How to find your IDEAL target audience and why it’s so important

Let’s start with the definition of ‘target audience’.
YOUR target audience is a community of people who are interested in what YOU provide, whether that be your products or services. They are the people who are interested in the topics in your niche. They are the people who relate to you and want to be interacting with you.
So why is it important to target a specific audience?
Have you ever heard that phrase, “if you try to please everyone, you’ll end up pleasing no one”?
That’s not only true in life but with regards to your business as well. If you are trying to market your product or service to everyone, your ideal clients aren’t going to see you and you are either going to hear crickets or you’re going to attract the wrong people to your business which is not a good long-term game. There is so much out there already that if you don’t get your ideal client targeted to a persona chances are you’ll be lost in the wave of social media/marketing. Your business literally depends on you targeting the right audience.
How to define your target audience?
The first step to defining your target audience is to look at your current audience (if you have one).
You can look in places like:
01. Your email list
if you have a sign-up form available and people have subscribed to you these are the people who are more than likely interested in YOU and what you’re all about and would be a great place to start collecting your data. They are more than likely your TARGET AUDIENCE.
02. Your social media platforms
just like with your email list, the people following your social media accounts are probably already interested in what you do or they wouldn’t be following you. Use the analytics available on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest to see who has been engaging with your content. You can get an idea of your target market from these platforms.
03. Previous ideal clients you’ve worked with/sold products to
if you’ve already worked with a client or two or had people buy your product and you feel they were a good fit with your business then they are also a good place to collect data from. In this day and age, all you really need to do is a little Instagram or Facebook search for them and you’ll probably find out a few of their likes/values and where they’re from. Also, think about where they initially came across your business for the first time. Was it through Pinterest or a Facebook group? Because that is more than likely where they hang out and where you could focus to target new clients.
04. Your google analytics
if you have a website it would be a good idea to check out your google analytics. You’ll find the demographics of people who have been visiting your website which will be helpful in knowing who is interested in you, aka your ideal target audience.
05. Doing surveys
by conducting surveys you can find out what your target audience is really struggling with.
06. Studying your competition
the common denominator between you and your competition is the target audience. YOUR target audience is currently engaging with your competitor so you need to get in there and do it better than them! Target those people and show them why they need to use your services or your products instead of your competitors.
If you’re just starting out and you’re in the research phase you can definitely still check out a few of the above points. Check out your competition and gather data from their target audience, you can run a survey, think about who you want to attract and work with and definitely use the freebie target audience form in this post to start identifying your ideal client.
After collecting the information from the sources you have available you need to personalize it and create a target audience persona using your data and the target audience worksheet freebie.
Why do you need a target audience persona?
Once you’ve created this persona for your ideal target audience it will be easier to understand them and think like them. It’s no longer some airy-fairy concept, you actually have a “tangible” version of your ideal client and so you’re able to put yourself in their shoes. You’ll be able to understand their pain points and what their struggles are and can create content, services, and products directly targeted to make your ideal target persona’s life easier. This will naturally lead to them interacting with your brand and purchasing your products and services.
What are the benefits of having the right target audience?
01.
When you have found out who “your people” are you have basically found the purpose for your business (because the purpose of your business is to sell products and services yes?) and your job is to then create content that targets your ideal client, to get them to realize that they need what you’re offering.
02.
When you have your persona in mind and you create content for this persona, more people will engage with your posts because it will be addressing a problem they’re facing.
03.
It will be easier to write targeted emails because the people on your email list are the ones who are actually interested in what you’re offering so you’ll have a higher conversion rate.
04.
You’ll attract more people to your social media accounts which will lead to more people following you.
05.
You’ll have more people sharing your content (because people tend to share things that they find helpful) which will attract more of your target audience.
In conclusion
So in conclusion you need to do research and collect data (it will be more fun than it sounds because it’s for your business) from various places like your competitors, email lists, and analytics as well as think about who you want to target and who you want to work with. You then need to take this DATA and use it alongside your TARGET AUDIENCE WORKSHEET to create your target audience persona. Once you have this persona you will be able to create targeted content that appeals to your ideal client and leads to more business. Once you know who YOUR PEOPLE are and you’re solving their problems, you’ll have people lining up to buy your products and services because they WANT to interact with your brand. So go out and find them, they’re waiting to be swept off their feet by an amazing business just like yours!
If you found this post useful, please be sure to let me know!
xo Cam