How to Define Your Target Audience (+Templates & Workbooks)

If you're setting up your own business, the first step is familiar with your intended audience. Before beginning any branding or marketing activities make sure you determine who your ideal people are and what kind of solutions they're looking for.

Learn how to identify your audience's needs and get some helpful tips and templates to make the process easier.

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  What's the target group?  

The target market is the specific group of people who are most likely to want to purchase your product or service. They are the ones whom your advertising should target at.

Your ideal customer will be determined by the demographics of your target audience, the issues they face as well as the solution they'd like to discover.

  Why is it crucial to identify your intended public?  

When you design a product, it's essential to determine who you would like to offer it.

If you have a clear understanding of the desires and requirements of your consumers and their needs, you can design an item that can assist those customers. Rather than trying to find customers to fit your products, the idea is to tailor your product to your ideal client.

Keep in mind that even if the product targets a range of audiences - your target audience isn't everybody!

What many brands and entrepreneurs fail is by making their target audience too big. For example, "My product is aimed at all men" as well as "This product is for teenagers". This can be a good starting point but you need to refine your target audience in order to ensure that your marketing is successful.

Get the free audience Research Workbook that includes an easy-to-follow guide for delineating your target audience.

  Audience roles  

If you're just beginning to figure out how to identify your ideal customer be aware that different buyers have distinct types.

Purchase roles divide your target group based on the amount of influence they hold over the final purchase choice. There are two key buy-in roles: the supporting and the buyer.

  The Supporter  

The supporters in your target audience do not have the ability to take the final purchase decision but they do have an impact over the person making the decision. While they will not be accountable for the cash, their view regarding your product's quality is crucial.

One good illustration of the role of a supporter is a child picking out their Halloween costumes. A HR worker who evaluates training programs is an advocate.

  The one who decides  

The individual who makes the final option of deciding whether to make a purchase is the person who decides. They have a direct influence on whether or not the item or service will be bought. Sometimes the decision-maker may not be who you assume and you should base your understanding off of your target audience research, and not just your intuition.

In the same way, the decision-maker is the parent who purchases costumes for their child or the CEO who takes the final call on employee the training.

If you are defining your intended audience, it's important to consider the various buying role.

  How do you define your intended group of customers  

Ready to determine your market? Take these five steps.

    Ask your current customers    

If you're interested in finding out more about your audience, start with your current customers. Conduct research about your customers through your email database and social media users as well as site customers. Let your customers take part in a survey or schedule a time for a one-to-one call where you can interview them on their needs and pain points.

    Get details on demographics    

To understand more about who's most likely to be buying your services or products attempt to identify the characteristics of your present audience.

Here are some important demographic indicators you should be looking out for:

Age

The most fundamental characteristics of a demographic is the age range of your intended audience. Age can tell you lots about the type of content or channels that your audience is the most likely to engage with.

Don't worry about being overly specific in this case. The target market could be more diverse in age or the generational. It is possible that there are multiple groups of age groups within your targeted market. You might, for example, want to target simultaneously Gen Z and Millennials with your offerings.

Gender

Another crucial aspect to consider is gender. The gender of a person can have an enormous influence on where you direct your marketing activities, as well as your choice of messaging and the brand's identity.

In 2021, for instance, 71 percent of Pinterest users were women, whereas 61 percent of Twitter users were male. The gender proportion of your target audience can influence the channels you choose to market your business.

Income

It's also useful to have an idea of your viewers' household income to estimate their spending power. How much disposable income do they have? How much can they afford to purchase your product or services? These are all factors that will affect the marketing strategy you use to promote your products or services and the pricing strategy you choose to implement.

Location

When you're carrying out market research, discover which part of the globe your target audience is based. This will allow you to determine which regions of the world you should target, and also which languages to use for your product or services.

If, for instance, your customers are located in major Spanish-speaking nations, you might consider creating resources and content in Spanish in addition to English.

Marital, relational, or family status

Depending on your product depending on your product, it could be helpful to know the relationship status of your customers as well as marital status. the family's profile. Do you have a majority of customers married? Divorced? Parents? This can influence the kinds of products or services that your audience is interested in and what advertisements and content they react to.

