If you’ve started talking to us at Excite Media about your website and/or digital marketing efforts, we’ve probably spoken to you about your ‘target market’ or ‘target audience’.
We ask a lot of questions to understand a client’s target audience before we begin digital marketing efforts for them, as part of this process.
You may ask yourself, ‘do I really have to answer all of these questions?’ and ‘is this really that important to define’. The short answer is yes.
In this article, we take a look at why you need to intricately understand your target market, who they are, and why they should (and would want to) buy from you.
So, what is a target audience, and what’s a target market?
Simply put, your target market is essentially anyone you are focusing on ‘targeting’ your products, offerings, communication and marketing efforts towards. Your target audience/s are the groups of people that make up that target market.
Who should be in your target market? 🎯
Your target market should be the specific group of people (or groups of people) who are most likely to need/want to buy your product or service.
While outliers outside of your target audience may want to buy your products/services, the people you actively target your marketing efforts towards should be the people most likely to buy in. Why? Because it’s much better for your marketing budget to talk to the people who are likely to pick up what you’re putting down.
Your target market or target audience, are specific groups of people, defined by similar characteristics, traits, interests, or demographics like location.
For example, if you’re selling Peppa Pig merchandise, your core target audience (the most important group of people to target) is most likely going to be parents and grandparents of children who love Peppa Pig (it also may include the children themselves, so they can beg their parents until they cave in).
Now, you may find you have a few different ‘core’ target audiences. Meaning, there may be a few different defined groups of people who are all equally likely to want/need what you offer.
In marketing, we generally still refer to multiple ‘core audiences’ as simply your ‘target audience’ as a collective, or as the most important group of targeted audiences, within your broader target market.
Why understanding your target market is so important 🙌
Understanding your target market is not just helpful; it’s super important for your business’s success. Here’s why:
You need to know what messaging and ‘tone’ will hit home
It’s no good talking in engineering terminology to people outside of the engineering industry. It’d be as effective as talking about ‘rizz and other Gen Z slang to people over the age of 70. The words that you use, your style of speech, and the content itself needs to be catered for your audience if you want it to make sense, resonate, and drive them to act. To do that, you have to understand who your target audience is.
You need to know what matters to them
Then there’s the content itself. In order to give your potential customers the information that will get them to take an interest in your brand, you have to know what information to present. So you need to know what they like, what they need, and what content you need to present to them to convince them.
You need to be able to find them, and then reach them
Marketing channels are not created equal. Each channel has its strengths and weaknesses when it comes to reaching people. You need to know where your audience spends time to pick the right marketing channel to communicate your message.
For example, your target market might hang out more on Instagram than on LinkedIn, or visa versa. They may reserve one channel for ‘leisure’ and another for ‘business’. They may not even frequent certain channels (some people still prefer picking up the phone or sending an SMS to firing off an email).
Knowing what technology and communication channels your audience uses, how they use social media and the internet, and where they spend their time helps you concentrate your efforts on where your audience will actually see them.
To meet your customer needs, you need to first know what those needs are
The best way that you can succeed as a business is to solve problems for your customers and/or provide a solution for a need or want. To do that, you have to know what their needs and wants actually are.
It’s important to know what is important to your customers. Does offering free delivery or another incentive make or break a sale for them? Is reading feedback from others a key decision-maker for them? Do they prefer to jump online and book a service quickly and easily, or do they prefer to talk to an expert first?
If you ever have the opportunity to engage with your target audience (or existing customer base) and learn these things about them, then do so. Their feedback is gold for tailoring your products, services, and messages to suit your audience.
Knowing your audience allows you to pivot and grow
The business world is always changing. Understanding your audience, the changes they’re embracing and the trends they’re moving towards helps you to adapt and grow with these changes, not get left behind.
“So what exactly do I need to know about my target market”? 👏
To truly connect with your customers-to-be, you need to put yourself in their shoes.
Here are some important things to understand about your target market:
- Who are they?
- What matters to them?
- What problems/challenges are they facing?
- What solutions are they seeking?
- Are they the key decision makers for the type of service/product you offer? Or are others involved too?
- What are they looking to achieve when they look for the services/products you offer?
- What features/specifications are they looking for?
