business plan target audience example

6 Real-Life Target Audience Examples to Help You Define Your Own (B2B and B2C)

Target audience research allows you to better understand your potential customer(s) and their underlying pain points.

The more you drill down into your high-value audience groups through strategic market segmentation, the closer you are to your next sale.

Learn the ins and outs of target marketing with plenty of examples to inform your strategy.

What Is a Target Audience?

How a target audience differs from a buyer persona, how psychographic and demographic data informs marketing campaigns.

• How To Analyze and Define Your Target Audience

Do Target Audiences Vary by Channel?

3 b2b target audience examples.

• 3 B2C Target Audience Examples

A target audience is a group of consumers within a predefined target market that has been identified as the best recipients for a particular marketing message. And a target market broadly describes B2C or B2B consumers who care about your product or service and, under the right conditions, are most likely to spend money with your company.

An audience is a segment within that market.

For example, the target market for an online bookkeeping tool might include businesses with over $500K in annual revenue.

So a target audience profile for our bookkeeping program might be technology stakeholders with influence on decision-makers at companies that haven’t reviewed their accounting software needs in over two years. It’s much more specific than our target market, which is important because we can craft content marketing collateral that speaks directly to the challenges and needs of this influential group.

To create effective messaging within your marketing campaigns, you first need to define your target audience.

When marketers try to appeal to the broadest possible audience for their products and services, they often end up feeling exhausted without much to show for their efforts. Their messaging seems inauthentic and doesn’t really resonate with anyone in particular.

To create effective messaging within your marketing campaigns, you first need to define your target audience. Doing so will help you engage key decision-makers and eventually convert them into loyal customers.

At this point, you might be asking, “Isn’t that just a buyer persona?” And while the two concepts are similar, they are distinct enough to warrant further discussion.

A buyer persona is a fictional character who represents one of your ideal customers . They have names, occupations, likes and dislikes, as well as challenges and ambitions.

While target audiences are valuable tools for many types of content marketing campaigns, buyer personas tend to be more useful in a B2B context, because they focus on challenges and business information. For example, a B2C company that sells protein bars would not need to create multiple personas, because people from many backgrounds and with varying job titles might purchase their products.

In a B2B context, targeting personas can be extremely valuable, especially when employing content marketing strategies. A SaaS company might create personas for each stakeholder involved in the buying process, for instance. An HR persona might be interested in blog content that addresses common pain points, while a CFO persona would be more interested in white papers with lots of data.

Personas aren’t entirely without value to B2C marketers, however. They can serve as useful guides when crafting messages to engage and inform consumers.

A persona typically includes:

• Personal information: Name, age and geographic location.
• Content preferences: Favorite channels, content formats, tone and style.
• Business background information: Job title, level of influence in decision making processes.
• Objectives: Measurable goals related to the persona’s job.
• Challenges: Frustrations and pain points standing in the way of the persona’s goals.

Your target audiences should be informed by both demographic and psychographic information. The former category describes your intended audience on a superficial level, while the latter describes their motivations.

• Demographics may include cursory information such as gender, age, income and marital status.
• Psychographics include personal interests, attitudes, values, desires and specific behaviors.

When defining and targeting an audience, demographics will only get you so far. For example, if you’re promoting a B2B SaaS solution, your specific audience may be made up of men and women ages 35-49 who earn more than $100,000 annually. That’s all good information to have, but it applies to too broad of a cohort.

Psychographic data for this specific audience could include: worrying about lost resources throughout a supply chain, wanting to eliminate redundancies, or being skeptical of flashy new technology.

Combined, demographic and psychographic information can help you fine-tune your audience targeting goals.

Combined, demographic and psychographic information can help you fine-tune your audience targeting goals. The challenge is where to find this data. Psychographic research may include interviewing existing clients, conducting polls and analyzing your site traffic.

How to Analyze and Define Your Target Audience

Defining the target audience for a particular marketing campaign requires data. Unfortunately, there isn’t a crystal ball that can tell you how to adjust your messages to bring in the right audience. But that’s not to say you can’t trust your gut.

You know your business better than anyone, so combine that experience with hard data to generate a market segment and target audience that is characteristically human, and also strategically defined by scientifically gathered data.

A Three-Step Approach To Defining A Target Audience

1. Conduct target customer research

Your business plan , content marketing strategy, professional experience and prior knowledge of your target customers will lay the foundation for your research. Compile all of your existing intelligence on your target market, and look for opportunities to learn more about it. For example, you might know that most of your customers are senior-level business people, but you may not know if they all have the same job title, or if they all consume content through the same channels.

To uncover key audience insights, use Google Analytics to drill down into your site traffic and perform a deep audience analysis. Custom audience reports can show you demographic and psychographic data, geographic locations as well as the types of technology your site visitors use.

2. Analyze the market

Once you know a little more about your target customers and have compared that data with your business process or goals, it’s time to get some context. Not only are you attempting to place the right messages in front of the right people at the right time, but you’re also competing with potentially thousands of other messages.

Review your competitors’ marketing efforts and business plans to better understand what you’re up against. Likewise, you’ll want to be aware of any other campaigns your business is currently running, as you don’t want to cannibalize your share of audience attention.

3. Define the audience

With hard data in tow and a thorough understanding of your audience’s interests, challenges and needs, it’s time to create a concise target audience to which you can direct your content marketing efforts.

Ask yourself these questions as you work to define your target audience:

• What problems does your product or service solve?
• Which demographic characteristics influence the decision-making process?
• Which psychographic traits impact content consumption?
• How does your audience prefer to engage with brands similar to yours?
• Is your audience segment large enough?

That last question is particularly important, because it will prevent you from sinking resources into ultra-niche campaigns with low ROI. Niche marketing is certainly a useful tactic, but your target audiences should represent a group large enough to reach through social and organic channels.

Knowing your intended audience is only one half of the equation. The next step in the target audience analysis process is to determine where this group consumes content so you can develop an actionable marketing strategy.

Depending on the demographic and psychographic data you’ve collected, some channels will be more effective at engaging your intended audience than others. For instance, some decision-makers in a market segment may be more likely to open an email than to click on a social media ad.

Within channels, a specific audience may prefer unique platforms. B2B buyers are more inclined to seek out information on LinkedIn than Instagram, for example.

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(Keep in mind the following custom audiences are meant to inform specific campaign messages! These companies may have different audience segments for other targeting efforts. Each example is based on a real client I’ve worked with.)

1. Bookkeeping SaaS Solution

Key demographics

• Age range: 35-49.
• Gender: 65% male, 35% female.
• Common job titles: Head of Digital, Senior Accountant, Chief Financial Officer.

Key psychographics

• Values job security.
• Likes to review all the data before making a decision.
• Striving for a better work-life balance.
• Skeptical of solutions that promise to solve all their problems.
• Their current digital solution is showing its age.
• Current lack of third-party integration is slowing down internal processes.
• Boss/shareholder demands are making work stressful.

Preferred channels

• Email for first contact, then phone conversations.
• Browses social media platforms like LinkedIn , mostly looking for news.

Preferred content types

• Data-rich white papers.
• Case studies.

2. Business Travel Company

• Age range: 30-55.
• Gender: 70% female, 30% male.
• Common job titles: Procurement Officer, Travel Buyer, Supplier Relations Expert.
• Values relationships when working with suppliers.
• Dislikes working on repetitive, mundane tasks.
• Is wary of handing off responsibilities to a third party.
• Suppliers fail to deliver on promised rates.
• Doesn’t have enough data to make informed decisions.
• Not familiar with ground-level travel concerns.
• Looks for answers via organic search.
• Communicates with other procurement professionals on social media platforms.
• Easily digestible blog posts.

3. Facility Security Services

• Age range: 45-60.
• Gender: 80% male, 20% female.
• Common job titles: Facility Manager, Head of Security.
• Doesn’t like drawn-out negotiations.
• Likes to be prepared for everything; gets nervous when things are uncertain.
• Prefers to get pitches from two or three companies before making a decision.
• Needs to save costs, but isn’t willing to sacrifice quality of service.
• Needs a third-party supplier with technology integrations.
• Email for marketing materials.
• Blogs and news sites for industry trends.
• Data-rich infographics.
• Email newsletters.

B2C Target Audience Examples

4. athletic shoes.

• Age range: 18-29
• Gender: 60% male, 40% female
• Wants to look stylish, but doesn’t like to follow trends.
• Looks up to sports figures.
• Strongly values friendships and community.
• Loyal to one or two athletic brands.
• Finding athletic footwear that is both stylish and comfortable.
• Loves the look of designer sneakers, but can’t afford them.
• Follows athletes and influencers on social media.
• Watches sponsored events on YouTube.
• Looks for exercise tips on Google.
• Social media posts.
• Image-rich articles.

5. Organic Protein Bars

• Age range: 18-35.
• Gender: 50% female, 50% male.
• Strives to eat food that is nutritious and sustainable, but isn’t always successful.
• Loves to hang out with friends in nature.
• Feels loyalty toward brands with values similar to their own.
• Finds it difficult to eat healthy food when they’re busy.
• Has a limited food budget.
• Needs a protein source that is compact and easy to transport.
• Follows nature photography accounts on Instagram.
• Watches supplement reviews on YouTube.
• Follows health gurus on Twitter.
• Event marketing.

6. Credit Union Mortgage Products

• Age range: 25-39.
• Gender: 50% male, 50% female.
• Enjoys spending time with friends and family at home.
• Tries to spend their money wisely, but isn’t always sure how to do that.
• Craves stability, but fears another economic recession.
• Feels anxious every time they think about having a mortgage.
• Is thinking about mortgages for the first time ever.
• Unclear on the difference between a bank and a credit union.
• Reads online news sites.
• Downloads how-to guides online.
• Watches home-hunting videos on YouTube.

When you have well-defined, custom audiences informed by strong research, you can stop waiting for buyers to stumble upon your brand and start actively pursuing them with precise messaging.

Editor’s note: Updated November 2021.

Michael O'Neill

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Mike O'Neill is a writer, editor and content manager in Chicago. When he's not keeping a close eye on Brafton's editorial content, he's auditioning to narrate the next Ken Burns documentary. All buzzwords are his own.

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Small Business Trends

What is a target market and how to pick one (examples and template included).

When marketing a business, the key to success lies in the ability to target the right group or groups of people accurately. Knowing your target market is essential for any company that wants to create an effective, compelling marketing message that resonates and results in sales.

In this guide, we’ll explore what a target market is, how to define one, and why it’s so important. Let’s get started!

Table of Contents

What is Target Marketing?

Target marketing is indeed a crucial strategy for businesses, particularly for small businesses aiming to maximize their reach and resources. It helps them to hone in on potential customers who are most likely to be interested in their offerings and tailor their messages to those individuals.

Below are some key points about target marketing:

• Specific Focus : Target marketing allows businesses to focus on a specific demographic or set of customers. This focus could be based on age, gender, income, geographic location, interests, behaviors, or a combination of these factors.
• Efficient Resource Utilization : By focusing on a specific target market, businesses can use their resources more efficiently. This helps reduce wastage of resources on marketing efforts that reach people unlikely to purchase their product or service.
• Tailored Marketing and Sales Strategies : Businesses can customize their marketing and sales strategies to meet the specific needs and wants of their target market. This customization leads to more engaging, relevant, and effective messaging.
• Enhanced Customer Relationship : With a well-defined target market, businesses can build stronger relationships with customers by better understanding their needs, preferences, and behaviors. This understanding helps businesses to offer improved customer service and foster customer loyalty.
• Increased Sales and Profits : By targeting those most likely to buy their products or services, businesses can increase sales and, subsequently, profits. Target marketing often leads to higher conversion rates since the marketing efforts are directed towards individuals with a pre-existing interest or need for the product or service.

In conclusion, target marketing is a strategic approach to ensure your business is connecting with the right customers. It can lead to increased sales, more efficient use of marketing resources, and improved customer relationships, all of which are essential for a thriving business.

Before you start a business, it’s also important to write a business plan that includes a personal brand statement and a vision statement to clearly define your goals and objectives.

How to Define Your Target Market

Creating a marketing strategy for your business begins with defining your primary target market.

Knowing who your ideal customer is and understanding their needs and wants is essential for creating an effective plan. Here’s how to define your target market in six simple steps:

1. Conduct Market Research

Start by researching your potential customers to learn more about them. Target market research includes collecting data on demographics, interests, preferences, and purchasing habits. Doing so will help you create a profile of your ideal customer.

2. Define Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Your USP is what differentiates your product or service from competitors and should be tailored to meet the needs of your target market. By clearly defining your USP, you can create a compelling marketing message that resonates with potential customers.

3. Analyze Your Competition

Once you understand the needs of your audience, take a look at what competitors are doing to determine which strategies may be most effective for reaching them. Analyzing the competition will help you determine the best approach for engaging your target market.

4. Segment Your Market

Break down the larger population into smaller market segments based on characteristics such as location, age, gender, education level, income level, and interests. This will help you identify small groups of people with similar interests and needs. By segmenting your market, you can create more targeted campaigns, which will lead to higher conversion rates.

5. Determine Personas

Create personas, which are fictional characters that represent each distinct market segment, so you can get a better understanding of how best to reach them with content that resonates with this specific audience. Doing so will help you create a more tailored message that is sure to resonate with potential customers.

6. Refine Your Strategy

Based on the insights you have gathered in Steps 1-5, refine your overall marketing strategy to best cater to each segment of customers. Things you can refine include messaging, promotions and pricing, content, and channels of distribution.

For instance, a health food company initially struggled with broad marketing efforts. By conducting thorough market research and customer interviews, they redefined their target market to health-conscious consumers aged 25-40, leading to a more focused marketing strategy and a subsequent increase in sales. This example illustrates the practical steps and positive outcomes of accurately defining a target market.

Defining Your Target Market Template

Defining your target market is essential for developing effective marketing strategies and reaching the right customers.

A template can be a useful tool in this process, as it helps to organize and structure the information you gather about your target market.

The template below is designed to guide you through the process of defining your target market and includes prompts for important information such as demographics, behaviors, and pain points.

Target Market Template:

1. Demographics:

• Income level
• Education level

2. Behaviors:

• Purchase habits
• Brand loyalty
• Media consumption
• Hobbies and interests

3. Pain Points and Needs:

• What are the problems or pain points that your target market is facing?
• What are their needs and desires?
• How can your product or service address these pain points and needs?

4. Goals and Objectives:

• What are the goals and objectives of your target market?
• How can your product or service help them achieve these goals and objectives?

5. Unique value proposition:

• What unique value does your product or service offer to your target market?
• How does it stand out from competitors?

6. Other relevant information:

• Include any other information that might be useful in defining your target market.

Why Knowing Your Target Market is So Important for Your Marketing Strategy

Understanding a specific target market is essential for any business to create an effective marketing strategy.

Without a proper understanding of the needs and wants of your target audience, it’s nearly impossible to craft a message that will resonate and result in sales.

Below are five reasons why knowing your target market is so important for your marketing strategy:

• Increased Reach – By targeting a specific group of people, you gain access to an audience who may not have been aware of your business or product in the past. This allows you to reach more potential customers and build a larger customer base.
• Cost Savings – More precise targeting means fewer wasted impressions, resulting in lower costs and higher returns on investment (ROI). Over the long term, this can result in significant savings for your business.
• Improved Engagement – Knowing your target market enables you to craft content tailored specifically to their interests and needs, which leads to improved engagement rates with potential customers. So, not only are you reaching more people, but they are paying more attention to your message.
• Targeted Promotion – You can use highly targeted promotions to strategically reach out to a select group of individuals and incentivize them to purchase from you. This can lead to higher sales and help you stand out from the competition.
• Better Conversion Rates – Understanding the wants and needs of your target audience increases the chances that they will convert into paying customers. The better the understanding of your target market, the better the chance for success.

Consider the case of a startup that failed to identify its target market correctly, leading to ineffective marketing strategies and eventual business closure. Conversely, a successful enterprise, by understanding its target market’s needs, was able to tailor its products, pricing, and promotions, resulting in increased market share and customer loyalty.

These real-world scenarios underscore the importance of target market identification as a cornerstone of business strategy, significantly influencing marketing effectiveness, customer engagement, and overall business success.

Target Market Segmentation

Target market segmentation is the practice of understanding and categorizing potential customers into distinct groups. This helps businesses better meet their customer’s needs by focusing on specific types of consumers and creating tailored campaigns that will resonate with them.

Take, for example, a clothing brand using psychographic segmentation to target fashion-forward young adults who prioritize sustainability. This approach enabled them to craft a resonant marketing message.

In contrast, demographic segmentation might involve a tech company focusing on middle-aged professionals for a new productivity tool, considering their occupation and income levels.

These instances show how different segmentation strategies can be applied to pinpoint the most receptive audience for specific products or services.

Psychographic Segmentation

Psychographic segmentation looks at lifestyle, attitudes, values, and opinions to segment an audience.

Through psychographic segmentation, you can develop a more personalized connection with your customers by crafting messages that fit their unique tastes, values, and interests.

Demographic Segmentation

A demographic target market is a group of consumers who share similar characteristics such as age group, gender, income, education, and occupation.

This type of target market is defined by measurable and observable characteristics.

For example, a business might target young professionals with a high disposable income and a college education.

Geographic Target Market

A geographic target market is defined by the consumer’s location. This type of target market focuses on reaching consumers in a specific geographic area.

For example, a business might target consumers in a specific city or state.

Firmographic Segmentation

Firmographic segmentation focuses on analyzing data about businesses to uncover insights about their strengths and weaknesses in order to reach the right buyers in a B2B setting.

Using firmographics allows marketers to understand which businesses are most likely interested in their products or services before they ever make contact.

A car rental business , for example, might target business travelers who frequently rent cars for work-related trips.

Behavioral Segmentation

Behavioral segmentation looks at how consumers interact with products and services, and their decisions to purchase or not purchase things based on past experiences, preferences, brand associations, and more.

