Identifying Your Target Audience: A Step-by-Step Comprehensive Guide
Introduction
Knowing your target audience is like having a secret weapon in your marketing arsenal. It helps you tailor your messaging, choose the right platforms, and create content that resonates. In this guide, i’ll take you on a journey to discover who your ideal customers are and how to connect with them effectively.
Step 1: Define Your Ideal Customer
Imagine your perfect customer. What do they look like? What are their interests? What keeps them up at night?
Demographics: Consider factors like age, gender, location, income, and education level. Are you targeting young professionals in urban areas, or families in suburban neighborhoods?
Psychographics: Understand their interests, values, lifestyle, and behaviors. What do they care about? What motivates them?
Needs and Pain Points: Identify the problems they face and the solutions they're seeking. What challenges are they trying to overcome?
You can map this out however suits your way of working best. Some of my clients like to map things out over a call and I can mock the maps up in software like Miro or alternatives. In my experience I have used Hubspot’s tool ‘Make My Persona’. It’s actually really good as it guides you through a step-by-step process to create a detailed bunch of persona’s by asking you different questions to help define your target customers. It then offers you a final persona/s that allows you to have a clear understanding of who your audience is. Make My Persona by Hubspot is a free tool too to help you on your way!
Step 2: Conduct Market Research
Don't just guess who your target audience is. Go out and get the data.
Surveys: Create surveys to gather direct feedback from your target audience. Ask them questions about their preferences, habits, and purchasing behavior.
Social Media Analytics: Analyse your existing social media followers and engagement to understand their demographics and interests. Who's already interacting with your content?
I can hear a few people saying ‘But how am I supposed to do this when its a new business and I don’t have any form of social media, let alone established channels?’. Cool, I’ve got you. There are other ways to do this that’s detailed below.
Customer Data: Review your customer database to identify patterns and trends. What do your current customers have in common?
Step 2a: Conducting Market Research When You Don’t Have Established Channels
Start with Local Research
Look into your local community. Attend local business events, community fairs, or farmers markets to engage directly with potential customers. For example, a small bakery in Glasgow might get valuable feedback by sampling products at a local market and chatting with attendees about their preferences. You might be trialling flavours to have as your standard offering for a cafe you might look to open and all this can help you refine what you offer, support your bottom line costs and absolutely boost your sales and fan base.
Use Digital Tools
Google Trends is a powerful, free tool to help you understand what people are searching for in your region. For instance, if you're launching a vegan skincare brand in Edinburgh, you can track searches for "vegan skincare Scotland" and adapt your product offerings accordingly.
One platform I love and so do so many businesses as its one of the biggies out there is Brandwatch. Brandwatch is a comprehensive consumer intelligence and social media management platform that offers both free and paid solutions.
Free Options: Brandwatch doesn't provide an entirely free plan but offers demos and free trials for its paid features. You can request a demo to explore the platform's capabilities before committing to a subscription. Additionally, they have a free learning platform through the Brandwatch Academy, where users can upskill with certifications.
Paid Solutions: Brandwatch’s main offerings are split into a few core areas:
Consumer Intelligence: This helps brands gain insights from online conversations, using AI to understand trends, consumer behavior, and sentiment. It's ideal for market researchers and data analysts.
Social Media Management: This all-in-one solution lets businesses manage multiple social media accounts, schedule posts, engage with followers, and track brand performance across competitors.
Influencer Marketing: The platform includes a vast influencer database and campaign management tools, allowing businesses to streamline influencer discovery and reporting.
Their paid plans are customizable and typically cater to different business sizes, from small startups to large enterprises. Some high-value features include AI-powered analytics, unlimited social listening, and access to extensive influencer databases. Dashboards and custom reports are also significant differentiators from competitors
Added Value Over Competitors: Brandwatch differentiates itself with its AI-driven consumer insights (Iris AI), which analyze large-scale online data more deeply than many other platforms. It also stands out for partnerships with major social platforms, giving it a broader reach in social listening compared to others like Hootsuite. Their tools are known for being scalable and customizable for agencies and larger enterprises, making them more robust for complex operations.
If you're looking for data-driven decisions or comprehensive social media management, Brandwatch might offer more depth than lighter alternatives. However, it's crucial to evaluate your specific needs to determine if the added AI and integration benefits justify the cost.
