How to Identify Your Target Audience

Determining and understanding your target audience is an essential part of any content marketing campaign. There are several benefits when it comes to content marketing, including, but not limited to, the following:

• It creates more effective marketing strategies
• It will help to increase leads
• It helps to build relevant, high levels of site traffic
• It helps to convert leads into sales thanks to relevant traffic and targeting 

So what is a target audience, exactly, and how can you find it?

What is a target audience?

A target audience refers to a group of people who are most likely to be looking for your products and/or services. As they’re actively looking for what you’re offering, this then means that they’re more likely to make a purchase or commit to a service you have available. Businesses learn about their target audience and gather as much information as possible so as to increase leads and , therefore, conversions.

Factors that help to determine a relevant target audience includes the following:

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Socioeconomic status
• Interests and hobbies
• Purchasing behaviours
• Education

Tips for finding your target audience

Working out your target audience is one of the most difficult things a business has to do in order to make their mark on the industry and set themselves apart from the competitors. With all of the varying factors in mind that make up a target audience, there are a few things you can do that will help you to determine the right target audience for your business or clients.

Carry out market research

Market research is the most effective way of determining who your target audience is. This gives you valuable information about your target audience extremely quickly, so much so, it’s almost considered effortless. Do this by using Google Analytics and/or Facebook Insights so that you have a better understanding of the following:

• Their age
• Their gender
• Their location

Not only will this give you more insight into the generation you’re aiming your content towards, it will also give you some understanding of their spending behaviours and patterns and you can use this to your advantage.

For example, 91% of millennials prefer to shop online than they do in a physical shop, according to JungleScout. Armed with this information, you can adapt your website to suit millennials. Make the design minimalistic yet interesting, for example; draw them in.

Use social media where possible

Social media is an effective way of gathering relevant information about your target audience. As well as looking at your competitors and then looking into the type of people who are searching those sites and have connected with them on social media, you can also run polls and questionnaires on sites such as Instagram.

Here, you’ll be able to ask insightful questions, posing them directly at specific target markets. This way, you’ll gain a better understanding of what your target audience are looking for depending on their age, location or even their education.

Create fictional customer personas

This might seem like a pointless task after all of the target market research you’ve already done, but it helps to make things more personal as opposed to just seeing a group of people as a whole. Make fictional profiles of people who are, based on your research so far, most likely to use your service or buy your products.

For example, someone who might want a bamboo coffee flask might be a woman in her late twenties who’s a busy, working professional with a view to lowering her carbon footprint. If your business sells bamboo coffee flasks as well as other things made of bamboo in order to be eco-friendly, such as toothbrushes, pencils or even socks, then this is someone you could target your marketing towards.

Kumo are SEO, PPC and content specialists with a wealth of knowledge and expertise to draw upon. From content creation, website development and paid advertisement to set you apart from your competitors, Kumo are able to do it all. For more information about our digital marketing services, get in touch with a member of our expert team today – we’re always happy to help.