By understanding behavior patterns marketers can craft messages that speak directly to the customer’s wants or needs.

Types of Target Markets

There are many ways to segment a target market, and the type of target market you choose will largely depend on your industry, product or service offering, and overall marketing goals.

Here are some of the most common types of target markets:

B2B (Business-to-Business) is an industry term used to describe companies that sell products or services to other businesses rather than individual consumers.

Examples include computer hardware manufacturers selling to corporate IT departments, accounting firms providing services to other businesses, and software developers creating programs for sale to other companies.

B2C (Business-to-Consumer) is a type of transaction where businesses sell their products directly to consumers, such as grocery stores selling food or clothing retailers selling apparel.

This type of targeting requires an understanding of consumer needs and preferences when crafting campaigns and messages that speak directly to the customer.

Niche Markets

A niche market is a smaller segment within a larger target market. This can be based on demographics, lifestyle choices, interests, or any other factor that defines a subset of customers who share common attributes.

Knowing your niche market can help you create more targeted ads and better understand the specific needs and wants of potential customers within that group.

How Big Should a Target Market be?

The ideal size of a target market depends on the type of product or service being offered and the goals of the business.

Generally, the larger the target market, the greater reach your campaign will have but it can also limit a business’s ability to customize messages to fit its audience.

Having too narrow of a focus when it comes to targeting can result in a lack of engagement from potential customers who could benefit from using your product.

It is important for businesses to find a balance between reach and specificity to maximize their results.

Target Market Examples

When it comes to identifying and reaching your target market, it can be helpful to look at examples of how other companies have done it. Here are four examples of companies and their target markets:

Starbucks Target Market

Starbucks , the coffee giant, targets a wide range of consumers, including busy professionals, college students, and older adults.

They focus on providing a convenient and comfortable experience for their customers, with a wide variety of coffee and food options.

Starbucks locations are often found in high-traffic areas such as downtown business districts, university campuses, and suburban shopping centers.

Their target market is also characterized by consumers who are willing to pay a premium for high-quality coffee and an inviting atmosphere.

Nike Target Market

Nike , the sportswear giant, targets consumers who are active and value fitness and healthy living.

They focus on providing high-performance athletic apparel and footwear for a wide range of sports and activities.

Nike’s target market includes serious athletes, fitness enthusiasts, and casual athletes who want to look and feel good while they exercise.

The company also targets youth and urban culture and often collaborates with popular athletes and fashion designers.

Tesla Target Market

Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer, targets consumers who are environmentally conscious and value innovation and technology.

They focus on providing electric vehicles and energy solutions that are sustainable and efficient.

Tesla’s target market includes early adopters of technology, consumers looking for an alternative to traditional gasoline vehicles, and individuals who are willing to pay a premium for a high-performance electric car.

Disney Target Market

Disney , the entertainment giant, targets families and children with a focus on creating magical experiences.

They offer a wide range of entertainment options, including theme parks, cruises, movies, and television shows.

Disney’s target market includes families with children, grandparents, and adults who are young at heart.

They also target consumers who are willing to pay for the Disney brand experience and for the memories that come with it.

Target Marketing Strategies

Developing effective target marketing strategies can help you reach the right customers and increase your return on investment. Here are five target marketing strategies to consider:

• Segmenting the market: Segmenting the market involves dividing the market into smaller groups of customers with similar characteristics. This allows you to create specific marketing strategies for each segment, increasing the chances of reaching the right customers.
• Creating buyer personas: A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer. Creating buyer personas can help you understand the needs, wants, and pain points of your target market, and tailor your marketing messages accordingly.
• Developing a unique value proposition: A unique value proposition (UVP) is a statement that communicates the unique benefits of your product or service. Developing a UVP can help you stand out from the competition and attract the right customers.
• Using data and analytics: Data and analytics can help you better understand your target market and develop effective marketing strategies. This can include things like analyzing customer data, tracking website traffic, and monitoring social media metrics as part of a social media marketing strategy.
• Test and optimize: Once you have identified your target market and developed your marketing strategies, it’s important to test and optimize them based on the results. This can include A/B testing your messaging, testing different ad formats, and experimenting with different marketing channels.

What is a target market?

As many quality marketing courses teach, a target market is a specific group of consumers that a business or organization aims to reach with its marketing efforts.

It is defined by characteristics such as demographics, behaviors, pain points, and needs. It helps businesses to understand the needs and wants of their potential customers and create products, services, and marketing strategies that meet those needs.

Can you have multiple target markets?

Yes, it is possible to have multiple target markets. Companies often segment their customer base into multiple target markets in order to design and deliver messages that are more tailored to each one.

It’s important to find the right balance between reach and specificity when attempting to market effectively across multiple target markets.

How do I answer the question ‘What is your target market’?

When asked ‘What is your target market?’, you can respond with an explanation of the type of customers who are most likely to purchase your product or service.

This could include demographic information such as age, gender, income level, and geographic location, and/or psychographic information such as values, interests, lifestyle choices, or preferences.

You may wish to also provide examples of how you identify and target these segments in your marketing campaigns.

What are the 3 common target markets?

The 3 most common target markets are demographic segmentation, geographic segmentation, and psychographic segmentation. Demographic segmentation involves targeting customers based on their age, gender, income level, and other demographic information.

Geographic segmentation involves targeting customers based on where they live, such as by country or city. Psychographic segmentation involves targeting customers based on brand values alignment, interests, lifestyle choices, or preferences.

How detailed should a target market be? What is the purpose of a target market?

A target market should be as detailed as possible in order to ensure that it accurately reflects your ideal customer. The purpose of a target market is to identify the most likely customers for your product or service so that you can create effective and efficient marketing campaigns.

By focusing on this audience, you can make sure that you are reaching the right people with the right message to better engage them and increase your chances of conversion.

What is the difference between target market and target audience?

The difference between a target market and a target audience is that a target market is the group of potential customers that your company is aiming to reach, while a target audience is the people who are most likely to purchase your product or service.

A target market may include multiple different audiences, for example, young adults and retirees, while target audiences will be focused on one particular segment.

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What is your Target Audience? (Including Examples)

• May 6, 2024
• Business Plan

Understanding your target audience is foundational to the success of any business. It influences everything from product development to marketing strategies .

In this blog post we’re diving into explores what a target audience is, why it’s essential, and how you can identify and segment your own to better align your business efforts.

Target Audience: Definition

A target audience is a specific group of consumers that a business aims to reach with its products, services, and marketing efforts. This group is defined based on shared characteristics that make them the most likely to be interested in what the business offers.

The identification of a target audience involves analyzing and segmenting potential customers based on various key factors . These factors typically include demographics (like age, gender, and income), psychographics (such as interests and values), geographic location , and behavioral data (including purchasing habits and brand loyalty).

Understanding the target audience is crucial for businesses because it allows them to tailor their marketing strategies effectively. By focusing on the specific needs, preferences, and behaviors of their target audience, businesses can design marketing campaigns that are more likely to resonate and convert potential customers into loyal consumers.

Components of a Target Audience

A target audience can be broken down into several key components, each of which plays a vital role in defining the specific group of consumers a business aims to reach:

Demographics : This component includes basic statistical data such as age, gender, income, education, and occupation . These factors are crucial for identifying the general characteristics of an audience, helping marketers to segment the population into groups more likely to be interested in their products or services.

Psychographics : Going beyond basic demographics, psychographics involve deeper psychological aspects including interests, lifestyles, values, and attitudes . This information helps businesses understand why their target audience may prefer certain products or services, guiding the development of more resonant marketing strategies.

Geographics : The geographical location of the target audience defines this component. It includes region, climate, and urban or rural settings . Geographics determine the physical boundaries within which the target audience resides and often influences their buying habits and product needs.

Behavioral Data : This includes insights into the buying behaviors, purchasing habits, product usage, and brand loyalty of the target audience. Behavioral data are critical for understanding how, when, and why the audience engages with certain products or services, allowing for more effective and timed marketing interventions.

By understanding these components, businesses can craft highly targeted and effective strategies to reach and engage their ideal customers, leading to better business outcomes overall.

Why Identifying Your Target Audience Is Important

Identifying your target audience is essential for optimizing resources within a business. By focusing marketing efforts and investments where they are most likely to resonate, businesses can avoid wastage and maximize the impact of their budget. This strategic allocation leads to more efficient and targeted marketing strategies.

A well-defined target audience enables businesses to tailor their marketing messages to specific needs, interests, and preferences, significantly enhancing engagement and response rates. This personalization is not only more appealing but also more effective at capturing attention and fostering customer engagement.

Furthermore, this focused approach aids in product and service design , ensuring that offerings directly address the wants and needs of the target group. This alignment increases customer satisfaction, enhances loyalty, and boosts sales performance, giving businesses a competitive advantage.

In addition, knowing your target audience helps to build stronger customer relationships through personalized communication and services tailored to meet specific expectations and preferences. It also influences critical business decisions such as choosing locations, setting prices, and planning expansions, making each decision more aligned with the demands of primary consumers.

Overall, identifying your target audience ensures that business operations are efficient and strategically positioned for long-term success, making it a foundational aspect of effective business management.

How to Identify Your Target Audience

Identifying a target audience is a critical step for any company looking to optimize its marketing strategies and product offerings. Here’s how a company can effectively identify its target audience:

Market Research : Companies begin by conducting comprehensive market research . This involves gathering data through surveys, focus groups, and interviews to understand potential customers’ preferences, behaviors, and demographics. Market research helps in recognizing patterns and trends that define the most likely buyers of the product or service.

Customer Data Analysis : Analyzing existing customer data is another vital method. Businesses examine their current customer base to identify common characteristics and purchasing behaviors. This analysis often provides insights into who enjoys and buys the company’s products, which can then be applied to target similar new customers.

Segmentation : After gathering and analyzing data, the next step is segmentation . This process divides the broader market into smaller segments based on shared characteristics like age, location, spending habits, and interests. Segmenting helps in focusing marketing efforts on specific groups that are more likely to convert into sales.

Persona Development : Creating detailed customer personas is a useful tool in this process. Personas are fictional characters that represent ideal customers based on the collected data. They help businesses visualize the target audience, making it easier to tailor marketing and product development strategies.

Competitor Analysis : Observing and learning from competitor strategies can also provide valuable insights. Companies look at who their competitors are targeting and how they are positioning their products. This information can help identify gaps in the market or opportunities to appeal to a segment of the market that competitors may have overlooked.

Target Audiences Examples

Pilates fitness studio.

Primarily targets women aged 25-55 who are interested in fitness, wellness, and maintaining an active lifestyle.

This group likely values health and appearance and might include busy professionals, young mothers, or older women seeking low-impact exercises to maintain flexibility and strength. They typically have a middle to high income, enabling them to afford membership in a specialized fitness studio.

IV Therapy Clinic

Focuses on health-conscious individuals aged 30-60 who are interested in wellness trends and preventative health care.

This audience might include professionals with stressful lifestyles, athletes looking to expedite recovery, or middle-aged to elderly individuals seeking to boost their energy levels and immune system. They are generally well-educated and willing to invest in health innovations that promise faster recovery times and improved overall vitality.

Pet Grooming Company

Targets pet owners , specifically dog and cat owners who treat their pets as part of the family.

This group is likely to be composed of individuals or families who reside in urban or suburban areas and possess disposable income to spend on pet care services.

The target demographic might include young professionals, families with children, and elderly pet owners who are particularly attentive to their pets’ hygiene and appearance.

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How to Write a Business Plan: Target Market Analysis

The Business Plan and the Importance of Defining Your Target Market

Susan Ward wrote about small businesses for The Balance for 18 years. She has run an IT consulting firm and designed and presented courses on how to promote small businesses.

Conducting a Market Analysis

Polling your target market, writing the market analysis, online tools for market research, u.s. online market research sources, canadian online market research, local sources of market research, doing your own market research.

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The market analysis is basically the target market section of your business plan . It is a thorough examination of the ideal people to whom you intend to sell your products or services.  

Even if you intend on selling a product or service only in your community, you won't be selling that service to everyone who lives there. Knowing exactly what type(s) of people might be interested in buying your product or service and how many of them reside in your projected area or region is fundamental in creating your market analysis.

Once target market data has been established, you'll also work on sales projections within specific time frames, as well as how prospective sales might be affected by trends and policies.

Research is key and cornerstone of any solid  business plan .

Don't Skip This Step!

Don't skip market research; otherwise, you could end up starting a business that doesn't have a paying market.

Use these general terms as linchpins in research data for the market analysis section of your business plan, and to identify your target market:

But don't stop here. To succinctly define your target market, poll or survey members of your prospective clients or customers to ask specific questions directly related to your products or services. For instance, if you plan to sell computer-related services, ask questions relating to the number of computing devices your prospective customers own and how often they require servicing. If you plan on selling garden furniture and accessories, ask what kinds of garden furniture or accessories your potential customers have bought in the past, how often, and what they expect to buy within the next one, three, and five years.

Answers to these and other questions related to your market are to help you understand your market potential.

The goal of the information you collect is to help you project how much of your product or service you'll be able to sell. Review these important questions you need to try to answer using the data you collect:

• What proportion of your target market has used a product similar to yours before?
• How much of your product or service might your target market buy? (Estimate this in gross sales and/or in units of product/service sold.)
• What proportion of your target market might be repeat customers?
• How might your target market be affected by demographic shifts?
• How might your target market be affected by economic events (e.g. a local mill closing or a big-box retailer opening locally)?
• How might your target market be affected by larger socio-economic trends?
• How might your target market be affected by government policies (e.g. new bylaws or changes in taxes)?

One purpose of the market analysis is to ensure you have a viable business idea.

Find Your Buying Market

Use your market research to make sure people don't just like your business idea, but they're also willing to pay for it.

If you have information suggesting that you have a large enough market to sustain your business goals, write the market analysis in the form of several short paragraphs using appropriate headings for each. If you have several target markets, you may want to number each. 

Sections of your market analysis should include:

• Industry Description and Outlook
• Target Market
• Market Research Results
• Competitive Analysis

Remember to properly cite your sources of information within the body of your market analysis as you write it. You and other readers of your business plan, such as potential investors, will need to know the sources of the statistics or opinions that you've gathered.

There are several online resources to learn if your business idea is something worth pursing, including:

• Keyword searches can give you an overall sense of potential demand for your product or service based on the number of searches.
• Google Trends analysis can tell you how the number of searches has changed over time.
• Social media campaigns can give you an indication of the potential customer interest in your business idea.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has information on doing your market research and analysis , as well as a list of free small business data and trends resources you can use to conduct your research. Consider these sources for data collection:

• SBA  Business Data and Statistics  
• The U.S. Census Bureau maintains a huge database of demographic information that is searchable by state, county, city/town, or zip code using its census data tool . Community, housing, economic, and population surveys are also available.
• The U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) has extensive statistics on the economy including consumer income/spending/consumption, business activity, GDP, and more, all of which are searchable by location.

The Government of Canada offers a guide on doing market research and tips for understanding the data you collect. Canadian data resources include:

• Statistics Canada  offers demographic and economic data.
• The  Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC)  offers market research and consulting with industry experts.
• The Canada Business Network provides business information to entrepreneurs by province/territory, including market research data.

There are also a great many local resources for building target market information to explore, including:

• Local library
• Local Chamber of Commerce
• Board of Trade
• Economic Development Centre
• Local government agent's office
• Provincial business ministry
• Local phone book

All of these will have information helpful in defining your target market and providing insights into trends.

The above resources are secondary sources of information, in which others have collected and compiled the data. To get specific information about your business, consider conducting your own market research . For instance, you might want to design a questionnaire and survey your target market to learn more about their habits and preferences relating to your product or service.

Market research is time-consuming but is an important step in affording your business plan validity. If you don't have the time or the research skills to thoroughly define your target market yourself, hiring a person or firm to do the research for you can be a wise investment.​

Small Business Administration. " Market Research and Competitive Analysis. " Accessed Jan. 13, 2020.

Find Your Ideal Customer Using Target Audience Analysis

Updated on: 1 March 2023

Understanding and recognizing your target audience correctly is, perhaps, the most crucial step in any successful marketing strategy. A well-established target audience can drive a brand’s growth, marketing strategies and equity, leading to the overall improvement of the bottom line. In this post, we will go through the key elements that you will need to conduct a target audience analysis.

What is a Target Audience?

A target audience is the pool of potential customers in your business. It is a group of people who are most likely to be interested in purchasing your product or service. People in an identified target audience share certain similar demographics, such as gender, location, age, socioeconomic status, and education, to name a few.

What is a Target Audience Analysis?

Target audience analysis involves the research of a range of demographics and psychographics. All information obtained is then analyzed to provide useful data that will help to inform consumer insights and, most importantly, customer pain points and buyer personas. 

A few questions that a target audience analysis will help you to answer are:

• Who are your customers and what markets can you capitalize on?
• Who are your competitors?
• How can you reach potential customers?
• Are you reaching the right group of people with the right messages?
• What products or services do they want? 
• How can you personalize the user experience?
• How do the customers benefit from your products/services?
• What is your customer’s price point?
• What are the groups affected by your business or service?

Customer Pain Points

Customer pain points are challenges or issues that a current or prospective customer faces in the marketplace along the buyer’s journey. A few examples of customer pain points are money, health, and communication issues. One key point in a marketing strategy is to identify the pain points to provide solutions that will build confidence and trust among customers.

Buyer Persona

A buyer persona is the detailed description of an individual that best represents your target audience. The persona is a semi-fictional profile that is built on in-depth research. By creating a buyer persona, you can better understand and prioritize the requirements of your audience that will help to create a marketing strategy, which targets your ideal customer segment. (To learn more and to start creating buyer personas check out The Easy Guide to Creating a Buyer Persona with Free Editable Templates ).

Why is it Important?

