Every brand or business has a specific audience it is trying to reach. Rarely is any given product or service universally appealing. If you are skeptical, consider that even ice cream brands have specific audiences they are trying to reach.
And doesn’t everyone scream for ice cream?
While universal relevance seems like an envious goal to achieve, the characteristics and psychology of a certain target audience are what feed marketing strategies. Universal relevance would be too big and broad of a consumer canvas to even tackle.
Regardless of the makeup of a target audience, whether it be a B2B or B2C connection, the traits of that audience contain the most vital intelligence when it comes to strategic marketing.
When attempting to understand any given target audience, ask questions that include:
- Who are they?
- Where are they?
- How old are they?
- What is their background?
- What income bracket are they in?
With a basic demographic understanding, it’s important to dive even deeper, to understand their pain points, what their family or business structure looks like, where they spend their time or focus their attention, and how they spend their money or allocate their budgets.
Some of that can be culled from internal data analysis, some of it can be assembled from market research and the rest can be gathered from qualitative and quantitative research conducted by a business. All of that collective data offers a wealth of information which can then inform marketing initiatives.
For example, think of a business selling eco-friendly baby products. A surface-level understanding of their target audience might identify parents in their 20s to 40s with a middle to high-income level. However, to truly resonate with this audience, the business would need to go deeper:
- Pain Points: Understand that parents might be concerned about the health implications of conventional products and the environmental impact of their choices.
- Family Structure: Recognize that many might be first-time parents, juggling work and family life.
- Spending Habits: Identify that while they may be willing to spend more on high-quality products, they value cost-effectiveness and multi-purpose items.
- Attention Focus: Acknowledge that they likely spend significant time on social media platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest, looking for parenting tips and product recommendations.
Armed with this information, the business can tailor its message to address these specific concerns and preferences, perhaps by highlighting the safety of its products, showcasing multi-use items, and sharing testimonials from other first-time parents.
Marketing is not one-dimensional. With numerous marketing channels to choose from, it can be overwhelming to decide which is best for your business and your financial goals. That’s where TruNorth comes in.
At TruNorth, we are built to find the answers for you. Our team is primed with optimized data analysis and reporting structure, and we have proven to our clients that our information is fully transparent and made available. We will help you understand where you have been and where you will go.
When it comes to initiating those campaigns, businesses and brands need to also have an understanding of their audience’s unique challenges. Beyond understanding them, they need to convey that they understand, why they understand it, and how a partnership could help that audience move past whatever challenge is impeding success.
For instance, a SaaS company targeting small businesses should not only understand the common operational challenges these businesses face but also demonstrate how their software can streamline processes, reduce costs, and support business growth. By sharing case studies and user stories that reflect these improvements, the company can build trust and credibility with its audience.
That messaging, whether it’s based on industry or lived experience, needs to lead with empathy and authenticity while leaning into insights pulled from a psychographic analysis of the target audience. Sometimes, a target audience will fragment into various personas, based on the goals and experiences of each subgroup, giving even more value to the effort it takes to truly understand an audience.
Data analytics helps with this effort, as it reveals how a target audience responds to certain pieces of content and messaging. Social listening, a tool used to measure the sentiment of a certain audience regarding topics and brands, gives brands and organizations a proverbial ear to the ground to better understand the chatter surrounding their products.
At TruNorth, we view your business as if it were our own. Your customers are our customers, and we make sure they are at the center of all our marketing initiatives. We aim to understand their inner dialogue, propelling your brand forward by keeping your business one step ahead of your competition.
All of that information and more, when pulled together and analyzed properly, can help guide strategic marketing efforts from start to finish or even midstream — one of the most valuable aspects of digital marketing.
Truly understanding your audience, by putting in the effort on the front end, will ultimately reap rewards on the other side from relationship building to a shorter sales cycle to revenue growth.
Understanding your target makes all the difference when you set out to increase your ROI and build up your brand. Do you understand your target audience? If not, reach out to our team. Let’s figure this out together.
TruNorth Advisors, with locations in Arizona and New York, is a results-driven advisory firm that serves clients from coast to coast at every stage of their journey — from start-ups to established brands. TruNorth believes the traditional agency model is broken and sees education, transparency, and accountability as the solution. Learn more about TruNorth, the work we are doing, and the growth-minded partnerships we have developed, here.