Some business owners post aimlessly on social media, choose ad campaigns based on their own preferences, and are still wondering why they only get 3 likes on posts and are still at 20 followers. Sound familiar? While you may reach people here and there using this method, gaining real traction and expanding your customer base will be slow going unless you pinpoint your target audience. So how do you determine who your primary customer is so that you can maximize your reach?
Start by getting a grip on the demographics and interests of your target audience.
Gathering intel about your current customer base may sound like a simple marketing strategy, but it’s effective and that’s what matters. You need to figure out who your target customer is–who you are even marketing to–before you create content. Every post on social media, every ad campaign, every blog post has the potential to hook new customers and clientele. So you have to think about what your product/service is and who is going to want to buy your product. As you try to pinpoint your target audience, here are some questions you might want to ask:
- Where are your customers from?
- Are your customers adults, children, or both?
- Are you meeting a need? What void are you filling in your community?
- What price range/budget are you catering to? Can the people in your city afford your service?
- Are you targeting families? Families with toddlers or families with teens?
- Are you targeting married customers or single/dating customers?
- Are the people in your city busy or slower-paced? Constantly on-the-go or homebodies?
- Who is your competition? What are they doing to cater to their customer base?
- Are you targeting an older generation or a younger generation?
- Is your audience knowledgeable about the service you are offering or do they need to be educated?
Ask your current audience for their personal feedback and input.
Whether you do so virtually or in real-life focus groups, asking current customers and clients questions about themselves and how they relate to your business is huge. Getting reliable data from and gaining insight into the mind and buying habits of your current audience is critical because it typically results in two important things:
- It helps you understand what needs to stay the same, what you need to add or change, etc. Your customers see your business from an angle you’ll never be able to see it from. Take full advantage of that!
- It humanizes you. Suddenly you’re not just a business, you’re a friend who cares about their opinion. When you connect with customers, they end up supporting you during a pandemic, sharing your posts on social media, and recommending you to their friends.
Consult and enlist professionals to fill in the gaps.
It’s tough to be the best at what you do and accurately identify your target audience. Luckily, there are marketing experts (like us) who do know how to do just that and have the tools and experience to help! Pinpointing your target audience is important because these insights directly affect the way you market your product and run your business. Without this data, your business has no direction. And without a direction, you’re stuck taking shot after shot in the dark, hoping that somehow you’ll hit the target.