Customers are at the heart of any business or service. Without their support, a business could not be successful or profitable. Therefore, one of the most important goals of any business is to increase their customer base. In order to do so, it is crucial to identify who best resonates with your product or service, as this can affect your business strategy and product development decisions as well. 

Certain research has shown that without a correctly identified target audience, businesses struggle to keep afloat and to create an effective marketing strategy to reach potential customers . (To know more about marketing intelligence strategy, check out How to Implement a Successful Marketing Intelligence Strategy ).

Benefits of a Target Audience Analysis

• By identifying and targeting audiences that are uniquely interested in your products and services, you can convert interested parties to customers faster
• Ability to put together cost-effective marketing strategies that save valuable resources, time, money and effort.
• Ability to create personalized content that is effective and result-driven.
• Identify the requirements of customers and meet them to increase customer satisfaction.
• Increase the number of customers by increasing the conversion rates.
• Strengthen your market position to increase market share and establish your brand in the market.

What are the Types of Audience Analysis?

There are three main types of audience analysis. 

• Demographic data includes, but is not limited to, age, gender, income, employment status, location, and education.
• Psychographics is a qualitative method that focuses on consumers’ psychological traits, such as values, opinions, attitudes, interests, goals, and lifestyle. Identifying these traits will lead you to understand the potential pain points of your customer segment. However, psychographic data is subjective when compared to demographic data that relies on hard statistics. The main areas to focus on would include interests, hobbies, and opinions.  
• Situational analysis helps to make a realistic assessment of your business by defining potential customers, evaluating projected growth and assessing competitors.

How to Identify Your Target Audience?

There are many ways to identify your target audience. It is always best to use several methods to pin down your target audience to be comprehensive. 

Surveys involve a series of questions asked from a group of respondents. You can ask your selected audience their interests and preferences through a survey. However, before you start, make sure to define your goal, audience to be surveyed, tools and relevant questions. You can use platforms such as Creately’s Likert Scale Template , Google Forms and Survey Monkey. 

Google Analytics

It is no secret that Google is the most popular search engine. Google Analytics collects information from websites and store records. Information collected includes time spent on each site, number of visits, and other important consumer behaviors. This gathered information provides insight into your existing customer base and those visiting new.

Facebook and Instagram (social media sites)

Social media sites are all about creating content and reaching targeted audiences. Users of Facebook and Instagram rely on Insights to inform their content direction. You can track metrics such as likes, follows, shares and profile visits to study what content gets the most engagement.

Competitor Websites

Observe and analyze your competitors’ websites and social media presence. 

Online Forums, Groups and Blogs

Join in a few online groups and forums such as Reddit and Quora to explore and join in relevant discussions. All these forums cover a broad range of topics that you can go through. Also, look into joining and observing niche forums that are relevant to your business and industry blogs.

Interviews are usually conducted between a researcher and a respondent or as a focus group discussion. The interviews may consist of structured or unstructured questions. Focus group discussions involve gathering a group of people in a controlled setting where participants are asked a series of questions or are asked to discuss a product or service. 

Besides the interviews with external parties, you can also reach out to your sales team, customer service and marketing colleagues who are involved in the marketing or business process.

You can get feedback via email or through a website form. Also reviews by customers would help to understand their outlook regarding your services or products.

Key Steps to Follow

Conduct a Market Research About the Industry and Outlook

Research about your industry, including statistics, growth potential, trends and the future outlook. Analyze the target market and understand the marketplace . 

Analyze the Competition

Identify your competitors and conduct a competitor analysis to get a comprehensive view of the market landscape . 

Analyze Your Market Offerings

Look into the problems related to your products or services along with whom it may appeal to.

Research and Identify Your Overall Market 

Collect demographic, location, and psychographic data. From the many identifying data segments collected, select three to five segments to ensure that the pool of customers is not too narrow or big to handle. 

Create Buyer Personas and Market Segments

Put together your ideal customer or buyer persona and segment the market by organizing the groups based on the demographics, psychographics, and other information collected. 

The Final Document

Forecast and note down the lead time, marketing costs, potential sales and other strategies. Put together all information, including the forecasted and target audience related data.

Use Creately for Your Target Audience Analysis

Creately has many tools that can support you in putting together your target audience analysis . 

• Powerful documentation capabilities with doc blocs and formatting to document all information. 
• Templates to get you started easily.
• Ability to create custom databases with multiple types of data sets. 
• Interactive data visualization by dragging and dropping data from any data source. 
• Note panel to add data and information.
• Teamshare to share workspaces and folders with your teammates to collaborate . 
• In-built video conferencing for meetings.

Try  Creately  to streamline your target audience analysis today!

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

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What Is a Target Audience and How You Can Analyze Yours

A target audience analysis is something every business owner needs to know, understand, do, revisit, and review.

Because your customers (or prospect) are the beating heart of almost every organization.

Markets shift, and consumer behaviors change fast: which is why companies need to perform regular target audience analysis.

What is target audience analysis?

A target audience analysis is a structured process of gathering and interpreting information and data about the people most likely to consume your product or service. The goal is to identify the unique and common characteristics.

There are different approaches to researching your target audience, but they generally follow similar steps. The tactic you choose depends on your type of business and the lifecycle stage of your product. This determines the type of target audience you want to define and the factors you need to analyze in your marketing strategy.

An audience analysis checklist or template is a great way to see it through. Such as the one we use at Similarweb. Download your copy below. 👇 👇 👇

A template provides structure so you don’t get lost in the data. It helps you fine-tune your messaging and stay focused and on track with each step. You’ll have to record your findings in an organized way, so using an existing template can structure your research.

What is a target audience?

A target audience is a group of people defined by various common attributes and characteristics. Simply put: they are the groups of people most likely to purchase your product or service. Defining this audience is an important part of creating a successful strategy.

I’ll give you a quick example:

Let’s say, an online shoe seller believes their potential customers are all the people who need shoes – virtually everybody in the world. But the people looking for elegant pumps are probably different than those searching for waterproof trekking boots. Doing an audience analysis on your existing customers is a great first step in helping you define what your ideal customer profile should look like. For the online shoe seller, it will be important to look at existing customers’ common characteristics and behaviors. Consider social media channels, subscribers, geographical locations , and even payment preferences to help define this even further.

But what about when the audience is more difficult to identify?

Let’s say, I have a platform for online training courses, such as teachable.com , or a software service that adds accessibility to your website, like  accessibe.com ; this process can involve more in-depth research. Identifying and defining the target audience and specific segments within that audience can be more complex.

How to define a target audience

Stary by describing the pain points your product solves or the challenge it helps to overcome. Your target audience defines itself through your product attributes. For example, an SEO agency is beneficial for people or companies with a web presence;  and a blood sugar monitoring app is useful for people with diabetes.

Now you have a broad definition of a vague audience. But that’s not enough to position yourself in the market and create an approach for your marketing message. You need to find additional factors that make this group of people unique and the characteristics they have in common. Keep reading, as I’m going to show you how to perform a target audience, step-by-step.

Types of target audiences for analysis

Start by breaking your analysis down into categories or types of target audiences. Typically you will define them according to:

• Demographics
• Consumer behavior
• Product-specific criteria

Marketers may add purchase intention or funnel stage. Campaigns can target prospects or lead in a specific stage of the buyer journey .

Set your priorities. Is your customer base primarily defined by demographic information, related factors, or any other types? That’s where you start your analysis. Eventually, your  market research  and target audience definition will comprise elements from each category.

Let’s look more closely at what each category includes.

1. Demographics

The most basic type of target audience analysis is defined by demographics. Demographic factors include:

• Socioeconomic status
• Marital status

You can use Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence  to understand the main demographic details of your target audience and your competitors’ audiences.

See below the demographics for the top 5 ecommerce sites in USA , Dec 2020 – Nov 2022

2. Interest

You want to find out if your audience shares common interests and preferences. This could come in addition to the demographic parameters but could also be more influential.

• Type of sports
• Preferred reading
• Music & movie genres
• Political tendencies
• Social involvement

You can use Similarweb’s  keyword tool  to research emerging trends and see search interest in a topic or search term over time.

3. Consumer behavior

In many industries, it is important to characterize your customers’ online behavior, specifically regarding purchasing decisions. Analyzing how people purchase allows you to adapt your website’s UX/UI design, marketing campaigns, marketing messages, and overall marketing efforts.

• How long is the purchasing process?
• Which social networks do they prefer?
• Payment preferences?
• Through which marketing channel did they arrive?

4. Product-specific

You likely offer more than a single product or even several product categories. You want to specify what’s unique and how to target the most probable customer for each product type.

Let’s say you offer separate subscription packages for your SaaS platform, from a basic startup to a full-scale enterprise. What features does the enterprise solution offer? Which common pain point does it solve for business owners and digital marketing professionals? And What does this mean for the potential user who would or would not benefit from your product?

This is also relevant for niche products or solutions that are highly specific. Let’s say you’re a small business offering online courses in web programming. You want to find out if you are attracting beginners making a career change or experienced programmers who want to expand their knowledge.

In this category, you could add practically anything that is a relevant factor for your customers.

Your competitor’s audience

Start collecting data about your competitors’ target audiences to level up your target audience analysis. Find specific groups to include in your audience research and marketing plan. This is useful for two reasons: First, your direct competitors target the same audience as you, which means you can apply their audience characteristics. Secondly, compare and assess how you stack up to your competition. Identify areas where you are more successful and refine your targeting tactics.

Use your target audience analysis to refine your targeting tactics.

How to find and research your target audience

• Buyer personas :  Imagine your ideal customer. Who would benefit most from your product? Create a detailed profile including demographic data, interests, and purchase behavior.
• Surveys:  Ask your audience directly about their interests and preferences. Simple, free survey software, such as SurveyMonkey, lets you create easy-to-navigate questionnaires that you can distribute to your contact lists or on social media.
• Google Analytics:  Collect data with GA about audience demographics  and online behavior.
• Similarweb:  Get additional data with Similarweb’s  audience analysis tools  and monitor your content. Investigate your competitor’s audience demographic information and behavior and compare against them.
• Facebook and Twitter Insights: Use various social media platforms’ analytics tools.
• Social Monitoring:  Start social media monitoring with programs like Sprout and social listening tools to get additional insights. Find out who says what about you and your competitors.
• Salesforce: Analyze your current customers’ preferences and characteristics and map the buyer journey .
• Feedback via email, or website : Request feedback after purchase or interaction with customer service. Encourage customers to leave reviews . Engage with your audience directly.
• Competitors’ websites:   Analyze your competitors ’ websites and social media presence.
• Relevant online groups:  Join relevant online groups and participate in discussions.

To conduct a complete target audience analysis, download our all-inclusive guide:

Target audience analysis examples

1. target audience analysis examples for a new e-learning platform.

Imagine you are starting a platform for building and running online courses like teachable. That could be anything from baking to weight loss, graphic design to origami, or a foreign language. The range of vendors who might use the platform is massive. The only thing they have in common is the desire to teach online and make money with it. How do you know which type will likely take you up on your offer?

Since you are only starting, you wouldn’t be able to target all of them but would have to identify the most likely group of coaches or teachers to begin with. An analysis can help you decide to focus on a specific area, such as handicrafts or fitness. Or it could reveal that targeting a particular age group in a specific stage of life may be your best bet.

2. Target audience analysis examples for a D2C athleisure brand

Now let’s assume you are an eCommerce business like aloyoga.com , offering courses, and it’s Yoga. The group of consumers most likely to attend your programs would-be mothers with small children at home. Your potential clients are physically active and share some concerns about fitness and health.

To effectively market your  D2C brand , you need to know how and where to reach them digitally.

Another factor to analyze is the extremely high competition. With people stuck at home due to the pandemic, online Yoga classes have exploded. Understand how other instructors position themselves and define a specific target customer or  market segment  that suits you.

3. Target audience analysis example for a click-and-mortar apparel retailer

Here’s a question for you: Do you think Nike markets to one target audience? Of course not. A brand this size needs to identify multiple target audiences. They could define them according to different types of products, specific purchase behavior – online or offline, demographics,  conversion rates , and so on.

In a target audience analysis or segmentation, they would cross-reference variants. For example, what are the demographics of people buying online vs. offline? Which age group is most likely to respond to which type of advertising and which products do they purchase?

4. Target audience analysis examples for a B2B/SaaS provider

For a business-to-business (B2B) company like Similarweb, you would want to describe the company that needs your service. You would analyze the size, industry, and reach. It’s also helpful to understand what differentiates the end-user from the decision-maker. This way, you can allocate types of audiences to products and campaigns to a segment of that audience. You would focus more on the B2B company’s digital presence and the purchasing process than on our previous examples.

When you understand the importance of properly defining your  target market , the value of taking a methodical approach to data analysis that focuses on a specific audience becomes clear. The results depend on the quality of the data you collect, which is a function of the tools you use for audience insights.

Similarweb’s analytics tool provides you with insight into audience demographics and behavior. It also lets you segment your audience for better targeting and analyze each segment further. Collect and examine data about your competition and their audiences to help position yourself and improve your audience targeting.

Boost Your Market Research with Similarweb

Enjoy 360° visibility into your industry and instantly adapt to market changes

What does a target audience analysis include?

Typically, a target audience analysis includes demographics, interests, consumer behavior, and product-specific criteria.

What is an example of a target audience analysis?

You’re starting an online course platform. How do you know which type of vendor is most likely to take you up on your offer? Analysis helps you decide your focus.

Why does a target audience analysis matter?

Target market analysis determines where and how your product fits into the real-life market.

What types of data should I consider when doing a target audience analysis?

When doing a target audience analysis, you should consider demographic data such as age, gender, income level, geographic location, and education. You should also consider psychographic data such as values, interests, and lifestyle.

How can I use target audience analysis to improve my marketing campaigns?

You can use target audience analysis to better understand who your customers are and what they need. This information can be used to create more effective marketing campaigns by tailoring your message and targeting the needs and interests of your target audience. You can also use this analysis to create targeted content that resonates with the target audience and helps to build relationships.

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Target Audience: How to Find Yours [+ 5 Campaign Examples]

Published: October 05, 2022

Have you ever seen a product, service, or marketing ad and thought, "Who in the world is this for?" We've all seen marketing campaigns that have fallen flat because they didn't connect with their target audience, or it was unclear who the target audience was.

Understanding target audiences is key to the success of any marketing campaign because consumers will feel as if they connect with your brand. If you're unsure how to find your target audience, here's what you need to know.

What is a target audience?

Target Market Vs. Target Audience

Types of Target Audience

How to find your target audience, target audience examples.

What is a Target Audience?

A target audience is a group of consumers characterized by behavior and specific demographics, such as female extreme athletes between the ages of 18 and 25. Target audiences are a pillar of most businesses influencing decision-making for marketing strategy. Target audiences often decide where to spend money on ads, how to appeal to customers, and what product to build next.

Free Market Research Kit

5 Research and Planning Templates + a Free Guide on How to Use Them in Your Market Research

• SWOT Analysis Template
• Survey Template
• Focus Group Template

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

They are also used to define the buyer persona of a business, as well. Buyer personas are a representative overview of a business's ideal customer drawn from data that makes up a target audience. Some of these demographics and behavior areas are:

This information helps understand the customer and how they make purchase decisions. Targeting a specific audience will help your campaigns reach the correct people who will relate most to your company's message and products.

Always make sure to understand the difference between target audience and target market . While similar, their difference is critical for marketers.

Target Market vs. Target Audience

Both target audience and target markets are centered around segmenting customers into groups to make informed business decisions; however, a target market is a specific group of consumers a company’s products target. A target audience defines that group using audience demographics, interests, and buying history.

Essentially, you can describe your target market by finding your target audience . If a target market were "marketers aged 25-35," the target audience would be "marketers living in Boston, Massachusetts aged 25-35."

When we talk about types of target audiences, we're talking about more ways to define who you're creating a campaign for. You can segment your audience into groups or define them further using categories such as:

Purchase intention

This refers to groups of people looking for a specific product and wanting to collect more information before doing so. Some examples include consumers buying a new laptop, vehicle, clothing, or television. This data is necessary to see how you can better direct your messaging to your audience.

This is data about what people are into, like hobbies. Knowing this data helps you connect with your audience in a relatable way and unearth buyer motivation and behaviors. For example, when the weather is warmer and road racing season begins, consumers who enjoy road biking as a hobby are likely most interested in new road bikes in the spring.

For example, suppose you find many potential audiences interested in traveling. In that case, you can figure out how to use that message in your marketing campaign to appeal to more potential buyers.

These are groups of people who identify with a shared experience. An example of this would be a specific music scene or genre of entertainment. People define themselves by subcultures, and companies can use those cultures to understand who they're reaching out to.

An example of reaching a subculture is thinking of how they relate to your business, especially if you have a large potential audience. For instance, Netflix markets to their subcultures , people who watch specific types of content, using social media accounts directed to those subcultures .

As you've probably guessed, coming up with a target audience involves some research, which goes into fleshing out who you want to reach and how you can get there in a way that stands out from competitors.

If you're ready to find yours, follow these steps below:

• Use Google Analytics to learn more about your customers.
• Create a reader persona to target blog content.
• Look at social media analytics.
• Use Facebook Insights.
• Check on website performance.
• Engage with social media audiences.

1. Use Google Analytics to learn more about your customers.

Google Analytics is excellent for obtaining demographic details about your audience and their interests. With Google Analytics, you'll be able to see website insights broken into different sections, like age, gender, and location. These sections are labeled clearly on the dashboard and provide colorful graphs for you to interpret.

Above is an example of the age overview in the Audiences portion of Google Analytics. Notice the breakdown of the numbers and how the graphs give you an excellent visual. This tool can be a great asset in getting insight into who’s visiting your website and how your content fits into their lives.

