In The Past, I was selling sports shoes online. I was getting some traffic and engagement on my social media posts. But, The problem was ‘ The Sales ‘. I wasn’t generating that many sales on my website. I mean, Yes. I was getting some traffic. But, my conversion rate was very Low.
I was always wondering ‘ Why ? ‘, Why do so many people visit my store without buying anything?
In the beginning, I thought it was a technical problem. But, It wasn’t. I was so frustrated. Until I asked for advice from one of my colleagues.
His first question Was ‘ Who are you selling to? ‘ I answered: ‘ People ‘. He laughed. I thought he was mocking me. But, He wasn’t.
He said this is your problem ‘ You don’t know who is your target audience, You don’t know anything about them. You’re targeting the wrong people. You’re promoting your products on the wrong channels ‘.
Then, He started explaining to me the concept of ‘ Target Audience ‘. it was an eye-opener for me.
And from that day until this moment, My sales turned 360°. I defined my target audience. I started promoting my products on the right channels and my sales started to grow like never before.
This is the power of knowing your ‘ Target Audience ‘. In this guide, I’ll show exactly how to identify your target audience and stop wasting years and tons of money on the wrong consumers.
1- What Is A Target Audience?
A target audience is a specific group of consumers who are most likely to be interested in your products or services. They are mostly united by some common characteristics like Behaviors, Demographics, Psychographics, and Geographics .
For example, A Business selling athletic shoes may have a target audience that includes Professional Marathon Runners, Football Players, or fitness fanatics.
Here’s another example, A Business selling books ( Bookstores ) may have a target audience that includes people who like to touch and feel the books before they buy them or people who search for rare books … Etc.
Now, Let’s take a real target audience example from one of the biggest and most popular brands in the world: ‘ Apple ‘.
What Is The main Target Audience Of Apple?
Apple has a huge target audience that mostly comes from users in the US – Location – ( 40% of Apple’s total net sales are from the US ), The brand is more popular among females than males – Gender – ( 66% female to 34% male customers ), middle to high economic status – Economic Status – , the main competitors of apple are Samsung, Huawei, and Sony.
In general, the more specific you can be while defining your target audience, the better. Because identifying the target audience properly means delivering your ad campaigns to the right customers. Which can save you from wasting tons of money and time.
2- How To Identify Target Audiences?
There are mainly 8 Questions that you should ask yourself to find the exact target audience you’re looking for.
These questions are :
1- Age Range ( How Old Is Your Target Audience ):
2- Gender ( Are They Male Or Female ? ) :
3- Location ( Where Most Of Them Live ? ) :
4- Interests ( Are They Interested In Fashion, Business … Or What Exactly? ) :
5- Relationship Status ( Are They Married, Single, Or Divorced ? ) :
6- What Do They Need From Your Product / Service? ( Do They Need The Quality, The Comfort, Special Features, Or What Exactly? ) :
7- Where Do They Spend Their Time Online? ( Facebook, Tiktok, Youtube … Which Channels Do They Use ? + Which Influencers Do They Follow? ) :
8- Where Do They Look For Information ?( Online Forums, Blogs, Facebook Groups, Reddit … Where Exactly ?)
Answering These Question Will Help You Identify Your Target Audience Quickly And Effectively. But, The Question here Is: Where To Find The Answers Of These Questions?
1- Use The Available Analytics :
If you already have a website that is running for quite some time. You can go to your Website’s Google Analytics Dashboard and analyze the data coming from it, like the gender of the visitors, Their age, Their Location … Etc.
And If you have a page on social media platforms like Tiktok, Pinterest, Instagram… You can open the insights dashboard of your page and find the answers.
2- SimilarWeb:
This method is based on a spy tool that is called ‘ Similarweb ‘. This tool allows you to analyze your competitor’s websites and know detailed information about their traffic such as: Where most of their visitors come from ( Location ), Their Traffic Sources, and Gender … Etc.
Isn’t It Just Mind Blowing, Right? This tool is my favorite when it comes to identifying the target audience.
You can actually answer all of your target audience questions just from your competitors insights within minutes.
3- Social Media Advertisements :
The third method is to use ‘ social media advertisements ‘. I highly recommend this method for anyone who wants to get quick and accurate data about His / Her audience in a short period.
By promoting and sponsoring your Products and services on social media platforms like Tiktok, Instagram … Etc, You make sure that your Business appears to the right audience. At the same time, you build your database much more quickly, a thing that can help you fill out your target audience formula much faster.
Sometimes creating content consistently on social media is just not enough to get your business in front of the right eye. Because, it requires time, energy, and a lot of effort.
And to avoid all of these obstacles, you can simply use paid ads to show your business to the right people. So, you increase your traffic and then analyze it to identify your perfect customer.
3- What’s The Difference Between Target Audience And Buyer Personas?
A buyer persona is a fictional character profile defined within the same target audience.
The only difference between a buyer persona and a target audience is specificity. Buyer personas dive deeper into the target audience’s personalities, Lifestyles, Careers, and Interests. While a target audience looks at the group of consumers as a whole.
You can think of the target audience as a team and a buyer persona as one of the players.
As a small business owner myself, I always create buyer personas of my customers, and with each one, I describe in detail what drives them to buy my products and services ( For Example Their Age, Gender, Goals, Interests … Etc. )
Here’s An Example Of A buyer Persona:
To Learn More About Buyer Personas: Read More
4- What Is A Target Market?
A target market refers to a specific group of people that a brand wants to sell to.
5- What Is The Difference Between Target Audience And Target Market?
A target market is a wide group of consumers that a company or a Brand wants to reach, whereas a target audience is only a subset of that target market.
You can imagine the target market as a pool of potential clients and the target audience as the actual shoppers.
To conclude, The Target Market Is ‘ General And Broad ‘ Whereas The Target Audience Is ‘ Specific And Niche Down ‘.
Still, Confused? Let’s take an example.
Assume That Your Target Market Is ‘ Digital Marketers Living In Manchester ‘. In this case, Your Target Audience Might be ‘ Seo Specialists Living In Manchester And Above 35 Years Old ‘. I Hope It’s Clear Now.
Conclusion:
Knowing your target audience is the very first step in any marketing strategy. Without it, you’re just gonna waste your money on audiences who are not interested in your products and services.
After identifying the target audience, you need to appear where your consumers are looking for the products you sell and then convince them to take action.
If you want lo learn how to drive more traffic to your website organically, Check Out Our Free Seo Guide For Beginners.
