By Michelle 
The client controls the purchasing process, and marketers must build focused, tailored experiences for customers if they want to stand out among a sea of brands and advertisements.
Your target audience may be narrow or wide depending on what you sell. If you were a shoe dealer, for example, your target audience would be diverse because men, women, and children all wear shoes. On the other side, maybe you specialize in high-performance running shoes. Then your target audience would be more specific – top athletes aged 20 to 40 who have indicated an interest in running or have completed a marathon.
The Advantages Of Understanding Your Target Audience
Understanding your target audience is critical as a marketer. This data will serve as the foundation for any marketing plan and strategy you implement. Airing an ad during the Super Bowl may appear to be a terrific method to reach as many people as possible, but it is also costly. Knowing that your target demographic reads a particular newspaper or watches a particular show means that your advertisement will be viewed by fewer people, but by the correct people.
You may create creative that speaks to certain personalities and brands that align with the interests and values of customers who are most likely to buy the product. This is especially critical in an era when consumers demand all advertisements be individualized and highly targeted. Indeed, 80% of consumers think they are more inclined to do business with a brand that provides individualized encounters.
7 Methods For Determining Your Target Audience
To establish your target audience, you must devote time to collecting data from consumer encounters, examining existing customers and purchasing habits, and optimizing as new information becomes available.
1. Conduct Client Interviews And Analyze Your Customer Base
Looking at who already buys your product or service is one of the finest methods to figure out who your target customer is. What is their age, where do they reside, and what are their interests? Engaging in social media or distributing consumer surveys is a fantastic approach to understanding this.
2. Research The Market And Identify Industry Trends
Examine your industry’s targeting your market research to see where there are gaps in service that your product may cover. Examine trends for similar items to identify where they are putting their efforts, then zero in on your product’s distinct value.
3. Examine Competitors
Marketers may learn a lot from rivals by observing who they typically market to and how they do it. Are they communicating through online or offline channels? Is their attention focused on the decision-maker or the supporter?
4. Develop Personas
Creating personas is an excellent approach to hone down on the exact groups that comprise your target audience.
Personas are formed using data, surveys, digital engagements, and whatever other information marketers may gather to provide a more complete picture of the consumers. Favorite activities, television shows, periodicals, and so forth. Marketers are advised to create between three and five personas.
5. Identify Who Your Target Audience Is Not
There will undoubtedly be consumers that fall within your target demographic but do not respond to messages. Try to be explicit about who your target audience is and who it isn’t. Is your demographic female, or females aged 20 to 40? Knowing this can prevent your teams from wasting money on ad segments that will not provide results.
6. Constantly Revise
As you collect more data and engage with clients, you will have a more precise picture of your target audiences. To gain the greatest outcomes, you must continually optimize and hone personas based on this information.
7. Make Use Of Google Analytics
This data can be used to get critical insights such as which channels your target audience is using or what sort of content they are interacting and connecting with the most, helping you to make better data-driven decisions throughout the media planning process.