2. Create a reader persona to target blog content.

With reader personas, you'll never forget who you're writing for. Your reader persona should be near identical to your buyer persona because your blog should contain content that'll be useful for your readers. For example, marketers probably want to read blogs about digital media.

The difference between a reader persona and a buyer persona is that a reader persona generally focuses on the challenges your persona might face. How can you write content that solves those challenges?

For example, if one of the challenges you've identified in your buyer persona is "Marketing Mario wants to find a solution to low ROI on ad spending," you can use a reader persona to think of content surrounding helping that challenge.

3. Look at social media analytics.

When are your followers most engaged with your social media channels?

Is it when you post a funny meme on Instagram or create a poll on Twitter? By looking at these questions, you can get a couple of clues into what content your audience is interested in, thus, filling in one of the parts needed to find a target audience.

Every social channel is different and has a diverse audience, so looking at your analytics across all platforms is essential. For example, Twitter tends to have a younger audience, while Facebook tends to have an older one. On the same note, Twitter is based on short-form content, while on Facebook, you can post long-form content and videos.

Instagram is a visually-based social media platform, so visually appealing content would thrive on the channel. Knowing these things, you can begin to plan your strategy accordingly.

Analytics can tell you who is looking at your profile. Moreover, they can tell you what's working and not working content-wise.

By posting content your audience is more interested in, you can gain followers in your target market.

4. Use Facebook Insights.

If you have a Facebook page, Facebook Insights is precisely what you need. Facebook gives every page a vast set of insights for free. These insights work similarly to Google Analytics — you'll receive critical information required to create a target audience.

You can see who and from where your visitors are by accessing the People tab on your Insights dashboard. Below is an example of how Facebook shows location demographics. It seems that a primary location is the East Coast, so it's safe to say that part of the target audience for this page is located in East Coast cities.

Other areas Facebook focuses on include interests and integrations with other social media platforms, like Twitter. The insights report tells your audience's lifestyle, such as if they purchase items online.

Insights like these can help you far into your campaign planning, past finding a target audience, so it's a valuable tool to check on now and then.

5. Check up on website performance.

Monitor your best- and worst-performing content areas on your website. Your website can be the introduction to your company for a lot of your target audience, so sprucing up what interests them is a great way to attract more audience members.

By looking at what blog posts or landing pages are captivating your audience, you can repurpose content that isn't and promote the content that is. For instance, if your blog post about email marketing was a hit with audiences, share it on your socials to expand your reach.

6. Engage with social media audiences.

Interacting with social media followers is so important because they're your audience. When you create your buyer persona, they're the users you should look to. Remember to keep this step in mind if you don't have social media accounts yet.

Ask your followers what they want to see, and use tools like Instagram Stories and replies to get their response for how/what you're doing. Whatever engagement you get, positive or negative, can influence how you attract more audience members.

For example, try tweeting something that invites a CTA, like "Send us a picture of your favorite outfit to wear with our new hats!" This evokes a response, responses you can analyze the language of and imitate to grow your audience.

Check out this example of how Stanley demonstrates engaging with social media audiences can help you build your audience. 

• Lightlife Foods
• Apple Music

Target differentiates its content based on social platforms. For example, check out its Twitter account. The language is relaxed, engages users, and is generally geared toward a younger millennial crowd. This is because most of Twitter's users are younger .

Alternatively, check out this Facebook post, a partnership with Jessica Alba, an actress focused on her family.

This move was probably made because Target's target audience for Facebook campaigns is families, while its Twitter focuses on younger people. Target, as a global brand, has different target audiences.

For campaigns, they might focus on a specific audience over another or social media channels in general. Target found their target audiences and how they're represented differently and used that to their marketing advantage.

2. Lightlife Foods

Similarly to the example above, let's look at plant-based food company, Lightlife Foods . On Instagram, Lightlife posts high-quality images of recipes using their products. Occasionally, they work with Instagram influencers in the same market.

On Lightlife's Facebook, however, they've invested heavily in video content. This is probably because it's been proven that video content on Facebook performs exceptionally well. Lightlife is most likely targeting an audience that loves to watch videos on Facebook, whereas on Instagram, they're most likely targeting not only foodies but influencers in their industry.

3. Apple Music

Let's look at how Apple Music is reaching its target audience.

On Twitter, the streaming service prides itself on being free of ads, most likely to sway potential audience members away from similar streaming services that don't provide the same benefit. They post playlists and other content only reachable by visiting the website.

Most of its Instagram content, however, leverages videos. Apple Music uses its Instagram to post snippets of interviews and other premium content with a subscription. Apple Music likely sticks to a formula based on where its content types perform best.

Vans has been a popular shoe brand among skateboarders and self-proclaimed "misfits" since the 1960s, but its target audience has expanded over the years. Vans has kept up with its changing target market by segmenting its audience and creating different Instagram accounts that appeal to various target audiences. Each account appeals to multiple people, from skaters to surfers to snowboarders.

Image source

For example, the account @vansgirls appeals to women and features content relevant to that demographic.

As mentioned, Netflix has different platforms and content that appeal to the various subcultures of people subscribed to the streaming service. For example, Netflix found that over half of its subscribers watched anime in 2021. As a result, the streaming platform announced it was adding 40 new anime titles in 2022.

6. Fortnite

Fortnite is one of the most popular online video games to date, and recent statistics have shown an impressive amount of overlap between fans of anime and those of video games. 21% of gamers watch anime in a typical week and are 12% more likely to watch it than the average consumer.

With that in mind, it's no surprise that Fortnite decided to team up with Dragon Ball Z's anime franchise to include DBZ-related skins and characters in the game. It's likely Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, found that many of the game's players are anime fans — the game developer decided to collaborate with one of the longest-running and most popular anime franchises to date.

Target audiences are meant to engage consumers and give a good idea of how to market to them. If your brand has multiple target audiences to appeal to, then Vans' and Netflix's methods of segmenting their audience and distributing different kinds of content could fit your business. If you have a singular audience, you can still benefit from knowing everything you can about them.

Happy campaigning!

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Free Guide & Templates to Help Your Market Research

Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

Target Audience Template

Use the Target Audience template to collect data about your potential customers and uncover new possibilities to improve your product.

Trusted by 65M+ users and leading companies

About the Target Audience Template

Understanding your target audience allows you to market to them effectively. You know how they behave, what they’re looking for, and how to reach them. This gives you a much better chance of success. Without this information, you’re taking a stab in the dark.

With this target audience template, you can visualize who you’re trying to target. You’re able to outline their demographics, location, psychographics, identifiers, and more!

What is a target audience?

Your target audience is the group of people who might be interested in your product or services. This group of potential customers will often share similar traits. For example, they might be around the same age or have similar disposable income.

Finding your target market is an essential step in creating effective marketing strategies, planning marketing activities, and making informed decisions. Without knowing who your ideal customer is, you’ll struggle to target them effectively. As a result, business growth can take a hit.

How to use the target audience template

Miro's target audience template helps you understand your potential customers. Using the different columns, you can add essential information about your audience. As a result, you can picture who they are, what they want, and how they behave.

Here are the five steps you can follow to identify your intended audience using Miro’s template:

Step 1: Collect demographic data

Demographics are a set of criteria you can use to describe audience segments. Some demographics include age, gender, income, education level, marital status, and occupation. You can also use tools like Facebook Audience Insights, Google Trends, and Google Analytics to help you parse demographic data that you can then put into the template.

You can even base this on your current customers to give you a solid foundation. Add all this information to your template to get a better idea of your audience’s background.

Step 2: Collect location data

Defining your audience by location allows you to target those areas specifically. Even if your business is international, you can narrow down your audience by location to target them effectively with the right marketing messages.

Pinpoint your intended audience by neighborhood, city, state, country, or region. Resources like Facebook Audience Insights, MyBestSegments, Google Trends, and Google Analytics might be helpful here.

If you have audiences in different locations, you may want to use separate templates. Why? Because people from various locations might have different expectations of your business. You’ll need to market to them differently, so it’s helpful to have a separate overview for each location.

Step 3: Collect psychographic data

Psychographics are the attitudes, opinions, interests, and activities of your potential customers. For example, you might be interested in targeting gaming enthusiasts, outdoor climbers, toy collectors, or foodies.

Psychographic data is powerful because it can be so granular. For instance, with gaming enthusiasts, you can target customers who prefer board games developed by independent creators. This level of data allows you to drill down into the details of those who are interested in your product or service.

Psychographics can be a bit harder to measure than demographics and location data. To collect this data, you might need to perform a survey and get feedback directly from consumers. If a survey isn’t possible, you can use Facebook Audience Insights to filter audiences by their interests or opinions.

Step 4: Pick 2 to 5 identifiers

Now that you have all this data, it’s time to narrow it down with identifiers. Identifiers are any additional pieces of information that give you more insight into your audience.

When it comes to identifiers, it can be hard to limit how many you use. There can be hundreds of identifiers for one target market, so we’d suggest limiting yourself to two to five identifiers. But why only pick two to five when you have so much to work with?

If you only pick one, your audience will be so massive that it might as well stand in for the public. If you pick all of them, your audience will be so narrow that it’ll be too small to work with.

Step 5: Test your audience

At this point in the process, you’ve got a pretty clear picture of your target demographic. Now, you can test your audience. There are two ways you can approach this:

Speak to your target markets directly. Spend some time talking to people that fit your target market to see what they think of your product or service. For example, if you’re marketing a dating app, you might go to a college campus and show students prototypes of the app . Ask whether they’ve used a similar service, see if they have any criticisms, and record their opinions. If they seem enthusiastic, you’re on the right track.

Speak to your audience online. If it’s difficult to approach your target markets on the ground, you can turn to online tools to achieve the same effect. Subreddits, Facebook groups, and message boards are good sources of data.

When you’ve tested your audience, return to the template and make any adjustments. Slice the data in new ways and perform experiments to get closer to your ideal target demographic.

When to use the target audience template

Identifying your ideal customer is helpful for any business. But when exactly should you use the target audience template?

To find out who’s interested in your product/service

Use the target audience template to understand who’s interested in your products or services. Add all relevant research and information to the template, as well as other important artifacts so you always keep your audience top of mind.

To run multiple projects at once

The target audience template is especially beneficial when running multiple marketing campaigns or juggling several projects at once. It allows you to stay organized, sustain momentum, and keep your teams aligned while keeping the potential customer at the forefront of your marketing efforts.

To focus on specific demographics

In some situations, you might want to focus on specific demographics like age and gender. In other cases, you might be interested in psychographics like interests and opinions. The target audience template allows you to switch between the two. It’s also fully customizable, so you can tailor it to suit your needs.

To launch a new product

The template is particularly useful if you’re launching a new product. It allows you to figure out who you should be targeting and what they’re looking for in a new product.

What are examples of target customers?

To better understand this methodology, here are some target audience examples:

1. Men’s Wearhouse

Men’s Wearhouse isn’t only targeting men looking for formal attire, but also the wives and girlfriends who might encourage or influence where their partner shops. By understanding the broader target segment, they can market to all possible customers.

2. McDonald’s marketing campaigns

A company can have different market segments for different marketing campaigns. For example, McDonald’s might have two different campaigns marketing their breakfast menu. One is marketed towards white-collar workers looking for a way to save time on breakfast before work. The other is marketed towards lower-income workers looking for a hot meal to eat at a job site.

3. Injury Attorney law firm

A law firm specializing in personal injury will target injured individuals or people that work in fields where injuries are common. Their goal is to make sure that these people know about their services.

What are the 6 categories of a target audience?

Typically speaking, there are six main categories of a target audience which can be filled in on the template:

Demographics: this includes age, gender, education, income levels, and more.

Geographic: this focuses on the location of the audience.

Psychographic: the psychological characteristics of your customers include their interests, lifestyle choices, and desires.

Behavioral traits: this outlines how your target consumers behave when shopping online.

Needs-based: this shows the needs consumers have and how it informs their buying behavior.

Transactional: this type of customer focuses solely on the purchase they’re making. They’ve probably done a lot of research beforehand.

Miro’s target audience template has four categories — demographics, location, psychographics, and identifiers. The template is customizable, so you can amend the headings to feature other categories and additional columns you may need.

Why is a target audience important?

The largest enterprise company and the scrappiest startup have one goal in common: getting more customers. But to get more customers, you first need to know who they are — that’s why your target audience is important. The data can inform your products and services, marketing strategy, pricing, keywords, advertising choices, and design.

Why find your target audience?

Finding your ideal customer is crucial. Every product and marketing campaign is a significant investment in time and resources. It’s important to know who you are marketing to, ensuring you use those resources effectively.

How do you write a target audience statement?

A target audience statement is a description of the audience you’re planning to target. The statement should be concise and communicate the information previously discovered in your consumer research. Gender, age, and interests are some of the common topics you’ll find in the statement. You can also offer context about how you arrived at this target market.

Get started with this template right now.

Change Control Process Template

Works best for:.

Agile Methodology, Documentation, Product Management

You can predict, research, and plan for every detail of a project to go a certain way—then along comes the unforeseen and modifications are needed. That’s when a change control process comes into play. It helps define the right steps to take, gives stakeholders full visibility, and reduces the chances of errors and disruption. And this template is easy to use and highly effective—for ensuring that proposed changes are reviewed before they’re implemented, and empowering teams to veto changes that might prove unnecessary or disruptive.

Porter's Five Forces Template

Leadership, Strategic Planning, Market Research

Developed by Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter, Porter’s Five Forces has become one of the most popular and highly regarded business strategy tools available for teams. Use Porter’s Five Forces to measure the strength of your current competition and decide which markets you might be able to move into. Porter’s Five Forces include: supplier power, buyer power, rivalry among existing competitors, the threat of substitute products or services, the threat of substitute products and services, and the threat of new entrants.

Presentation Template

Presentations, Education

At some point during your career, you’ll probably have to give a presentation. Presentations typically involve speaking alongside an accompanying slide deck that contains visuals, texts, and graphics to illustrate your topic. Take the stress out of presentation planning by using this presentation template to easily create effective, visually appealing slides. The presentation template can take the pressure off by helping your audience stay focused and engaged. Using simple tools, customize a slide deck, share slides with your team, get feedback, and collaborate.

KPI Tree Template

Strategy & Planning

The KPI Tree Diagram is a visual tool that hierarchically illustrates an organization's objectives and breaks them down into their subsequent strategies, tactics, and measurable KPIs. By arranging these components in a tree-like structure, the diagram captures the interrelationships and dependencies between the overarching goals and the specific steps to achieve them.

7S Template

The 7S Framework Template stands out as an essential tool for organizations aiming to comprehensively understand their internal dynamics. One of its key benefits is its ability to foster strategic alignment. By visually breaking down the interconnectedness of seven core elements - from strategy to staff - the template enables teams to ensure that their business strategies harmoniously align with their internal capabilities and culture. This alignment not only underscores potential areas of strength but also pinpoints avenues for growth and development, ensuring that an organization moves forward with clarity and cohesion.

Go-to-Market Strategy Template

Marketing, Desk Research, Strategic Planning

It doesn’t matter how innovative or effective a new product is — if it doesn’t get noticed and adopted by the right audience, the product won’t get off the ground. That’s where your Go-to-Market Strategy comes in. It’s a single resource that houses all of your research, insights, and data, and includes your business plan, target audience, marketing approach, and sales strategy. A GTM is especially important for any startups who grow fast, have to make split-second decisions, and have to be fully in sync.

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• Marketing Essentials

Target Market: Definition, Purpose, Examples, Market Segments

Investopedia / Mira Norian

What Is a Target Market?

A target market is a group of people that have been identified as the most likely potential customers for a product because of their shared characteristics, such as age, income, and lifestyle.

Identifying the target market is a key part of the decision-making process when a company designs, packages, and advertises its product.

Key Takeaways

• A target market is a group of customers with shared demographics who have been identified as the most likely buyers of a company's product or service.
• Identifying the target market is important in the development and implementation of a successful marketing plan for any new product.
• The target market also can inform a product's specifications, packaging, and distribution.

How Do I Define My Product's Target Market?

Part of creating a new product is envisioning the consumers who will want it.

A new product must satisfy a need or solve a problem, or both. That need or problem is probably not universal unless it reaches the level of indoor plumbing. More likely, it is needed by a subset of consumers, such as environmentally-conscious vegetarians, or science nerds, or outdoor enthusiasts. It may appeal to a teenager or a middle-aged professional, a bargain-hunter or a snob.

Envisioning your likely target market is part of the process of creating and refining a product, and informs decisions about its packaging, marketing, and placement.

What Are the 4 Target Markets?

Market researchers use activity, interest, and opinion (AIO) surveys to construct psychographic profiles of their target customers. Marketing professionals divide consumers into four major segments:

Demographic: These are the main characteristics that define your target market. Everyone can be identified as belonging to a specific age group, income level, gender, occupation, and education level.

Geographic: This segment is increasingly relevant in the era of globalization. Regional preferences need to be taken into account.

Psychographic: This segment goes beyond the basics of demographics to consider lifestyle, attitudes, interests, and values.

Behavioral: This is the one segment that relies on research into the decisions of a company's current customers. New products may be introduced based on research into the proven appeal of past products.

What Is an Example of a Target Market?

Each of the four target markets can be used to consider who the customer for a new product is.

For example, there are an estimated 100,000 Italian restaurants in the U.S. Clearly, they have enormous appeal.

But a corner pizza joint might appeal mostly, although by no means entirely, to a younger and more budget-conscious consumer, while an old-fashioned white tablecloth place might be dominated by older folks and families who live in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, a newer place down the street might cater to an upscale and trend-conscious crowd who will travel a good distance for the restaurant's innovative menu and fancy wine list.

In each successful case, a savvy business person has consciously considered the ideal target market for the restaurant and has tweaked the menu, decor, and advertising strategy to appeal to that market.

Why Are Target Markets Important?