Interests

Also, you can determine your audience's preferences by their hobbies. You can find out their hobbies, entertainment preferences, and more. What do they prefer to pass their time? What amount of time and cash do they invest in their interests? Are they pet lovers and extreme sports people, or are they bookworms?

Find common interests and interests in your target group to guide your marketing for the future. This gives you an opportunity to find potential partnerships with other brands or influencers you might be interested in working together in the near future.

    Know their needs and their pain issues    

As well as understanding the demographics of the target audience, you also need be able to dive a little more in depth. When you're trying to define your ideal audience, make sure you explore their needs as well as their pain points.

What is your target audience struggling with? What are their top 3 fears? What keeps them up at late at night? Concentrate on the most common concerns of the people you want to reach and how they are related to your niche Be sure to be specific. The more detailed you obtain about the target market's demands, issues and worries, the more you can ensure that your service or product will solve them.

Being aware of this aspect of your target audience is essential not only for your marketing but also for your sales strategies and brand story. If you're a course designer you could be able to have a huge impact on the content that you incorporate in your course as well.

    Examine the answer they're hoping to find    

In the next step, you have be aware of how to position your service or product according to your target audience's needs. It's about analyzing the solution(s) which your intended customers are looking for.

What results is your target audience hoping to achieve? What are the steps they'll need to follow to achieve their goals? What are the ways your product can meet these needs? How can your unique offering provide a solution to their issues?

Finding out the dream strategy for your audience will help you build a more detailed profile of your customers that can influence your future marketing.

    Create a customer avatar    

Another step that will help to define your audience is to make a customer avatar. Distill the commonalities that the best clients have in common and put them into one single person. What would be the traits of the ideal customer? That's the moment at which you'll be able to design your ideal customer profile, by analyzing your research on the audience.

The avatars of customers are extremely useful in focusing your marketing. It is important to keep one individual with a specific person in mind. When you create marketing assets to come in the near future, it will be targeted at the same person. This will help you compose for your customers in a the most personal and relevant manner.

A key to make your marketing be memorable is to imagine that you're talking to just one customer and their requirements as well as their worries, hopes and aspirations.

Download the Customer Avatar workbook to create your customer avatar.

  How do you gather data on your target public  

If you're trying to determine the target market, start by looking through your existing customers.

One of the easiest ways to know the demographics of your audience to ask them! Audience research is the best method of getting familiar with your intended audience and figure out the characteristics of them and what they are looking for.

If you're just starting out or are a small or medium-sized company There are two strategies that are most effective such as interviews and surveys.

  Surveys  

Surveys can be a great starting point for customers' research. They are available via email or social media. Regardless of the channel you prefer to use to reach your customers the most frequently.

Try one of these methods:

• Run a poll on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram
• Post a question on your private Facebook Group
• Answer questions about your Instagram stories

You can also use a tool like the Typeform to design your survey and forward the link to email.

Download the no-cost Audience Research Survey Template to make your own survey.

Survey questions

The effectiveness of any survey depends on making sure you ask the right questions. Here's what to include the survey to gather information about your target audience.

  Demographic questions  

In your audience research survey, make sure you get information about your respondents' demographics.

It should also include questions about:

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Education
• The income of the family

It's a good idea to design your questions about demographics to be multiple-choice.

  Long-form questions  

It is also recommended to contain long-form questions to help you understand the people's needs and wants.

Here are some good examples:

• What are you struggling with you the most with regards to X?
• How does it make you feel?
• Why is it important for you to tackle X right now?
• If you took a course in X which topic, what do you want to leave with at the end of the course?

Long-form questions are useful here because they allow you to obtain a more precise, individualized picture of what your clients want.

Assess the results of your survey

When you've released your questionnaire and received at least 10 responses It's now time to review your findings.

Review the responses in the surveys you have taken and look for common themes and keywords. This can assist you in identify shared struggles among the people you are targeting. Additionally, you will be able to understand what solutions they're searching for, and the way your solutions or products can satisfy the gap.

