In the age of digital marketing, it is more important than ever to know your target audience before you even start any type of marketing efforts. You may think it’s as simple as including a broad term such as “millennials” but this will virtually get you nowhere in the online world. You may be afraid of excluding people by content marketing to an audience with specific criteria. In fact, this could hinder your efforts.

Marketing to your target audience helps you determine how to allocate your budget, as well as your specific brand message. This makes it more likely to find the customers who need products or services from you as opposed to other online businesses. Regardless of whether you are an SEO writer, marketing manager, or business owner, identifying your target audience is essential to ensuring the success of your online endeavor. Read below to discover surefire ways to hit your target market!

Get Ready with Research

Before you identify your target audience, you need to invest some time in your own research. Start by studying the market, industry, and potential clients that need your products or services. This should be easily identified from consulting your business plan and your competitors. In addition, most of the information you need to gather is probably pre-compiled. On a positive note, most of the content you find should not cost you anything. Keep in mind that the information you find may not be entirely useful for your particular business. However, researching necessary information ahead of time is essential to help you determine the next step in digital marketing. Aside from using search strings to find the necessary information, you may need to consider conducting interviews, surveys, and even establishing focus groups. This may be an added expense, but you will get more in-depth answers to the questions you need to run your business.

Get Set with a Business Plan

Your business plan must include set goals and missions in order to have an effective content marketing campaign. Analyze the goals you set as well as the kind of products or services you offer. Determine how these products or services solve issues for your potential clients. You also need to know the key differences that make you stand out among your closest competitors. Determining the answer to these questions will give you knowledge about what can attract potential customers. You can also figure out ways to target those who may find great benefits from your product. You need to understand your selling points and process the information you have gathered.

Aim with Demographics/Psychographics

Think about how your product or service will fit your typical client’s lifestyle. Determine when they will use the product as well as features your audience find most appealing. It is also important to know what media outlets your audience turns to for information. This includes newspapers, the Internet, or particular events they may attend. Knowing this will help you focus your efforts on content and search engine marketing. Demographics to consider include:

• Age
• Gender
• Geographic location
• Ethnic background
• Income
• Education level
• Marital or family status
• Occupation

You may be unfamiliar with the term psychographic data, but it has actually been around for a while. In fact, psychographic data is actually more helpful than demographic data. This information may include your buyers’ habits, hobbies, spending patterns and values. Being able to understand and utilize both demographics and psychographics is the only way you can truly identify your target audience. This combination provides you with a detailed snapshot of both the clients you have currently, as well as the ones you would like to target for the future.

Zero-In With Your Client Profile

Determining your target audience is not enough to establish a successful marketing campaign. You also need to find out more about your potential customers within the target audience. For example, find out what networks they frequent most, the social networks they use most frequently and the websites they visit most. You may even want to find out what kind of apps they use most. If you combine their demographics/psychographics along with their online behavior and use of technology, you will be able to establish your client profile. This includes a brief statement and a detailed description of your potential clients.

Fire! Success for the Future

Defining your target audience is where your content marketing process begins, not ends. Continued success equates to continued research. This is because it is imperative for you to stay on top of the latest industry trends as well as your competition in the industry. It is also important to know if and how your customers are evolving. Before you have your content writer or SEO writer launch marketing to your potential clients, you need to have the ability to track sales, request information and direct involvement among others. These important factors need to be recorded for ongoing research. This will help you identify patterns, trends, and areas of improvement.

If you need help to nail your target audience, contact us. Armed with that information, we can devise a plan to zero-in on digital marketing designed to grow your business.