Few products today are designed to appeal to absolutely everyone. The Aveda Rosemary Mint Bath Bar, available for $26 a bar at Aveda beauty stores, is marketed to the upscale and eco-conscious woman who will pay extra for quality. Cle de Peau Beaute Synactif Soap retails for $110 a bar and is marketed to wealthy, fashion-conscious women who are willing to pay a premium for a luxury product. An eight-pack of Dial soap costs $12 at CVS, and it is known to get the job done.

Part of the success of selling a good or service is knowing to whom it will appeal and who will ultimately buy it. Its user base can grow over time through additional marketing, advertising, and word of mouth.

That's why businesses spend a lot of time and money in defining their initial target markets, and why they follow through with special offers, social media campaigns , and specialized advertising.

What Are Market Segments?

Dividing a target market into segments means grouping the population according to the key characteristics that drive their spending decisions. Some of these are gender, age, income level, race, education level, religion, marital status, and geographic location.

Consumers with the same demographics tend to value the same products and services, which is why narrowing down the segments is one of the most important factors in determining target markets.

For example, people who fall into a higher income bracket may be more likely to buy specialty coffee from Starbucks instead of Dunkin' Donuts. The parent companies of both of these brands need to know that in order to decide where to locate their stores, where to stock their products, and where to advertise their brand.

A business may have more than one target market—a primary target market, which is the main focus, and a secondary target market, which is smaller but has growth potential. Toy commercials are targeted directly to children. Their parents are the secondary market.

Target Market and Product Sales

Identifying the target market is an essential part of a product development plan, along with manufacturing, distribution, price, and promotion planning. The target market determines significant factors about the product itself. A company may tweak certain aspects of a product, such as the amount of sugar in a soft drink or the style of the packaging, so that it appeals more to consumers in its target group.

As a company’s product sales grow, it may expand its target market internationally. International expansion allows a company to reach a broader subset of its target market in other regions of the world.

In addition to international expansion, a company may find its domestic target market expands as its products gain more traction in the marketplace. Expanding a product's target market is a revenue opportunity worth pursuing.

How Detailed Should a Target Market Be?

It depends. Broadly speaking, a product may be designed for a mass market or a niche market, and a niche market can be a very small group indeed, especially in a product's early introductory phase.

Some carbonated beverages aim for a practically universal market. Coca-Cola had to branch out to 200 markets abroad to continue growing its customer base. Gatorade is owned by Pepsi Cola, but the brand is positioned as a drink for athletes. The soda brand Poppi, which is branded as a healthy, sparkling, prebiotic soda with real fruit juice, gut health, and immunity benefits, is clearly aimed at a younger, healthier, and more trend-conscious target market.

Consider a casual apparel company that is working to build its distribution channels abroad. In order to determine where its apparel will be most successful, it conducts some research to identify its primary target market. It discovers that the people most likely to buy their products are middle-class women between the ages of 35 and 55 who live in cold climates.

It's reasonable for the company to focus its advertising efforts on northern European websites that have a strong female audience.

But first, the company may consider how its apparel can be most attractive to that target market. It may revise its styles and colors and tweak its advertising strategy to optimize its appeal to this new prospective market.

What Is the Purpose of a Target Market?

A target market defines a product as well as vice versa.

Once a target market is identified, it can influence a product's design, packaging, price, promotion, and distribution.

A product aimed at men won't be packaged in pink plastic. A luxury cosmetic won't be sold in a pharmacy. An expensive pair of shoes comes with a branded cloth drawstring bag as well as a shoebox. All of those factors are signals to the target audience that they have found the right product.

The Bottom Line

Identifying the target market is part of the process of creating and refining a new product.

A target market can be translated into a profile of the consumer to whom a product is most likely to appeal. The profile considers four main characteristics of that person: demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral.

National Geographic. " How Italian Cuisine Became as American as Apple Pie ."

Aveda. " Rosemary Mint Bath Bar ."

Cle de Peau. " Synactif Soap ."

CVS. " Dial Antibacterial Deodorant Bar Soap, White ."

Coca-Cola Australia. " Coca-Cola: From Start-Up to Global Enterprise ."

Pepsico Partners. " Gatorade ."

DrinkPoppi. " Home ."

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Make The Leap

How to define your target audience (+templates & workbooks).

If you’re setting up a business, an essential first step is getting to know your target audience. Before you begin any branding or marketing activities, take some time to find out who your target audience is and what solutions they’re looking for.

Find out how to define your target audience and top tips and templates to make the process easier.

What is a target audience?

Your target audience is the specific group of people who are most likely to want to purchase your product or service. These are the people your marketing should be aimed at.

Your target audience will be defined by demographics, the challenges they’re facing and the solution they’re hoping to find.

Why is it important to define your target audience?

Before you create a product, it’s essential to know to who you want to sell it.

By having a clear idea of the wants and needs of your customers, you can create a product that will actually help them. Rather than trying to find customers to fit your products, the idea is to fit your product to your ideal customer.

Remember that even if your product has several different target audiences – your target audience is not everyone!

Where many entrepreneurs and brands go wrong is making their target audience too big. For example, “My product is aimed at all men” or “This product is for teenagers”. This is a great starting point but you need to refine your target audience to make your marketing effective.

Get the free Audience Research Workbook with a step-by-step guide to defining your target audience.

Target audience roles

If you’re still learning how to define your target audience, bear in mind that there are different purchase roles.

Purchase roles divide your target audience according to how much influence they have over the final purchase decision. There are two core purchase roles: the supporter and the decision-maker.

The supporter

The supporters in your target audience do not have the power to make the final purchase decision but they have a strong influence on the person who does. While they will not be responsible for handing over the money, their opinion on your product matters.

A good example of the supporter role is a child picking out their Halloween costume. Alternatively, an HR employee evaluating training programs is also a supporter.

The decision-maker

The person with the ultimate decision over whether or not to make a purchase is the decision-maker. They have a direct influence on whether or not an item or service is purchased. Sometimes the decision-maker may not be who you assume so make sure you base your understanding off of your target audience research, not your gut feeling.

To use the same example, the decision-maker is the parent buying the child’s costume or the CEO having the final call on employee training.

When you define your target audience, it’s important to take into account the different purchase roles.

How to define your target audience

Ready to define your target audience ? Follow these 5 steps.

Ask your current customers

If you want to find out more about your target audience, start with your current customers. You can conduct audience research by utilizing your email list, social media followers, and site visitors. Give customers the option to 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 buy your products or services, try to define the demographics of your current audience.

Here are some key demographics to look out for:

One of the most basic demographic factors is the age of your target audience. Age can tell you a lot about the types of content and channels your target audience is most likely to engage with.

Don’t worry about being too specific here. Your target audience might be a range of ages or generation-based. You might also find that you have multiple bands of ages within your target audience. For instance, you might want to target both Gen Z and Millennials with your products.

Another important demographic to understand is gender. Gender can have a big influence on where you direct your marketing efforts, as well as your choice of messaging and brand identity.

For example, in 2021 71% of Pinterest users were female whereas 61% of Twitter users were male . Knowing the gender ratio of your target audience can have significant sway on your choice of marketing channels.

It’s also helpful to get an understanding of your target audience’s household income in order to estimate their spending power. How much disposable income do they have? How much can they afford to pay for your product or services? These factors will all influence how you market your product or services and your pricing strategy.

When you’re carrying out audience research, find out where in the world your target audience is based. This will help you to understand which geographic regions to target and even which languages to use for your product or services.

For instance, if your audience is based in the majority Spanish-speaking countries, you might consider creating resources and content in Spanish as well as English.

Relationship, marital, or family status

Depending on your product, it can also be helpful to know your target audience’s relationship status, marital status, or family profile. Are most of your customers married? Divorced? Parents? These factors can all affect the types of products or services that your audience is interested in and what content and ads they respond to.

You can also define your target audience according to their interests. Try to find out their hobbies, entertainment preferences, and more. How do they like to spend their free time? How much time and money do they invest in their hobbies? Are they pet lovers, extreme sportspeople, or bookworms?

Pick out common hobbies and interests in your target audience to inform your marketing in the future. This also gives you the opportunity to find potential tie-ups with other brands and influencers you might want to work with in the future.

Understand their needs and pain points

As well as getting to grips with the demographics of your target audience, you also need to go a little deeper. When you’re trying to define your target audience, make sure you explore their needs and pain points too.

What is your target audience struggling with? What are their 3 top fears? What keeps them up at night? Focus on the common worries of your target audience – as they relate to your niche – and don’t be afraid to get specific. The more detail you can get on your target audience’s needs, challenges, and fears, the more you can make sure that your product or service solves them.

Understanding this aspect of your target audience is essential not only for your marketing but also for your sales strategy and brand story. If you’re a course creator, it could have a huge impact on what content you include in your course too.

Analyze the solution they’re hoping for

Next up, you need to understand how you’re going to position your product or service in relation to your audience’s needs. This involves looking at the solution(s) that your target audience is hoping for.

What results is your target audience hoping to achieve? What steps do they need to take to get there? How does your product address those needs? How can your unique offering provide a solution to their problems?

Finding out the dream solution for your target audience will help you to get a more detailed profile of your customers that can influence your marketing going forward.

Create a customer avatar

The last step to help you define your target audience is to make a customer avatar. Distill the commonalities that your best customers have in common and put them all into one person. What are the characteristics of your ideal customer? This is the point where you can create your perfect customer profile, based on your audience research.

A customer avatar is hugely helpful for targeting your marketing. The aim is to have one individual in mind. When you create marketing assets in the future, it will all be directed at this one person. This will help you write for your audience in a more personal and meaningful way.

The trick to making your marketing resonate is to imagine, you’re talking to a single individual and their needs, worries, hopes, and dreams.

Download the Customer Avatar workbook to create your customer avatar.

Related: How To Create Your Ideal User Persona To Focus Your Efforts (+3 Templates)

How to gather information on your target audience

If you want to define your target audience, start by looking at your existing customer base.

The easiest way to understand who your target audience is to ask them! Audience research is the most effective way to get to grips with your target audience and figure out who they are and what they want.

If you’re just starting out or you’re a small or medium business, there are two methods that are most effective: surveys and interviews.

Surveys are a really useful starting point for customer research. They can be sent out via email or social media – whichever channel you use to communicate with your audience most regularly.

Try one of these methods:

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

You can also use a tool like Typeform to make your survey and send the link via email.

Download the free Audience Research Survey Template to make your own survey.

Survey questions

The quality of any survey depends on asking the right questions. Here’s what to include in your audience research survey.

Demographic questions

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

This should include questions on:

• Household income

It’s a good idea to format your demographics questions as multiple-choice questions.

Long-form questions

Your survey should also include long-form questions that help you to delve into their needs and desires.

Here are some good examples:

• What do you struggle with most when it comes to X?
• How does it make you feel?
• Why is it important for you to solve X right now?
• If you took a course on X, what would you like to walk away with by the end of it?

Long-form questions are useful here as they help you to get a more detailed, individualized picture of your customers’ needs.

Evaluate your survey findings

Once you’ve sent out your survey and have received at least 10 responses, it’s time to analyze your findings.

Review the responses in your surveys and pick out common themes and keywords. This will help you to identify shared struggles among your audience. You will also be able to understand what solutions they’re looking for and how your products or services might fill that need.

Download the Audience Research Workbook for a step-by-step guide on how to analyze your survey findings.

Interviews are another ideal method for helping you to define your target audience. If you can have a one-to-one conversation with your customer, you can get an extra detailed profile of their needs and wants. This also gives you the chance to connect with your existing customers on a personal level.

If possible, record the conversation – make sure you ask for permission first – and take detailed notes. When you’re talking to someone you’ll get a lot of information fast, so you’ll need help remembering all the details!

3 step interview process

Choose your technology.

• Use a scheduling application like Calendly to allow customers to schedule a time for the call
• Connect a video conferencing application e.g. Zoom, Google Meet or Whatsapp
• Send your customers an automatic link via the scheduler

Write an email to your audience

• Give your email a catchy subject line e.g. “Hey [name], can we chat?”
• Ask them to use the scheduling link
• Offer an incentive like a prize draw or coupon to encourage more sign-ups

Write your interview questions

• Introduce yourself and explain the purpose of the call
• Write open-ended questions e.g. “What are your main challenges with [topic]?
• Dig deeper into your interviewee’s answers
• Add questions that reveal the emotional motivations behind their answers

Download the Audience Research workbook for more sample interview questions and tips on interviewing techniques.

Analyze your interview answers

As with your surveys, you also need to analyze your interview answers to find common themes among your target audience. Look for words, themes, and phrases that are shared between the group and repeated often.

You can also draw out similarities in the challenges and pain points your customers are experiencing to get a more complete picture of your target audience.

Extra tips to define your target audience

When it comes to how to define your target audience, there are a few other tricks to keep up your sleeve. These tips will help you to refine your understanding of your target audience and how it changes over time.

1. Check out your competitors

As well as talking to your current customers, another great resource for finding your target audience is competitor research. Check out who your competitors are targeting and who is buying their products.

Many brands list their top clients on their homepage or you can check out their social media followers and influencer partnerships. By utilizing competitive analysis, you can learn how your competition works, who their target audience is, and where you can potentially outmaneuver them to win new customers.

2. Utilize social media

Social media analytics is a hugely useful tool to use in your customer research. Social media is designed to help marketers understand and analyze their audiences and there’s a whole range of tools that make it easy to do just that.

If you already have social media channels set up for your business, you can use these to help you define your target audience.

Social analytics

Every social media platform has a way for you to analyze your audience and what’s working for you. With social analytics, you can also see where your traffic is coming from, what content your audience is engaging with, and key demographics.

Social listening

You can also try using social listening as a way to better understand your target audience. Dig deeper into the interests of your audience by looking at keywords and hashtags that they’re using. You can find relevant topics that fit with your niche and that have an overlap with your brand.

This is a good way to see who’s talking about your products or services and where they fit amongst your competitors. Which brands are your target audience loving right now? What conversations are they having around your industry? What new trends are emerging?

Social media is a powerful resource to learn more about what’s important to your audience. Crucially, it’s not just for big brands. Entrepreneurs and small businesses can take advantage of it too!

3. Keep working on it

Understanding your target audience is never a one-time activity. This is something you need to do regularly to get a clear picture of who your audience is and what they need. The more customers you get, the more detailed a profile you can build.

You might also find that your target audience shifts as your brand develop. Your products might appeal to new demographics or target different pain points for your audience over time so it’s a good idea to use surveys and interviews periodically to keep up-to-date.

Ready to define your target audience?

To make your marketing as effective as possible, it’s important to define your target audience. This is especially key in the age of digital advertising and social media. If you want to get your content in front of the right people, you need to know who those people are.

Having a clear picture of your target audience is the best way to create marketing content that is going to speak to potential customers and get more conversions down the line.

To learn more about the best marketing strategies for your business, take our  Free Webinar Sales Funnel course .

This article was originally published Nov, 2021 and was updated July 2022 with even more helpful resources.

Colin is a Content Marketer at Thinkific, writing about everything from online entrepreneurship & course creation to digital marketing strategy.

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The 8 Target Audiences for Your Business Plan It's not just investors or bankers who'll want to see your business plan. Find out exactly who may be looking it over.

By Entrepreneur Staff Jan 22, 2015

In their book Write Your Business Plan , the staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc. offer an in-depth understanding of what's essential to any business plan, what's appropriate for your venture, and what it takes to ensure success. In this edited excerpt, the authors offer reasons why you may want to tailor your business plan to the audiences you're showing it to.

The potential readers of a business plan are a varied bunch, ranging from bankers and venture capitalists to employees. Although this is a diverse group, it is a finite one. And each type of reader does have certain typical interests. If you know these interests up front, you should be sure to take them into account when preparing a plan for that particular audience.

Let's take a look at eight typical audiences who'll be reading your business plan.

1. Active venture capitalists.

VCs see hundreds of plans in the course of a year. Most plans probably receive no more than a glance from a given venture capitalist before being rejected; others get just a cursory inspection. Even if your plan excites initial interest, it may receive only a few minutes of attention to begin with. It's essential, when courting these harried investors, that you make the right impression fast. Emphasize a cogent, succinct summary and explanation of the basic business concept, and don't stint on the details about the impressive backgrounds of your management team. That said, make it concise and to the point. Remember, time is of the essence to venture capitalists and other investors.

2. Bankers.

Bankers tend to be more formal than venture capitalists and more concerned with financial strength than with exciting concepts and impressive resumes. For these readers, you'll want to give extra attention to balance sheets and cash-flow statements. Make sure they're fully detailed and come with notes to explain any anomalies or possible points of confusion.

3. Angel investors.

Angel investors may not insist on seeing a plan at all, but your responsibilities as a businessperson require you to show them one anyway. For such an informal investor, prepare a less-formal plan. Rather than going for impressive bulk, seek brevity. An angel investor used to playing their hunches might be put off by an imposing plan rather than impressed with your thoroughness.

4. Potential partners.

If you were thinking about becoming a partner in a firm, you'd no doubt be very concerned with the responsibilities you'd have, the authority you'd carry and the ownership you'd receive in the enterprise. Naturally, anyone who's considering partnering with you is going to have similar concerns. So make sure that any plan presented to a potential partner deals comprehensively with the ownership structure and clearly spells out matters of control and accountability.

5. Customers.

Customers who are looking at your business plan are probably doing so because they're contemplating building a long-term relationship with you. They're certainly going to be more concerned about your relationships with your other customers and, possibly, suppliers than most of your readers. So deal with these sections of your plan in greater depth; you can be more concise in other areas. Customers rarely ever read a company's business plan, so you should probably have your miniplan available for these occasions.

6. Suppliers.

Suppliers have a lot of the same concerns as customers, except they're in the other direction on the supply chain. They'll want, above all, to make sure you can pay your bills, so be sure to include adequate cash flow forecasts and other financial reports. Suppliers, who naturally would like their customers to order more and more, are likely to be quite interested in your growth prospects. In fact, if you can show you're probably going to be growing a lot, you may be in a better position to negotiate terms with your suppliers. Like customers, most suppliers don't take the time to read lengthy business plans, so again, focus on the shorter version for such purposes.