Visit Competitor Websites
Review your competitors’ websites and see how they communicate with their audience. Check customer reviews and comments on their blogs or product pages. For example, if you’re starting a Scottish craft brewery, see what customers are saying about similar breweries and use that feedback to fine-tune your offerings.
Use Forums & Online Communities
Without your own channels, find communities where your audience hangs out. For Scottish businesses, this could be niche Facebook groups (like Scottish Small Business Network) or Reddit threads discussing local services. Join in, observe what topics spark interest, and note common pain points. Keep a spreadsheet or Google Sheet handy to add to when you observe anything notable.
Conduct In-Person Surveys
For brick-and-mortar businesses, conduct brief surveys or interviews in-store. A Highlands-based gift shop, for example, could ask customers why they’re drawn to certain products, gathering valuable insights to shape future stock or marketing efforts. An easy win and it can also really boost your customer service ratings, brand reputation whilst allowing you to gather some insights!
Leverage Public Data
Use free public data resources like ONS (Office for National Statistics) and Scottish Government Reports for consumer insights. For instance, if you run a new gym in Inverness, regional fitness trends and data on health-conscious demographics can guide your marketing strategy.
Create a Test Landing Page
Even without social media, you can create a simple landing page using tools like Unbounce or Squarespace to test different messaging or product ideas. Drive traffic through affordable Google Ads or Scottish business directories like Scotland's Business Directory. A new café in Stirling, for example, could promote a special offer and track which promotions or messages attract more clicks.
Run Focus Groups
Invite potential customers to informal focus groups or workshops. A small craft shop in Dundee could invite a few locals to sample products and offer feedback. Ask questions about their preferences, buying habits, and what would encourage them to purchase from you.
By following these steps, even without an existing email list or social media presence, you can gather valuable insights that will help you understand and reach your ideal customers. Market research is all about being resourceful, so use the tools and opportunities available, starting with your local community! Local community could also be social media groups too. There might be a local forum type group that you could ask people’s opinions on in a casual way to help you with your research. These private groups have proved pretty invaluable throughout my career and especially when I started my own business.
Step 3: Create Buyer Personas
Now, let's bring your ideal customer to life. Create detailed profiles, or "buyer personas," that represent different segments of your target audience. This you can have fun with and in my experience putting a face to your persona really helps you to resonate with them, their goals, needs, paint points and reasons why they would shop with you, stay at your hotel or take you up on your service (whatever that may be).
Give them names and personalities: Make them feel real!
Outline their goals and challenges: What are they trying to achieve? What obstacles do they face?
Understand their motivations: What drives their decisions? What influences their purchasing behavior?
Here is a quick example:
Buyer Persona: The Sushi-Loving Local
Name: Alex
Age: 25-35
Location: Gorebridge, Scotland
Occupation: Office worker
Interests: Food, cooking, Japanese culture, healthy eating
Goals:
Find high-quality, affordable sushi delivered to their door.
Support local businesses.
Enjoy a convenient and enjoyable meal.
Challenges:
Limited time to cook or go out.
Concern about food quality and freshness.
Difficulty finding authentic sushi options in the area.
Motivations:
Convenience of delivery
Taste and quality of sushi
Value for money
Supporting local businesses
Behavior:
Regularly orders takeout or delivery.
Uses food delivery apps like Deliveroo or Just Eat.
Follows local food businesses on social media.
Reads online reviews and ratings.
Pain Points:
High prices of sushi at chain restaurants.
Lack of variety in local sushi options.
Concerns about food safety and hygiene.
Opportunities:
Offer a unique and authentic sushi experience.
Highlight the freshness and quality of ingredients.
Provide competitive pricing and promotions.
Build a strong online presence and positive reviews.
By understanding this buyer persona, your local sushi business can tailor its marketing efforts to attract and retain customers like Alex.
Step 4: Analyse Your Competitors
Identifying competitors and analysing their target audiences can be a game-changer for your business. It helps you understand who you're up against, and gives you insight into how they are positioning themselves to attract customers. Here's how to get started:
1. Identify Your Competitors
Google Search: Start by searching for businesses offering similar products or services. Use broad and specific search terms (e.g., “Scottish craft candles” or “organic skincare Dundee”). Check the top results for your potential competitors.
