your ideal customer a 60-year-old professional woman who is a partner in a downtown law firm who smokes Cuban cigars and eats at the finest restaurants? Or is it a 20-year- old female college student who vapes and eats at the college food court? How do you speak to such taste differences in your communication? Is it possible to create one message that resonates with both? Likely not, due to such contrasts in life and lifestyle. Not to mention social media and other advertising mediums they use.
To reach both you’d have to create two separate brand messages because of their psycho-demo-geo-graphic differences. That can be very costly. Even if you were dealing with 20-year-old female college students alone as a target audience category, there exists many differences in that demographic. One could be a mother? Married or single? Introverted or extroverted? Small variabilities can impact how, when, and where to reach them.
Social media, television, radio, billboards, digital ads, websites, brochures, posters, point-of-purchase, etc, are at your disposal. Understanding your ideal customer and getting to know them personally will help you select the right messaging and mediums to reach them. You can’t have a target audience profile that goes like this: male and female, age 20 to 60, single or married, cat and dog lover, loves the outdoors, has a pulse, etc. Your customer can’t be everyone. So, define your ideal customer precisely and you’ll attract more.
Next month we’ll talk about advertising mediums to reach those customers.
Cheers, mark.