7. Strategic allies.

Strategic allies usually come to you for something specific—technology, distribution, complementary customer sets, etc. So any plan you show to a potential ally will stress this aspect of your operation. Sometimes potential strategic partners may also be potential competitors, so you may want to present your plan in stages, saving sensitive information such as financials and marketing strategies for later in the process when trust has been established.

8. Managers.

Managers in your company are using the plan primarily to remind themselves of objectives, to keep strategies clear and to monitor company performance and market conditions. You'll want to stress such things as corporate mission and vision statements and analyses of current industry and economic factors. The most important part of a plan intended for management consumption is probably in the financials. You'll want to take special care to make it easy for managers to compare sales revenue, profitability and other key financial measures against planned performance.

There's one caution to the plan-customization exercise. Limit your alterations from one plan to another to modifying the emphasis of the information you present. Don't show one set of numbers to a banker you're trying to borrow money from and another to a partner you're trying to lure on board. It's one thing to stress one aspect of your operation over another for presentation purposes and entirely another to distort the truth.

Entrepreneur Staff

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Why Identifying Your Target Audience Is Important to Your Marketing Strategy

• 23 Jan 2024

Have you ever encountered an ad and wondered, “Why am I seeing this?” That’s because many marketing campaigns fail to appropriately target and resonate with their intended audiences. As a result, the customer experience suffers.

According to a Zendesk report , 68 percent of consumers expect all experiences to be personalized. But how can you achieve that if you don’t know who you’re catering to?

If you struggle to connect with consumers, here’s a breakdown of how to build your target audience and enhance your digital marketing plan.

Access your free e-book today.

What Is a Target Audience?

According to the online course Digital Marketing Strategy , target audience refers to the group of consumers most likely interested in your products or services and who should be the focus of your marketing campaign.

While you can identify your target audience in several ways, doing so without customer data can be extremely difficult. According to a HubSpot survey , 82 percent of marketers say high-quality customer data is important to succeed in their roles.

Digital Marketing Strategy offers three categories of customer data you should consider collecting: demographic, customer behavior, and consumer motivations.

Demographic Data

This first set of data focuses on your typical customer’s demographic information, which can include:

• Lifestyle and interests

This data can be especially useful when making implicit assumptions about your customers. For example, if your business mostly sells to millennial women, preferences such as business sustainability typically align with that demographic.

Your customers’ personal details can provide valuable insights when building and executing your marketing plan. Yet, many marketers struggle to collect it. According to HubSpot , 42 percent of marketers know their audience’s demographic information, and less than half know their interests and hobbies.

Customer Behavior

Analyzing customer behavior is another method for determining your target audience. Unlike preferences and lifestyle information, this category focuses on behavior related to your products or services.

Examples of customer behavior include:

• Purchase history and frequency
• Email marketing open rates
• Website interaction habits

By examining these behaviors, you can gain invaluable insights into your target audience and learn how to best engage them through email marketing, online ads, and blog content.

Consumer Motivations

The final approach to identifying your target audience is focusing on consumers’ primary motivations, which often requires asking, “What are they searching for?”

When it comes to products, consumers often seek:

• Convenience

One of the best ways to determine your customers’ motivations is by conducting market research using surveys and focus groups. The information you gather can help you group your consumers and understand their purchasing motives.

Top Benefits of Identifying Your Target Audience

Understanding your target audience is essential to successful digital marketing. Here are the top benefits of identifying who your customers are and what they need.

Segmentation

Segmentation is vital to your digital marketing plan. It entails organizing consumers with similar needs and preferences into groups called “segments,” enabling you to provide them with personalized experiences.

“While you can try and market a product to everyone, consumers have different needs and preferences,” says Harvard Business School Professor Sunil Gupta, who teaches Digital Marketing Strategy . “What appeals to one group of consumers may not appeal to another group.”

Consider Nike’s segmentation of its audience, 40 percent of which is female. To cater to that group, Nike implements messaging around female athlete endorsements , inclusive models , and holistic health in its ads. At the same time, the company successfully connects with its other target audiences— male fitness enthusiasts and youth athletes .

In addition to ensuring customer personalization, segmentation offers financial benefits and can increase revenue by up to 760 percent .

Adaptability

Identifying your target audience doesn’t just inform current marketing initiatives; it also helps you adapt to changes your customers may experience.

For example, if most of your consumers aren’t price sensitive, your communications don’t have to focus on value proposition.

Consider fast-food chain McDonald’s adaptability among increased price sensitivity during the 2008 financial crisis. While many businesses struggled as consumers tightened their belts, McDonald’s modified its marketing strategy to highlight its offerings’ value and affordability. It ramped up Dollar Menu ads and introduced value meals and promotional deals via online platforms its target audience commonly used.

By understanding your target audience, you can modify your marketing strategy to meet customers’ evolving needs.

Related: 3 Methods for Identifying & Leveraging Your Customers’ Needs

Return on Investment

You must spend money efficiently to ensure your marketing plan stays on budget and generates a return on investment . That means your marketing efforts need to be focused and relevant.

Learn about return on investment in the video below. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more explainer content!

Consider HelloFresh's marketing communications. While some food companies pride themselves on quality ingredients, HelloFresh customers primarily want the convenience of a healthy, prepackaged delivery service.

As a result, the company has invested in advertisements for young consumers searching for cost-effective food options, including streaming ads to reach the gaming community and YouTube videos to appeal to young home chefs.

HelloFresh highlights why you should leverage your target audience’s preferred publications and platforms: To ensure the money you spend on advertising reaches the right people.

Consumer Relationships

Consumer relationships are crucial to your company’s success. According to a McKinsey report , word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20 to 50 percent of all purchasing decisions.

Fitness apparel company GymShark is one example of how strong relationships with your target audience can lead to long-term success. Despite fierce competition in the athletic market, GymShark has achieved record-breaking sales .

Its secret? Strong relationships with athletic influencers who promote, wear, and even design clothing lines with the brand. Through its partnerships, GymShark gets cost-effective advertising from those its target audience trusts.

“In general, influencers have a significant following on social media and have the power to influence purchase decisions of their followers,” Gupta says in Digital Marketing Strategy . “Some research studies show that 82 percent of people are highly likely to act upon the recommendation of an influencer, and 92 percent of consumers trust the recommendations of people they follow on social media more than they trust commercial messages from companies.”

While working with influencers may not be the right choice for your business, GymShark exemplifies how engaging with your target audience can benefit your marketing strategy.

Find Your Target Audience

Choosing the right target audience can pay dividends for your digital marketing strategy. To ensure you’re equipped to reach your desired customers, developing digital marketing skills is critical.

One of the most effective ways to do so is by enrolling in an online marketing course, such as Digital Marketing Strategy . Through real-world case studies, you can learn how to leverage your target audience in your marketing plan.

Do you need help identifying your target audience? Explore Digital Marketing Strategy to discover how. If you’re interested in exploring online education but aren’t sure where to start, download our free guide to online learning success .

About the Author

How to Write a Customer Analysis

Elon Glucklich

9 min. read

Updated October 27, 2023

You’ve been hard at work conducting market research into your potential customers— developing a deep understanding of industry dynamics and the potential size of your market .

Hopefully, you’ve also spent time interviewing potential customers—learning about their behaviors and needs, and digging into publicly available data to support your research. 

But you still need to document these findings in a way that gives you an actionable road map to grow your customer base.

This is where a well-written customer analysis can be extremely useful. 

Including a customer analysis in your business plan will boost your marketing efforts by identifying your target customers , their needs, and how your product or service addresses these needs.

• Customer analysis vs market analysis

A market analysis is a broader exploration of the market and potential customers.  A customer analysis zooms in on the specific behavioral or demographic characteristics of individual customer segments in your target market.

The market analysis includes details like the number of customers you hope to serve and the types of competitors you must contend with. 

By contrast, the customer analysis looks at the specific attributes of your potential customers – their personal habits, values, beliefs, and other characteristics that might affect their purchasing decisions.

• What should a customer analysis include?

Demographics

Some of the earliest information you’ve collected probably about your customers includes:

• Gender/ethnicity
• Income level
• Geographic area
• Education level

Example: Suppose you own a business that creates an environmentally friendly cleaning product . Your customer demographics might include: 

• Age range: 30-60 (old enough to have used a variety of cleaning products in their homes)
• Income: Above average (more likely to buy a higher-priced alternative to discount cleaning products)
• Education level: college degree or equivalent (high enough education level to understand the product’s societal benefits).
• Employment: full-time employee

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Values and beliefs

This section captures the psychological and emotional factors that influence customer behavior. 

• Cultural backgrounds
• Ethical values

Let’s return to the environmentally friendly cleaning product example. You are more likely to attract customers who prioritize sustainability and are willing to pay more for products that match their values.

Buying behaviors

Analyzing buying behaviors involves understanding how, when, and why customers purchase. These behaviors impact:

• The channels customers prefer for shopping
• Price sensitivity
• Factors that trigger a buying decision

Example: Suppose you’re running an environmentally friendly cleaning products business. In that case, you might discover that most of your customers buy their cleaning products from a magazine for homeowners or that they typically buy multiple cleaning products simultaneously. 

Technology use

Nearly three-quarters of small businesses have a website . Even if your business doesn’t have one, your customers are, without a doubt, browsing the internet. 

So it’s critical to understand how your target customers interact with technology and to set up an online presence for your business if you aren’t already active. 

Key questions about customers’ technology habits include:

• Are they active on social media? If so, which platforms? 
• Do they prefer online shopping or in-store visits? 
• Are they more likely to respond to email marketing, blog content, or social media campaigns?

Example: Let’s say you discover that significantly more of your target customers visit websites like yours on a smartphone than a desktop. In that case, it would be important to optimize your website for mobile viewing or develop a user-friendly app . 

• 5 steps to write a customer analysis for your business plan

Now that we understand the individual pieces of a customer analysis, we’ll examine how to write a customer analysis for your business plan .

1. Use existing data

Regardless of your country, there are likely numerous sources of data published by government agencies, private industry, or educational institutions that could be relevant to your business.

Finding existing data is the best starting point for your customer analysis. It’s easy to find, it’s regularly updated, and it’s immensely valuable for providing context for your research. 

For instance, if you determine that your target demographic is people between 30 and 60, Census data can help you determine the number of residents in your selling area within that age range.

We’ll look at some examples of publicly available data for businesses operating in the United States.

U.S. Census Bureau

The Census Bureau publishes official population counts for the country, states, and local communities. Demographic characteristics like age, gender, and race sort the data. Census data also includes useful data for businesses, such as the total number of businesses, employment counts, and average incomes in local communities across the country.

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks changes in the U.S. workforce and the overall state of the labor market. The BLS publishes the Consumer Price Index , tracks consumer spending, and gauges overall consumer confidence. 

Examining this data can give you insights into the willingness of consumers to pay for your product or service.

Bureau of Economic Analysis

The Bureau of Economic Analysis takes a broader look at the performance of the U.S. Economy. You can use BEA data to find personal income and corporate profit data by industry. 

If you make a product or service used by other businesses, these figures can help you understand the financial health of the broad customer base you’re targeting.

Federal Reserve

The Federal Reserve publishes various financial reports, such as consumer credit and spending statistics , as well as the health of banks. 

This data can give you important context about the financial health of your customers, which could help you determine pricing strategies—like whether you should offer flexible payment plans.

Industry associations

There are thousands of private sector industry associations in the United States alone. These organizations not only advocate for the businesses in their field. They provide members with a wealth of helpful information, such as “state of the industry” reports and business surveys. 

You should leverage customer data from these peer organizations as a business owner.

Academic institutions

Many university business schools make their research publicly available online. Scholars make a career out of researching market and industry trends, and much of their work is available through online searches. 

2. Review customer feedback

One of the most direct ways to show an understanding of your customers in your analysis is by reviewing their feedback.

If you’re a new business without direct customer feedback yet, that’s OK. Instead, look around at what people are saying about your competitors . You might find common complaints from customers in your industry about the products available. 

You can then reach out and interview potential customers to better understand their needs.

If you have an existing business, there may already be reviews of your company on Google or social media sites like LinkedIn. Doing so can help you determine if customers are struggling to use your product or have suggestions for improvements. 

Read as many reviews as possible, and use them to show an understanding of your customers’ needs in your analysis.

3. Use third-party data

So far, we’ve discussed free, publicly available sources to find information about your customers. 

But for those willing to dig deeper, third-party data providers can help you uncover information that’s truly unique to your business and your customers.

Google Analytics

Third-party data providers like Google track the activity of users across numerous websites. Google has its own tool, Google Analytics , which makes that information available on your company’s website.

This data is a gold mine for understanding your customers. Besides giving you a demographic and geographic breakdown of your visitors, it can tell if they view your site on a desktop or smartphone, what pages they’re clicking, navigating around your site, and much more.

For new business owners, Google Trends is a powerful tool to discover what people are searching for online. 

For the environmentally friendly cleaning products business we’ve used as an example—you could see how many people are searching on Google for information about products like floor cleaners or dishwasher detergents.

Social media metrics

If your business uses social media, there are plenty of tools to help you understand your audience on these platforms. 

Many social media companies make their data available to businesses at a cost. For instance, the Facebook Audience Insights platform gives you information about the types of people who visit your page or interact with your posts.

There are also third-party tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Buffer, which track various metrics across social media platforms.

Wherever you find the data, including social media metrics in your customer analysis provides instant feedback about how customers interact with your business.

Specialty tools

Software companies have created numerous tools that collect and analyze customer data from various online sources. 

Audience research tools like SparkToro and FullStory analyze large amounts of data online and spot trends—such as the topics people discuss online and which websites or social media accounts those audiences visit. 

These are insights that would be incredibly time-consuming to get directly from customers. However, understanding where potential customers spend time online and what they talk about can easily turn your analysis into a targeted marketing campaign that addresses their needs.

4. Create a customer persona

After gathering and analyzing all this data, you should have plenty of information about your customers. The next step is to create a customer persona . In case you need a refresher, the customer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on your collected data.

For example, a customer persona for that environmentally friendly cleaning products business will reflect that audience’s demographics, behaviors, and needs. 

In addition to being an effective tool to focus your marketing efforts, creating this persona can help determine the size of your customer base and how to prioritize your time and resources to attract them to your business. It’s also helpful to show potential investors you know your target audience.

5. Connect to your problem/solution statement

Many business plans include a problem and solution statement as early as the introduction. It’s a reasonable way to start, considering that successful businesses identify a problem and provide a solution. 

So as you put your customer analysis together, ensure the research is grounded in the problems they’re experiencing. Doing so will keep you accountable by making you validate your product or service as the solution they need.

• Get started with your business plan template

A customer analysis is a key part of any business plan. But it’s just one piece. At Bplans, we take some of the pain out of business planning. 

We’ve developed a free business planning template to help reduce entrepreneurs’ time to create a full, lender-ready business plan.

Bplans has also collected over 550 free sample business plans across numerous industries. Find one that fits your industry to get inspiration and guidance when writing your plan.

Elon is a marketing specialist at Palo Alto Software, working with consultants, accountants, business instructors and others who use LivePlan at scale. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism and an MBA from the University of Oregon.

Table of Contents

Related Articles

7 Min. Read

Target Market Examples

8 Min. Read

How to Conduct an Industry Analysis

3 Min. Read

How to Use TAM, SAM, SOM to Determine Market Size

4 Min. Read

How to Define Your Target Market

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Target Market in a Business Plan

… we are targeting this part of the market …

What is the Target Market?

Target Market Segments

Your product will not be of equal interest to all potential customers, as they do not all have the same needs and characteristics. This section of the business plan deals with the analysis of the target market into different groups of customers (customer or target market segments) each having distinct characteristics and needs from the product.

The target market segmentation strategy depends on the business and the product, but generally segmentation falls into the following customer characteristics groups.

Psychographic segmentation

Psychographic segmentation splits up a sales market of a business based on such things as the social class, lifestyle choices, personality traits, tastes, attitudes, and the opinions of its customers.

Psychographic market segmentation examples include the promotion of products such as cars as these often reflect a customers lifestyle, and leisure activities. For example, a car business might identify customers who are interested in keeping the environment green and promote hybrid cars to them, or a business involved in activity holidays will seek to market to customers who show a preference for an active lifestyle.

Demographic segmentation

• Social class
• Size of family
• Nationality

Geographic Segmentation

Geographic segmentation is the process of splitting up a sales market of a business based on the geographical location of the customers. It is a particularly important marketing tool when the business is a multinational, worldwide business, but is also used by businesses to split their markets into region, county, state, city, neighborhood, or postal code.

A geographic segmentation example would be seasonal clothing items such as coats and swimwear. In contrast, in a colder climate coats would be marketed and sold all year round whereas swimwear would be highly seasonal during the holiday period. In a hot climate swimwear would be the all year round product and winter coats might not be sold at all.

Behavioral segmentation

Behavioral segmentation is the process of splitting up the sales market based on brand loyalty, usage, benefits required.

Target Market Presentation in the Business Plan

The business plan target market section can be presented in a number of formats, but a listing of the major customer segments together with a pie chart will show the investor where the main potential for the product lies. In the example below, the market is split into four main segments both in terms of number of customers and percentage of the total target market.

The average customer spend is also included, to reconcile the total target market back to the served available market (SAM) in monetary terms. Finally, a brief statement about the growth prospects for the market is included to show the investor the potential for growth in your chosen customer segments.

When identifying the target-market segments, it is important to be as specific as possible about the customer characteristics which make up each segment. In choosing which segments to concentrate on, take into account the size and potential for growth of each segment, and identify clearly what benefits, both emotional and financial, the product provides for the customer.