Local Listings & Directories: For small businesses in Scotland, explore local directories such as Yell or Google My Business to find competitors operating in your area.
Social Media: Look up industry hashtags or follow groups on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. For example, if you're a small bakery in Edinburgh, search for other bakeries using hashtags like #EdinburghBakery to see who else is in your niche.
2. Analyse Their Target Audience
Website & Content: Visit their website and blog to see the type of content they’re producing. Who are they speaking to? For example, a high-end Scottish distillery might focus on affluent whisky enthusiasts, whereas an eco-friendly business might target eco-conscious customers. Look at the language, imagery, and even testimonials they use.
Social Media Engagement: Social media is a goldmine for audience insights. Look at who’s commenting, liking, and sharing their posts. For instance, are most of their followers young professionals, parents, or outdoor enthusiasts? If a local Scottish gym’s Instagram features a lot of posts about family fitness, it’s likely that their target is health-conscious parents.
Reviews & Testimonials: On platforms like Trustpilot, Google Reviews, or even Facebook, check what customers are saying. Reviews often give away customer demographics and pain points. For example, if several customers of a Scottish tour company rave about “family-friendly experiences,” you can infer that families are a core audience.
3. Use Tools for Competitor Research
SEMrush or Ahrefs: These tools let you track your competitors' website traffic, top-performing keywords, and backlinks. This data provides insight into which audience segments they're attracting with specific content.
Social Listening Tools: Use tools like Brandwatch or Hootsuite to monitor competitor conversations on social media. What topics are they discussing, and what is their audience’s response? If a Scottish knitwear brand posts frequently about sustainable wool, you’ll know that sustainability is a priority for their customers.
4. Perform SWOT Analysis
Once you’ve gathered enough data, perform a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) on each competitor. This helps you spot gaps in the market. For example, if a rival Scottish café is thriving with vegan options, you might introduce gluten-free choices to stand out.
5. Go Undercover (A Little)
Secret Shopping: Purchase from your competitor and experience their customer service, delivery speed, and product quality first-hand. If you're a new craft shop in Glasgow, for instance, order from another craft shop to compare your offerings with theirs.
Survey Their Customers: If possible, reach out to their customers with an anonymous survey (through forums or local community groups). Ask what they love and what they’d like to see improved.
By identifying your competitors and delving into their target audiences, you'll get a clearer picture of how to position your brand, improve your products or services, and attract the right customers. Plus, you'll feel more confident in the strategies you're creating—just what you need to stand out in the crowd!
Look for gaps: Identify areas where you can differentiate yourself and cater to a specific niche. This doesn’t necessarily need to be too complicated either. Think about how many beef mince varieties there are in the supermarket. What sets Scotch Beef above others and is that too dissimilar to other products on offer? If not, how do they gain competitive advantage - therein lies your sweet spot.
Step 5: Utilise Online Tools
There are a ton of tools out there to help you understand your audience. But, in my experience it is a minefield for clients to know which of them all is their golden ticket and one stop shop without paying for expensive marketing platforms and their dashboards. It is possible to gather all the data you would need if you have established platforms, and it would take a bit of work to pull it together, swirl it around and produce a meaningful report for you to take actions from. This is certainly something I can help you with as that’s a marketeers job - data, human behaviour, and how the two meet to produce results or actions. Some quick examples are:
Google Analytics: Track website traffic and user behavior to understand your audience.
Social Media Analytics: Analyse your social media followers and engagement to identify demographics and interests. Meta offers some pretty decent insights and if you use other social media scheduling platforms you can combine the data (I write that with a major disclaimer around accuracy with different accesses and API’s etc).
Keyword Research Tools: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to discover the search terms your target audience is using.
Step 6: Test and Refine
Your target audience might change over time, so it's important to revisit your personas and make adjustments as needed.
Remember: Knowing your target audience is like having a secret weapon. It helps you tailor your marketing messages, choose the right channels, and create content that resonates. So, get out there and start discovering who your ideal customers are!
I’m here to help and support
Ready to take your marketing to the next level and truly connect with your ideal customers? Let’s make it happen! Whether you're starting from scratch or fine-tuning your audience insights, The Cheery Marketeery is here to help. I can guide you through every step of the process, from defining your target audience to developing strategies that work for your business.
Don’t hesitate—reach out today, and let's start crafting a marketing strategy that drives real results.
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