- Where do they spend their time online?
- How do they like to communicate?
- How do they talk (what kind of language do they use)?
- What path to purchase do they prefer?
- And crucially, what can tip the scales in your favour?
These questions are of course just some of many questions that you’ll need to ask yourself (or even more ideally, ask people from your target audience / existing customer base) in order to ensure your marketing efforts and business decisions are aligned with their wants, needs, challenges and preferences.
If you’d like help in understanding your target audience for your digital marketing, and help with your digital marketing efforts overall, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at Excite Media.
Don’t forget one of the most important things to know about your target market: Why should they buy from you? 🤷♂️
If there’s one single thing you need to know about your target market (apart from where to find them), it’s why they should buy from you. Similar to what’s important to them, and what problem they’re looking to solve, why they should buy from you is about how you meet these needs and how you present a solution. It’s about what you have to offer them, how you make their lives easier, better, or offer a solution. It’s about “what’s in it for them”.
Understand their needs
To offer what your customers want, you first need to understand their needs. Dive deep into their challenges, problems, wants, and needs.
Identify the things they care about the most
What is most important to your target audience, when it comes down to it? Is it quality, affordability, convenience, or something else? Knowing this helps you to tailor your offerings to suit, or at the very least, highlight the most important benefits in your messaging.
What’s in it for them?
It’s very important for your marketing efforts to be benefits-focused, from the perspective of the target audience you’re talking to. In order to answer ‘what’s in it for them’, ask yourself, how will your product make their lives easier or better?
Will you:
- Save them time?
- Save them money?
- Solve a problem?
- Reduce or remove a ‘pain point’?
- Provide them with warm and fuzzy feelings?
- Give them the thing they’ve been looking for?
- Entertain them?
- Make them happy?
- Solve world hunger?
Why you? Know your audiences’ decision influencers
Know how your target audience perceives the competition
What are“the other guys” saying, and how can you do it better? If you can find out what your target market thinks of your main competitors, or take a look at what messages your competition is putting out in the market, you’ll know how you compare (and be able to better identify what makes you unique).
Understanding your target market is getting into the mind of your customer
The key to successful marketing is seeing things from your customer's perspective.
Every decision, from the product development to the marketing strategy, should be made with the customer in mind.
Decisions that should be driven by your target customer 🛍️
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Messaging and creatives
When it comes to the messaging and creatives that are going to connect the best with your audience, it's not about what you like; it's about what resonates with your customer. Whether it's the imagery, the tone of voice, or the product itself, it needs to appeal to them. -
Where you advertise
As we’ve touched on already, your choice of marketing channels and advertising platforms should be dictated by where your target audience spends their time (not where you personally feel most comfortable). For example, if you're targeting Gen Z, platforms like TikTok and Instagram might be more effective than Facebook or LinkedIn. -
Offers and promotions
Your offers, promotions and special sales events should be enticing to your target market. If they’re not, there’s no point in running them: their whole purpose is to encourage people to buy, after all. It’s not about what’s most profitable for you, but what’s most valuable to them. A great offer is one that strikes a balance between being attractive to the customer and sustainable for your business. -
What you offer in general
What you offer as a business should be aligned with what your target audience wants. If your services, products or offerings aren’t aligned with your target audience's needs, something needs to change. Most likely, in this situation, you might have to just redefine who your target audience actually is (remember, as we covered, your target audience should be the people who most likely want what you offer). If no one wants what you offer, it might be time to look at adjusting things in other areas, or expanding your offering.
Want help from our target audience specialists? 👑
At Excite Media, we’re lucky to have a team of specialists across every element of digital marketing within our team. From websites to digital marketing strategy to audience personas, target marketing, brand development and so much more.
Developing a strategic digital marketing plan that speaks to the right target market is a particular passion of mine and something I enjoy working with clients on.
If you’d like help with any of the below, reach out to our team, we’d love to hear from you:
- Defining who your target audience is/should be
- Understanding your target market
- Catering your messaging, creatives, offerings or marketing efforts towards your target audience
- Updating your website to cater to your core audiences
- Creating the best digital marketing strategies for your target audience
I hope that this article has helped answer your questions about the importance of understanding your target audience and why they should buy from you.