This is part of the financial projections and Contents of a Business Plan Guide , a series of posts on what each section of a simple business plan should include. The next post in this series is about the analysis of the competition for the target-market.

About the Author

Chartered accountant Michael Brown is the founder and CEO of Plan Projections. He has worked as an accountant and consultant for more than 25 years and has built financial models for all types of industries. He has been the CFO or controller of both small and medium sized companies and has run small businesses of his own. He has been a manager and an auditor with Deloitte, a big 4 accountancy firm, and holds a degree from Loughborough University.

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11 min read

How to find your target audience.

By: Russ Shumaker on May 13, 2024

Finding your target audience is crucial for any business's marketing strategy. Understanding who your audience is helps create compelling marketing messages and ensures that those messages reach the right people. This article will explore various methods to identify and understand your target audience to optimize your marketing efforts effectively.

Definition of a Target Audience

A target audience is a specific group likely to be interested in your company's products or services. These individuals share certain characteristics, such as demographic and psychographic traits, that make them the most probable purchasers of your offerings.

Importance of Identifying Your Target Audience

Identifying your target audience is vital because it enables you to:

• Tailor your marketing messages to meet your audience's specific needs, wants, and characteristics.
• Increase the cost-effectiveness of your marketing efforts by focusing resources on the most likely buyers.
• Enhance product development by aligning features with the preferences of your target market.
• Strengthen customer relationships by engaging with them on a more personal and relevant level.

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Understanding your business and product.

Start by deeply understanding what you offer and how it fits into the market. Consider the unique selling propositions of your products or services and how they solve problems or fulfill the needs of potential customers.

Conducting Market Research

Market research is fundamental in identifying your target audience. This process involves collecting data that reflects the characteristics and behaviors of potential customers.

• Demographic Analysis: Examine basic demographic information such as age, gender, income, education, and occupation. This data can be gathered from existing customer databases, market research reports, or purchased demographic data from agencies.
• Psychographic Analysis: Examine potential customers' lifestyle choices, values, attitudes, and interests. Psychographic information can be obtained through surveys, interviews, and observation techniques.
• Behavioral Analysis: Analyze customers' purchasing behaviors, including product usage rates, brand loyalty, and feedback . Behavioral data helps understand customer decisions and motivations and predict future behaviors.

Utilizing Tools and Resources

Many tools and resources are available to help in identifying and understanding your target audience:

• Online Analytics Platforms: Tools like Google Analytics provide insights into who is visiting your website, their behaviors, and how they interact with your content.
• Social Media Insights : Platforms such as Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , and X (formerly Twitter ) offer detailed analytics about the demographics and interests of your followers and those who interact with your content.
• Surveys and Questionnaires: Direct feedback from current and potential customers can be incredibly valuable. Tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms can facilitate this process.

Identifying Target Audience Segments

Create detailed buyer personas that represent your ideal customers. These personas should include demographic traits, interests, behavioral patterns, and motivation for purchasing.

• Segmenting Based on Needs and Preferences: To tailor marketing strategies effectively, divide your audience into smaller segments based on specific needs and preferences.
• Identifying Pain Points and Solutions: Clearly define the problems each persona faces and how your product or service solves them.

The Importance of Primary Research

Some make the mistake of focusing only on desk/academic research, relying on the work that others have done but never actually getting out there and talking to real people about their needs, wants, problems, and interests. However, primary research is essential to understanding your target audience deeply.

Primary research works on two levels: In relation to customers, it can show how real people think and act regarding your product/service categories (or, if they're already your customers, how they actually interact with your products/services).

However, for researchers, it can provide a powerful and memorable experience that motivates and drives the application of customer insights . It's not that reading research reports can't provide valuable and actionable insights—it's that from a psychological perspective, the experience of interacting with and observing real people is "stickier."

A Procter & Gamble Example

One notable example of primary research in action is Procter & Gamble's (P&G) approach to understanding consumer behavior. Known for its commitment to innovation, P&G often spends weeks observing how people use their products daily. This practice involves researchers visiting homes and spending significant time with families to observe their routines and interactions with products. These observational studies allow P&G to gain authentic insights into the practical uses and challenges that consumers experience, informing product development and marketing strategies.

Such in-depth qualitative research can be invaluable in the following ways:

• Identifying Real-World Usage of Products: Observing how products are used in daily routines can reveal innovative uses or problems that consumers face, which might not be captured through surveys or focus groups.
• Gaining Unfiltered Consumer Insights: Living with consumers allows researchers to see firsthand the role a product plays in their lives without the bias that often comes with survey-based or formal research methods.
• Building Empathy: Spending time with consumers in their own environments helps companies build a deeper empathy for their customers, which can lead to more consumer-centric product innovations.

Implementing Primary Research

Businesses of all sizes can implement primary research methods, such as:

• Direct Observations: Similar to P&G's method, companies can learn a lot by observing how consumers interact with their products in a natural setting. Sometimes, this means asking customers to let you into their homes; other times, it might be observing people in public places or, for B2B companies , observing in the business setting. You'll want to go in ready to jot down observations without interrupting the people you are observing so that you can learn without influencing them.
• Surveys and Interviews: Directly asking consumers about their experiences provides quantitative and qualitative data to guide business decisions. This can be done through online surveys, via email , or formally/informally when interacting with customers in your business.
• Pilot Testing: Releasing products to a controlled group of users before a full launch can reveal potential improvements and gauge user satisfaction. The scale of your pilot test will reflect the size of your company/customer base. You may pilot with a few friends and acquaintances for a small startup . For a SMB-sized company or larger, consider testing with as few as 100 customers at a time, then scaling up as you find what works.

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Analyzing competitors and industry trends.

Understanding your competitive landscape and industry trends can further refine your target audience.

Competitor Analysis:

• Identify Target Audiences : Analyze your competitors' target audiences. Understanding their demographics, psychographics, and behaviors can provide clues about market expectations and gaps. Tools like SimilarWeb and Facebook Ads Library can offer insights into competitor traffic and audience demographics.
• Evaluate Marketing Strategies : Assess the marketing channels and tactics your competitors use. Are they heavily investing in social media , search engine marketing , content marketing , or offline events? Observing these patterns can help you identify effective strategies and potential areas for differentiation.
• Product Offerings and Innovations : Track your competitors' product offerings and any innovations they introduce to the market. This can highlight trends in consumer preferences and emerging market needs.

Industry Trends and Market Shifts:

• Market Research Reports : Leverage industry reports from sources like IBISWorld , Statista , or industry-specific publications. These reports can provide a broad overview of market trends, size, and growth forecasts.
• Industry News : Regularly follow industry news through platforms like Hearst Bay Area , industry blogs , and publications. Staying updated helps you anticipate shifts in consumer behavior and market conditions.
• Consumer Preference Studies : Track studies and surveys that explore consumer preferences and behaviors. Sources like Nielsen , Pew Research , and academic journals often publish findings that can indicate shifting consumer priorities and interests.

By combining a thorough competitor analysis with an informed understanding of industry trends, you can more effectively tailor your marketing efforts to meet your target audience's current and evolving needs. This strategic approach helps you better position your products and seize opportunities that arise from market shifts and consumer behavior changes.

Leveraging Social Media Platforms

Everything covered thus far should be an input for your marketing strategy and ad content. But it's also important to note that social media platforms can help identify your target audience. There are essentially two approaches to using paid advertising tools on social media .

The first is to carefully outline your target audience based on location, interests, and demographics. For example, intentionally targeting people who like wine in upscale zip codes in the Bay Area by selecting the appropriate options within Facebook's Ad Manager. And this can work if you truly know who your audience is.

However, the other approach is letting the social media ad manager platforms select your audiences. The key to this approach is to do your research upfront and leverage your customer insights when creating your ads . Let the algorithms do their work once you've done your best with the creative . You might be surprised at the outcome of this approach—the auto algorithm often delivers better results than the manual approach to targeting .

Identifying Target Audience: Key Takeaways

• Effective targeting requires a deep understanding of both the market and the customer.
• Using analytics and research tools enhances precision in defining the target audience.
• Continuous learning and adaptation to market trends are crucial for maintaining relevance.

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How hearst bay area can help.

Hearst Bay Area combines its large pool of first-party data and expert marketing strategies with robust analytics tools to help businesses find and engage their target audience effectively. Through customized marketing solutions, Hearst Bay Area ensures that your marketing efforts are efficient and impactful. Explore our services here or contact us below to get in touch.

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A Comprehensive Guide to Audience Targeting in Digital Marketing

Hey there, fellow digital marketing enthusiasts! Have you ever experienced the thrill of precisely targeting your intended audience with just a few clicks? In today's fast-paced world, audience targeting has become the secret sauce behind successful digital marketing campaigns. Whether you're a seasoned marketer or just dipping your toes into the vast ocean of digital advertising, this comprehensive guide will take you on an exciting journey through the ins and outs of audience targeting.

From defining your target audience to crafting the perfect message that resonates with their deepest desires, consider this your road map to unlocking the true potential of your digital marketing efforts. Get ready to dive into the world of audience targeting and discover how you can leverage its power to connect with your audience on a whole new level!

Defining Audience Targeting in Digital Marketing

Audience targeting in digital marketing involves identifying and reaching specific groups of people who are most likely to be interested in your product or service. It allows you to tailor your marketing efforts to resonate with your target audience, increasing the chances of conversion. By defining key demographics, behaviors, and psychographics of your target market, you can create targeted campaigns that deliver relevant content and messages.

For example, if you're promoting a new line of athletic shoes, you can target individuals who have shown an interest in fitness and sports. Audience targeting helps maximize ad spend, improve conversion rates, and enhance overall marketing effectiveness.

Importance of Audience Targeting in Digital Marketing

Audience targeting in digital marketing is vital for maximizing campaign effectiveness and reaching the right people at the right time. By understanding your target audience 's demographics, behaviors, and psychographics, you can tailor your messaging, offers, and content to resonate with them. This precision leads to higher engagement, increased conversions, and improved ROI.

For example, if you sell fitness products, targeting health-conscious individuals with personalized ads can yield better results than a broader audience approach. Audience targeting allows you to allocate your ad spend efficiently, making sure your marketing efforts are not wasted on irrelevant audiences.

Benefits of Audience Targeting

Efficient ad spend allocation.

Efficient ad spend allocation is a crucial aspect of audience targeting in digital marketing. By identifying and understanding your target audience, you can optimize your ad budget to reach the right people at the right time. Instead of wasting resources on broad campaigns, audience targeting allows you to focus on specific groups who are more likely to engage and convert. This ensures that your ad spend is utilized effectively, maximizing your return on investment (ROI).

For example, if you're selling fitness equipment, targeting fitness enthusiasts on social media platforms can lead to better results compared to targeting a general audience. By allocating your ad spend strategically, you can achieve higher engagement and conversions without wasting resources.

Increased Conversion Rates

One of the significant benefits of audience targeting in digital marketing is the potential for increased conversion rates. By specifically tailoring your marketing campaigns to reach your ideal audience, you have a higher chance of capturing their attention and driving them towards taking the desired action.

When you understand your audience's preferences, demographics, and interests, you can create relevant and compelling content that resonates with them. This, in turn, increases the likelihood of them engaging with your brand and converting into customers.

For example, if you're targeting tech-savvy millennials with an online clothing store, you can create ad campaigns that highlight trendy and stylish outfits suitable for their age group. This approach will encourage them to click through and make a purchase, resulting in higher conversion rates.

By focusing your marketing efforts on the right audience , you can significantly improve your conversion rates and maximize the effectiveness of your digital marketing campaigns.

Improved Return on Investment (ROI)

Improved return on investment is a significant advantage of audience targeting in digital marketing. By precisely reaching the right audience, businesses can maximize their budget allocation and boost their ROI.

For example, a fashion retailer can target ads specifically to users who have shown an interest in clothing and accessories, increasing the likelihood of conversions and sales. This targeted approach ensures that marketing efforts are focused on those who are most likely to engage and convert, resulting in a higher return on investment. By continuously monitoring and optimizing targeting strategies, businesses can continuously improve their ROI in digital marketing campaigns.

Types of Audience Targeting

Demographic targeting.

Demographic targeting involves tailoring digital marketing efforts based on specific demographic characteristics such as age, gender, and location. By understanding the demographics of your target audience, you can create more relevant and personalized ad campaigns. For instance, if you're promoting a new skincare product for aging individuals, focusing on the age group of 40-60 years would be more effective.

Similarly, if your product is designed for women, targeting females specifically wouldyield better results. Demographic targeting allows marketers to reach the right audience with precision and increase the chances of conversion by delivering messaging that resonates with their demographic profile.

Age is a significant factor in audience targeting for digital marketing campaigns. Different age groups have distinct preferences, behaviors, and buying habits, making it crucial for marketers to tailor their strategies accordingly. For instance, younger audiences might respond better to social media advertising and influencer endorsements, while older demographics may prefer email marketing and search engine ads.

By understanding the age demographics of their target audience, marketers can create more relevant and compelling content, optimize ad placements, and allocate their budget effectively to maximize ROI. Analyzing age-related data and fine-tuning campaigns accordingly can help digital marketers better connect with their target audience and drive higher engagement and conversion rates.

Gender targeting is a valuable strategy in audience targeting for digital marketing. Consider the following insights and recommendations:

• Understand the target audience's gender breakdown to tailor marketing messages effectively.
• Analyze gender-specific preferences to create relevant content and advertising campaigns.
• Utilize gender-based data points to customize product recommendations and promotions.
• Avoid perpetuating stereotypes by focusing on individual interests and behaviors rather than generalizations based on gender.
• Regularly analyze and update gender targeting strategies to adapt to shifting trends and consumer preferences.

For example, a fashion retailer can segment their audience by gender to showcase relevant clothing options and personalized promotions. By understanding gender preferences, brands can deliver more targeted and engaging marketing experiences.

Location plays a significant role in audience targeting for digital marketing. Consider the following insights and examples:

• Targeting audiences based on location allows businesses to reach specific geographical areas where their target customers are located.
• For instance, a local restaurant can optimize their ads to target potential customers within a specific radius of their location.
• Location targeting also enables businesses to customize their messaging and offers to cater to the preferences and needs of different regions or cities.
• For example, an e-commerce store may create tailored promotions for customers in different countries or regions, taking into account cultural nuances and local events.
• Additionally, location targeting helps businesses optimize their ad spend by focusing on areas that show a higher likelihood of conversion, ultimately increasing ROI.
• An online travel agency may allocate a larger budget to advertise in countries where they have identified a higher demand for their services.

Behavioral Targeting

Behavioral targeting is a powerful strategy in audience targeting for digital marketing campaigns. It involves analyzing user behavior to understand their preferences, interests, and online activities. By leveraging this data, marketers can tailor their ad campaigns to reach the right audience at the right time. Here's how behavioral targeting can drive results:

• Based on a user's online purchase history, ads can be personalized to showcase relevant products or services.
• By tracking website browsing behavior, ads can be displayed to users who have shown an interest in similar products or topics.
• Understanding device usage patterns allows marketers to optimize their campaigns for specific devices and platforms.

Behavioral targeting helps marketers deliver more relevant and personalized ads, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.

Online Purchase History

Online purchase history is a valuable data point for audience targeting in digital marketing. By analyzing a user's previous online purchases, marketers can gain insights into their preferences, interests, and behavior. This information helps tailor advertising campaigns to effectively reach potential customers who have demonstrated an interest in similar products or services.

For example, if a user has a history of purchasing fitness equipment, a fitness apparel brand could target them with ads promoting their latest activewear collection. By leveraging online purchase history, marketers can deliver relevant and personalized ads that resonate with their target audience, increasing the chances of conversion.

Website Browsing Behavior

When it comes to audience targeting in digital marketing, understanding website browsing behavior can provide valuable insights for effective campaigns. Here's why it matters:

• Browsing behavior reveals interests and preferences : By analyzing the pages visited, products viewed, and time spent on different sections of a website, marketers can gain deeper insights into users' interests and preferences.
• Allows for tailored messaging : Knowing the specific pages and content users engage with enables marketers to deliver relevant and personalized messages that resonate with their audience.
• Helps identify intent : Analyzing browsing behavior patterns can help determine where users are in the purchase funnel, allowing marketers to target them with appropriate messaging and offers.
• Enables retargeting campaigns : By tracking browsing behavior, marketers can retarget users who have previously shown interest in their products or services, increasing the chances of conversion.

Device Usage

Device usage is a vital aspect of audience targeting in digital marketing. By understanding how users interact with different devices, marketers can tailor their campaigns to reach the right audience on the right platform. For instance, if data shows that a significant portion of the target audience primarily uses mobile devices, optimizing ads for mobile platforms becomes crucial. This can include creating mobile-friendly landing pages and designing ad formats that resonate with mobile users.

By considering device usage patterns, marketers can maximize the effectiveness of their campaigns and deliver a seamless user experience that boosts engagement and conversions.

Psychographic Targeting

Psychographic targeting in digital marketing involves understanding and targeting audiences based on their interests, lifestyles, and values. By analyzing data on consumer behavior, marketers can create more personalized and relevant content that resonates with their target audience. For instance, if a clothing brand wants to target eco-conscious consumers, they can create ads highlighting sustainable materials and practices.

Understanding psychographics helps tailor messaging and design to align with the values and preferences of the target audience, ultimately leading to higher engagement and conversion rates. By delving deeper into consumer motivations and aspirations, brands can connect with their audience on a more emotional level, driving stronger brand loyalty and advocacy.

Interests and Hobbies

Interests and hobbies are valuable indicators for audience targeting in digital marketing. By understanding what your target audience is passionate about, you can tailor your marketing messages to resonate with their specific interests.

