Digital Marketing: How to Define Your Target Audience freedomiseverything.com /2016/06/08/digital-marketing-how-to-define-your-target-audience/
How to define your target audience for online business When first getting started in online business, a common error people make is they do not spend enough time defining their target market. In this article, I will provide some tips on how to better define your target audience . People come to online marketing with two problematic mindsets: They are trying to make money quickly They have no idea about marketing basics These two mindsets result in a poor marketing strategy or no marketing strategy at all. Online business newbies are keen to get started creating their content and getting it ‘out there’. The trouble is they do not know who they are creating the content for. Before starting any kind of online business venture, it is important to define your target audience. Essentially, these are the people you are working for. Your content is created for them and they are where your marketing efforts should be directed. Here are some basics on how to define your target audience: 1. WHO are they? What does your ideal customer look like? What age are they and which stage of life are they at? What personality type do they have? Perhaps they are an impulsive buyer, or perhaps they like to take decisions slowly. What is important to your target market? It may be family and relationships or it may be business success. Or it could be that they simply like to try things and online business is next on their list. Is the ideal person looking for guidance, or do they want to be told exactly what to do step by step? If your business is based around online content (ie blogging) then it is a good idea to think about yourself. What is your personality type and what is driving you to create this business. Once you understand where you are coming from it is easier to understand who you want to talk to. 1. WHAT do they do? What is the current situation of your target audience? Are they online business owners, people in employment, unemployed? What is the likely situation within their business or employment? For example you might decide that your core customer base is people in employment who would rather be selfemployed. Maybe they currently work 60 hours a week and have no time for anything else. It’s important to consider exactly what your audience’s likely work circumstance is and how it relates to the other areas of their life.
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1. WHERE do they hang out? It is extremely likely that your target audience is already on the internet somewhere. Ask yourself where they might be. Do they generally search on Google or are they forever on Amazon buying books on a certain subject? Your target audience could be business and professional types who would hang out on LinkedIn, or they could be Facebook junkies. If your audience is passionate about a certain topic (likely), then they are probably hanging out in social groups and forums. If so, which ones? Which websites do they visit? Someone who is already a business owner probably visits Entrepreneur.com for example. 1. WHAT do they want? What is it exactly that your target customer is looking for? They may be looking for a radical lifestyle change or they may just be looking for help and advice. They might want mental distraction or they might want something that challenges and expands their mind. Do they want a product or a service? Are they trying to make drastic changes to their income or relationships. Remember that ‘want’ is not about the product being provided. ‘Want’ is about the deeper need that the product may or may not help to fill. Example: a prospect may want an online business consultant. Yet this is not what they really want. What they really want is whatever having an online business consultant is supposed to lead to (ie having a more successful business, which leads to more sales, greater prosperity, happiness etc etc). The deeper you can go on what the customer really wants at the very basic level, the easier it becomes to link your service or product to that desire. 1. WHAT stops them from getting it? So you know who your customer is and what they want, but what is stopping them from getting it? Why do they not already have what they want? Perhaps they have internal fears which prevent them from attaining what they want. Or maybe they simply didn’t know where to look online. It’s possible that your target customer does not know what they truly want. Therefore your job is to show them that what you offer can help even if they didn’t realise it before. The answer to this particular question is important because it can make a difference to how you present what you are selling. You would offer a service differently to someone who has internal issues stopping them (fears, doubts etc), than you would to someone who is primarily blocked by external factors (family, situation, horrible boss etc).
Put it all together, be congruent Those are just a few tips on how you can better define your target audience. At first, it is not an exact science but once you get started, the feedback you get will allow you to narrow your target more and more. It is important to have a clear starting point for your marketing and your content. Online business goes more smoothly if everything is congruent; from what you sell, to the content you create, to the person you market it to. Good luck applying these tips to your own situation. If you want to go deeper on digital marketing you can check out the company that I learn with (Six Figure Mentors) here. The free video series is an awesome great starting point if you are trying to launch your own online business but are a bit stuck.
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Have fun and good luck! Andy
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