Download this audience Research Workbook for a step-by-step instructions on how you can analyze your survey findings.

  Interviews  

Interviews are another great method to help you define the target market. If you can have an individual chat with your client and get more detailed information about the needs and desires of your customers. Additionally, this gives you the opportunity to interact to your customers who are already there on a personal level.

If you are able, record the conversation - make sure you ask for permission beforehand - and then make precise notes. When you're talking to someone there's a great deal of details in a short time, which means you'll require help in recollecting all the details!

  3-step interviewing process  

    Choose your technology    

• Use a scheduling application like Calendly for customers to schedule a time for the call
• Connect a video conferencing application e.g. Zoom, Google Meet or Whatsapp
• Your customers will receive an automatic link via the scheduling tool.

    Create an email for your readers    

• Give your email a catchy subject line e.g. "Hey @[name], how can we talk?"
• Ask them to use the link for scheduling
• Give an incentive such as an offer to draw prizes or coupons to encourage more sign-ups

    Write your interview questions    

• Introduce yourself and explain the purpose of the call
• Ask open-ended, question that are open to discussion e.g. "What are your main challenges in relation to [topic]?
• Examine more in depth your interviewee's answers
• Add questions that reveal the motives for their responses

Get this Audience Research workbook for more sample interview questions as well as tips for interviewing techniques.

Examine your interview questions

As with your surveys, you also need analyse your interview responses for common themes within the people you are targeting. Find themes, words or phrases that are shared between groups and are repeated frequently.

You can also draw out similarities between the problems and issues your clients are facing to get a more complete view of your audience.

  Extra tips to define your target audience  

When it comes to the best way to define your ideal group, there are couple of other strategies to have in your bag. These suggestions will allow you improve your knowledge of the target market and the way it evolves in time.

  1. Check out your competitors

In addition to talking with your current customers, another great resource for finding the right audience for your business is conducting competitor research. Check out who your competitors are targeting as well as who's purchasing their goods.

Many brands list the top customers on their site, as well as their social media followers as well as collaborations with influencers. Through the competitive analysis tool, you will find out how your rivals operate as well as who their ideal customer is and the areas where you can potentially outmaneuver them to gain new customers.

  2. Utilize social media

Social media analytics can be an extremely valuable tool that you can use in your customer research. Social media is created to assist marketers in understanding and analyze their audiences and there's a whole range of applications that allow you to do just that.

If you already have established social media channels to promote your company You can utilize these to define your ideal audience.

Social analytics

Every social media platform has the ability to study your user base and the things that are working. Social analytics allow you'll be able to see the source of your traffic from, what content users are consuming and the demographics of your audience.

Social listening

It is also possible to use social listening as a way to understand the needs of your group of customers. Explore the needs of your audience by examining the keywords and hashtags that they're using. You can find relevant topics that are in line with your specific niche and that have an overlap that is compatible with your business.

It's a great approach to find out who's discussing your product or services and where they fit with your competition. Which brands are your target audience loving right now? What conversations are they having around your industry? What trends are you seeing emerging?

Social media is a powerful source to understand what's important to your customers. Crucially, it's not just used by big companies. Entrepreneurs and small businesses can profit from this too!

  3. Keep working on it

Knowing your audience's needs is never a one-time activity. You need keep doing on a regular basis to gain an accurate picture of who your customers are and what they require. The more clients you have, the more detailed an account you will have.

There's a chance that your target audience shifts as your brand develop. The product you sell could attract new audiences or target different pain points that your target audience encounters over time It's best to utilize polls and interviews regularly to keep up-to-date.

  Ready to define your target audience?  

In order to make your marketing efficient It is essential to identify your target audience. This is crucial when it comes to digital advertising as well as social media. If you want to have your material in front of the right users, then you must be aware of who they are.

Being able to clearly define your audience's needs is the ideal method to develop marketing material which will appeal to prospective customers, and gain greater conversions later.

To learn more about the top marketing techniques for your business, enroll in our Free Webinar Sales Funnel course.

   This article was first published in Nov, 2021 and was updated July 2022 with many more resources.