For example, if you're promoting a fitness app, targeting individuals who have shown an interest in healthy living, sports, or fitness-related content can increase the likelihood of engagement and conversions. Similarly, if you're promoting a cooking product, targeting those who have expressed interest in cooking, food blogs, or recipe websites would be more effective. Utilizing interests and hobbies as targeting criteria allows you to reach a highly relevant audience who is more likely to be receptive to your digital marketing efforts.

Lifestyle and Values

One important aspect of audience targeting in digital marketing is understanding the lifestyle and values of your target audience. By knowing their interests and beliefs, you can tailor your marketing messages to resonate with their preferences.

For example, if your audience values sustainability, you can highlight eco-friendly aspects of your products or services. Similarly, if your audience is interested in health and wellness, you can emphasize the health benefits of your offerings. Understanding lifestyle and values allows you to create relevant and compelling content that connects with your audience on a deeper level, increasing engagement and driving conversions.

Personality Traits

Personality traits play a significant role in audience targeting for digital marketing. Understanding the personality traits of your target audience allows you to tailor your messaging and content to resonate with them on a deeper level.

For example, if your target audience consists of adventurous individuals, incorporating themes of exploration and excitement into your campaigns can help capture their attention. On the other hand, if your audience is more introverted and analytical, presenting data-driven insights and offering detailed information may be more effective. By considering personality traits, you can create targeted and engaging campaigns that truly resonate with your audience.

Tools and Platforms for Audience Targeting

Google Ads is a powerful platform for audience targeting in digital marketing. With its extensive reach and data capabilities, advertisers can effectively reach their desired audience. By leveraging demographic, behavioral, and psychographic targeting options, businesses can refine their audience selection and tailor their ads accordingly. For instance, advertisers can target specific age groups, locations, or interests to ensure their messages resonate with the right people.

Additionally, Google Ads offers advanced features like remarketing and lookalike audiences, allowing brands to re-engage with past visitors or find new customers who resemble their existing ones. Utilizing Google Ads' targeting capabilities can drive better campaign performance and improve overall ROI.

Facebook Ads Manager

Facebook Ads Manager is a powerful tool for audience targeting in digital marketing. It allows marketers to create highly targeted ad campaigns by leveraging Facebook's vast amount of user data. With Facebook Ads Manager, you can target users based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and more.

For example, you can target users who have shown an interest in a specific industry or who have recently engaged with similar products or services. This level of granularity enables marketers to better reach their desired audience and increase the effectiveness of their ad campaigns. In addition, Facebook Ads Manager provides robust analytics and reporting features, allowing marketers to track the performance of their campaigns and optimize their targeting strategies for maximum results.

LinkedIn Campaign Manager

LinkedIn Campaign Manager is a powerful tool for audience targeting in digital marketing. It allows advertisers to reach their desired audience based on professional demographics, such as job title, industry, and company size. This level of targeting enables businesses to tailor their ads specifically to professionals who are most likely to be interested in their products or services.

For example, a B2B software company can target IT managers in the technology industry to promote their latest software solution. By leveraging LinkedIn Campaign Manager, marketers can optimize their ad spend by reaching the right audience with relevant messaging, increasing the chances of conversion and driving business growth.

Programmatic Advertising Platforms

Programmatic advertising platforms are instrumental in audience targeting in digital marketing. These platforms utilize real-time data and algorithms to automate ad buying and placement. Key points to consider:

• Programmatic platforms use data insights to target specific demographics, behaviors, and interests.
• They optimize ad delivery by reaching the right audience at the right time and on the right device.
• These platforms provide access to a wide range of ad inventory across multiple channels and websites.
• By using programmatic platforms, marketers can streamline their ad campaigns, increase efficiency, and achieve better ROI.

Best Practices for Audience Targeting

Define your target audience.

One of the first steps in audience targeting for digital marketing is defining your target audience. This involves identifying the characteristics, preferences, and behaviors of the people you want to reach with your marketing efforts. By clearly defining your target audience, you can create tailored messages and choose the right channels to effectively engage them.

For example, if you are a clothing brand targeting millennials, you may define your target audience as individuals aged 18-34 who value trendy and affordable fashion. This helps you create content that resonates with them and deliver it on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, where millennials spend a significant amount of time.

Defining your target audience allows you to focus your marketing efforts and resources where they are most likely to generate results, leading to higher conversion rates and better return on investment.

Segment Your Audience

In audience targeting for digital marketing, segmenting your audience is a vital step to effectively reach and engage with your target customers. By dividing your audience into specific segments based on demographics, behaviors, or interests, you can create personalized messaging and tailored campaigns that resonate with each segment. Here's how you can segment your audience:

• Demographics : Divide your audience based on age, gender, location, or income level.
• Behavior : Segment based on online purchase history, website browsing behavior, or device usage.
• Psychographics : Group users according to interests, hobbies, lifestyle, or personality traits.

Segmenting your audience allows you to customize your marketing efforts, deliver relevant content, and increase the likelihood of conversions. For example, if you're an e-commerce business, segmenting your audience based on their past purchase history can help you target them with personalized product recommendations, enhancing their shopping experience and leading to higher conversion rates.

Regularly Analyze and Refine Your Targeting

Regularly analyzing and refining your audience targeting is imperative for successful digital marketing campaigns . Here's why:

• Keep an eye on campaign performance metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and engagement levels.
• Use A/B testing to compare different targeting parameters and identify what works best.
• Monitor changes in consumer behavior and market trends to adapt your targeting strategies accordingly.
• Leverage data analytics tools to gain insights into audience demographics, interests, and preferences.
• Stay up-to-date with competitor campaigns to learn from their successes and failures.
• Seek feedback from your audience through surveys or social media interactions to better understand their needs and make necessary adjustments.

Regularly reviewing and optimizing your targeting tactics will enable you to stay relevant, maximize your campaign's effectiveness, and ultimately drive better results.

Netflix: Personalized Recommendations

To enhance audience targeting in digital marketing, personalized recommendations, like those used by Netflix, play a pivotal role. By leveraging user data and algorithms, Netflix analyzes individual viewing habits and preferences to offer tailored content suggestions. This boosts user engagement, satisfaction, and retention. Such personalized recommendations go beyond generic suggestions and enable marketers to deliver targeted messages that resonate with their audience.

Incorporating machine learning techniques, digital marketers can optimize their content delivery, ensuring users receive relevant and compelling recommendations based on their preferences, behavior, and demographics. This not only enhances the user experience but also increases the likelihood of conversions and long-term customer loyalty.

Amazon: Tailored Product Recommendations

Amazon utilizes audience targeting in digital marketing to provide tailored product recommendations to their users. By analyzing user behavior and purchase history, Amazon can understand the preferences and interests of individual customers. This allows them to deliver personalized product suggestions that align with each user's unique preferences, increasing their chances of making a purchase.

For example, if a customer frequently purchases books on gardening, Amazon may recommend gardening tools or related books. This targeted approach enhances the customer experience and improves conversion rates by presenting users with products they are likely to be interested in.

Final thoughts

Digital marketing has revolutionized the way businesses reach their target audience. To effectively connect with potential customers, marketers have to adopt audience targeting strategies. This comprehensive guide introduces the concept of audience targeting and its importance in digital marketing. It highlights the various tactics that can be employed, such as demographic targeting, behavioral targeting, and contextual targeting.

The guide emphasizes the significance of data analytics in identifying and understanding specific audience segments. It also includes tips on creating compelling content tailored to these audiences.

Additionally, the guide elucidates the role of technology and tools in implementing audience targeting effectively. By following this guide, digital marketers can enhance their campaigns and maximize their return on investment.

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Law Firm Marketing Strategy and Plan [2024 Guide]

Learn how to get more clients for your law firm with our effective strategies!

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By Ivan Vislavskiy

The legal sector presents unique marketing challenges, with many firms facing difficulties in gaining ethical exposure and developing a distinctive brand identity. Strategic planning is essential for purposeful connections with prospective clients. While ‘strategy’ and ‘plan’ are sometimes used interchangeably, they are distinct concepts that contribute to long-term success in different ways. A thoughtfully crafted strategy provides a clear direction, while detailed planning ensures an effective execution.

This article aims to clarify the differences between these marketing components and empower you to develop a comprehensive strategy and plan. We will also delve into the essential elements of a successful law firm marketing strategy and explore practical ways to implement and measure these strategies.

Law Firm Marketing Strategy vs Marketing Plan

A law firm’s marketing strategy and marketing plan are two distinct yet interconnected components that form the backbone of a successful marketing initiative. Each plays a critical role in shaping the direction and execution of your marketing efforts.

A law firm marketing strategy is the overarching blueprint that outlines your firm’s long-term objectives, target audience, and unique selling proposition (USP). Furthermore, it defines the guiding principles and approach that will shape your marketing efforts. A marketing strategy is the foundation that sets the tone for your marketing plan and ensures your efforts align with your firm’s goals.

A law firm’s marketing plan , on the other hand, is the tactical roadmap that translates your strategy into actionable steps. It details the specific law firm marketing budget, tactics, timelines, and performance metrics to achieve your marketing objectives. It outlines how each tactic will be executed, who will be responsible, and when it will take place.

Comrade Digital Marketing Agency can help you with the above if you’re unsure how to go about it. Schedule a free consultation.

Key Elements of a Law Firm Marketing Strategy

A well-crafted strategy considers the firm’s unique strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis), as well as the competitive landscape. But that is not all. You also need to do the following: 

Identify marketing goals and objectives

Define your target audience

Conduct market and competitor analysis

Determine services, pricing, and unique selling points

Identifying Marketing Goals and Objectives

Identifying what you want to achieve through your marketing efforts is essential, as this will guide the development of all subsequent marketing tactics and initiatives. Without clear goals, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of marketing activities, wasting time and resources on initiatives that may not be aligned with your firm’s overall objectives. 

When identifying marketing goals and objectives, consider the following:

What are your firm’s overall business objectives? (e.g., increase revenue, expand services, improve brand reputation).

What specific marketing goals do you want to achieve? (e.g., increase website traffic, generate leads, boost social media engagement).

What metrics will you use to measure success? (e.g., website analytics, lead tracking, social media metrics).

Defining Your Target Audience

Your target audience is the group of people most likely to need your legal services, and understanding their needs, pain points, and motivations is essential for creating effective marketing messages and tactics. Targeting can be based on demographics (age, gender, income level, education level, and occupation), psychographics (values, interests, and lifestyle), and buyers’ behavior.

Consider creating client personas to gain a deeper understanding of your target audience. A client persona is a fictional representation of your ideal client, complete with demographic, psychographic, and behavioral characteristics. This will help you develop marketing messages and tactics that resonate with your target audience and identify opportunities to engage with them and build relationships.

Conducting Market and Competitor Analysis

Market and competitor analysis provides valuable insights to shape your marketing strategy. Competitor analysis involves researching your peers’ strategies, services, and online presence.

By examining market trends and consumer behavior, you can make data-driven decisions about your target audience and marketing approach.

Tools like SEMrush and SpyFu can help you analyze their SEO performance and keyword rankings. Knowing your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses helps you identify gaps in the market and opportunities for your firm. Use the data from your analysis to inform your marketing strategy. Determine your unique position in the market and craft a message that sets you apart.

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Determining Services, Pricing, and Unique Selling Points

Clearly define the services you offer and their pricing to create a comprehensive marketing strategy. Consider whether you provide specialized legal services or have a general practice.

Understanding your service offerings helps you craft a compelling message and identify your target market.

Your unique selling points might include aspects such as experience, expertise in a specific area of law, personalized client service, or innovative approaches. These factors help differentiate your firm from others and should be communicated effectively in your marketing materials.

Implementing and Measuring Your Law Firm Marketing Strategy

Measuring your law firm’s marketing strategy can be challenging, with so many options and metrics to consider. But with the right approach, you can create a plan that delivers results and helps your law firm stand out in a crowded market. You can:

Create a timeline for execution

Track progress and adjusting the plan

Measure marketing goals and KPIs

Creating a Timeline for Execution

Once you have a solid marketing plan in place, it’s important to create a timeline for execution. This will help you stay on track and ensure that you are making progress towards your goals. Your timeline should include key milestones and deadlines for each component of your marketing plan, such as content creation, social media campaigns, and email marketing. 

For example, if you’re launching a new website, outline the steps involved, such as design conceptualization, content creation, and technical implementation. Assign each task a reasonable deadline and ensure your timeline is realistic and achievable.

Tracking Progress and Adjusting the Plan

As you execute your marketing plan, it’s important to track your progress and adjust your plan as needed. This will help you identify what’s working and what’s not and make changes to improve your results. Some key metrics to track include website traffic, leads generated, client retention rates, and revenue. It’s also important to track your marketing spend and calculate your return on investment (ROI) to ensure that you are getting a positive return on your marketing efforts. 

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Measuring Marketing Goals and KPIs

Your KPIs should be metrics directly related to your goals, such as law firm website conversion rates, email open rates, and client satisfaction scores. Analyze these metrics regularly to understand your marketing performance and make informed decisions. Use analytics tools to track your progress and evaluate the effectiveness of individual marketing initiatives.

How to Build a Marketing Plan for Your Law Firm

Building a comprehensive marketing plan for your law firm is the key to attracting and retaining clients in today’s digital age. It’s about crafting a strategy that speaks directly to your target audience, aligns with your business objectives, and delivers measurable results. In this section, we’ll discuss four key strategies for measuring your law firm marketing plan.

Plan structure and components

Setting SMART goals and objectives

Client-centric approach

Budgeting and ROI Considerations

Plan Structure and Components

Creating a marketing plan begins with structuring its framework to align with your law firm’s goals and objectives. This structure ensures your marketing efforts are cohesive and focused.

Develop a clear brand message that communicates your firm’s values and offerings. Identify your target audience based on demographic and psychographic factors. Select the marketing channels best suited to reach this audience. This may include digital channels like social media and SEO or traditional methods like networking events.

Setting SMART Goals and Objectives

SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Adhering to this framework can create actionable goals that drive your legal marketing plan and ensure your efforts are focused and effective.

Examples of SMART goals for law firms include:

Specific : Increase the law firm’s website traffic by 50% within six months through targeted SEO and content marketing strategies.

Measurable : Achieve a 10% increase in the number of qualified leads generated from the website each month.

Achievable : Develop and implement a referral program that results in at least 15 new client referrals within the next year.

Relevant : Improve social media engagement by 25% within three months by posting engaging content and promptly responding to comments and messages.

Time-bound : Through a comprehensive SEO campaign, rank on the first page of Google search results for three targeted keywords within six months.

Client-Centric Approach

Placing your clients at the heart of your marketing strategy empowers you to create meaningful connections and stand out from the competition. Understanding your clients’ needs, preferences, and challenges allows you to tailor your marketing efforts accordingly.

A client-centric approach humanizes your firm and fosters trust and rapport.

By focusing on the client experience, you can develop targeted solutions and cultivate long-term client relationships.

Budgeting and ROI Consideration

Budgeting for marketing can be a delicate balance, requiring careful consideration of your law firm’s financial capabilities and marketing objectives. Determine how much you’re willing to invest in marketing, considering the potential return on investment (ROI).

Measuring ROI helps you understand the effectiveness and profitability of your marketing initiatives. Evaluate the cost per acquisition (CPA) of your marketing campaigns to understand the expense of acquiring each client.

Return on investment can be calculated by dividing the gain from your marketing efforts by the amount of money spent on them. This metric helps you analyze the profitability of different law firm marketing strategies and adjust your budget accordingly.

Law Firm Marketing Plan Examples

Examples of marketing plans for law firms are readily available online and can be a great source of inspiration for crafting your own. We will also highlight 2 of them below. However, remember that the best marketing plan for your firm should align with your unique goals and target audience.

Executive summary: Smith & Co. Law Firm is a mid-sized law firm with a strong reputation in the community. Founded in 1990, the firm has 20 attorneys and 30 support staff and focuses on family law, personal injury, and estate planning. Despite its strong reputation, the firm has struggled to attract new clients and has seen a decline in revenue over the past few years.

Increase new client acquisition by 20% within the next 12 months.

Increase revenue by 15% within the next 18 months.

Improve the firm’s online presence and reputation.

Strategies:

Develop a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, including search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising (PPC), and social media marketing.

Create a content marketing program to educate clients and prospects about the firm’s services and expertise, including blog posts, newsletters, and email marketing campaigns.

Host a series of community events and seminars to build relationships with potential clients and establish the firm as a thought leader in its areas of practice.

Develop a referral program to incentivize current clients to refer new business to the firm.

Example 2: 

Executive summary: The Law Office of Maria Garcia, a solo practitioner specializing in immigration law, aims to increase its visibility and attract more clients in the local Hispanic community. The firm’s mission is to provide compassionate and affordable legal services to help immigrants navigate the complex immigration system and achieve their dreams of living and working in the United States.

Increase website traffic by 50% in the next 6 months.

Generate 20 new leads per month through targeted marketing efforts.

Increase client retention by 10% in the next year.

Develop a bilingual website and marketing materials to serve the local Hispanic community better.

Leverage Facebook and other social media platforms to engage with potential clients and provide valuable information about the immigration process.

Offer free consultations and workshops to educate the community about immigration law and demonstrate the firm’s value proposition.

Participate in local events and community organizations to build relationships and establish the firm as a trusted resource.

Implement a client referral program to incentivize current clients to refer new business to the firm.

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Creating and implementing a law firm’s marketing strategy and plan can get exhausting, especially for small or solo law firms that may not have the resources or expertise to do it themselves. That’s why partnering with a law firm marketing agency like Comrade Digital Marketing Agency can be a game-changer. Our expertise in digital marketing for law firms can help increase your visibility and establish your firm as a trusted legal authority.

We offer a full suite of legal marketing services, including SEO, PPC, web design, and more. We carefully work with each client to understand their unique goals and create a marketing plan tailored to their specific needs. Our team will work closely with you to implement the right strategies, track your progress, and adjust your plan as needed to ensure that you are achieving your business objectives.

Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help you achieve your business goals.

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