Finding your target audience is very important. After all, you cannot target everybody and just hope for the best. Even smaller businesses can compete with big companies if they find the right target audience.

A lot of businesses claim that they target anybody who might be interested in what they are selling, while others narrow it down a bit by targeting 'mothers' or 'homeowners'. Even the latter target audiences are too general, though.

What you need to know first and foremost is that finding a specific audience doesn't mean you will be excluding all of the other people out there. It simply means that you will focus most of your budget on a specific audience that is more likely to spend money on your products or services. This is a very affordable, effective, and efficient way to reach more potential clients and make more money in the long run.

Finding your target audience can also help you focus on creating good content that is right for your business. With a defined target audience, you will also have an easier time figuring out where and how you should market yourself to the world.

Here are some professional secrets to finding your target audience.

Study your current customers

Who are the people who are spending money on your products or services? Why do they spend money on them? If you do not know who these people are, ask your sales team or company executives for help. Once you have the information, look for the common interests and traits of these people. After that, you might want to split up the kinds of customers that you have based on their overall budget, needs, or location, as well.

Study your competition

You probably already know who your biggest competitors are. However, doing a quick search on social media and on Google can reveal other smaller competitors you might not be familiar with yet. Try searching for specific keywords related to your particular industry and in your location to see which companies show up. Then, check out their 'About Us' pages to get an idea of who they are.

After that, find out who your competition is targeting. Who are their customers? You might get tempted to go after the same market as them, but you should consider looking for a niche market they might be overlooking themselves instead.

Study your products or services

Write down all of the features of your current products or services, as well as their benefits. Try to figure out what kind of features you offer that nobody else does. Also, think about what you could be doing to improve and be better than the rest. Once your list is ready, create a list of who might need those particular benefits.

Other things to think about are which problems your products or services can solve. If your business has been around for a while now, you should already know why your particular products or services exist in the first place. The content that you create should always have some relation to that. Try resisting the urge to create funny memes that aren't connected to your overall mission. Those things shouldn't be part of your marketing strategy.

Figure out which specific demographics you should target

Aside from figuring out who needs your products or services, you also need to figure out who will be willing to pay for them. Some factors to consider include a person's age, gender, location, education level, income, marital status, nationality, and occupation.

Figure out which specific psychographics you should target

Psychographics refers to the personal traits of a person. Some factors to consider here include a person's overall personality, as well as their values, attitudes, hobbies, interests, behaviour, and lifestyle.

Try to think about how your products or services might suit your target audience's lifestyle. When and how would they use your product or service? Which features would appeal to your target audience the most? Which platforms would your target audience turn to when looking for extra information? Do they use the Internet more or do they get their information from printed materials or events?

Double-check your final decision

Once you have a specific target audience in mind, ask yourself the following questions:

Will your target audience benefit from your products or services?
Will your target audience see a real need for your products or services? Are there a lot of people who fit your chosen criteria?
Do you know what makes your target audience make a decision?
Can you reach your target audience with your message?
Is it easy to access your target audience?
Can they afford what you have to offer?

Although it is important to break down your target audience, though, you shouldn't break it down too much. It is possible to have several niche markets, after all; you just need to make sure that you create marketing messages that suit each niche. If you can reach several niches with a single message, you might have broken your market down too much. Conversely, if there aren't enough people that fit your chosen criteria, you might want to re-think your chosen target audience. The secret lies in finding the perfect balance.

If you need help with this, try searching for research on your chosen target audience online. Look for blogs and articles on your chosen target audience. Read forums and blogs where your chosen target audience voice out their opinions. Conduct surveys or look for surveys that have already been done in the past. Also, ask your current clients for any feedback they might have.

Once you have defined your target audience, though, it will be easier for you to decide which media to use to get your marketing messages across to them. Instead of sending your message to everybody out there, you can choose people who fit your selected criteria instead and save money in the process while enjoying a better return on investment.

How AM Collective can help your business in digital marketing?

AM Collective is a branding and digital marketing agency born and based in Singapore. We are also a social media agency which also owns a group of digital properties.

Our clients include Huawei, NTUC Enterprise, Grab, Starhub, Junction 8, Capitol Singapore and CHIJMES, among others.

We make every marketing idea into reality for every business.

The article was written by Soon Koon.

How To Find Your Target Audience?