Customer Avatars — How to Find Your Target Market
- Written by Adam Jacobs
Have you heard the term "target market" before, but you're not sure how it can apply to your brand? No matter what industry you're in, having a good grasp of your market is beneficial in a number of ways.
Discovering your target market is important because you'll be able to create more effective marketing materials. Even better, you'll see a boost in conversions because the right content is going to the right people.
Read on to learn everything you need to know about how to find your target market.
But first...
What is a Target Market?
In a nutshell, these are the people who are going to be the most interested in your goods or services.
The reason we need to define this audience is because it's just not realistic to believe that everyone is interested in the services you have to offer. You'll be able to use your marketing dollars more effectively by focusing on the audience that already has a problem you're uniquely situated to solve.
How to Find Your Target Market
Now that you know what a target market is, there are easy tools and techniques you can use to find it. Remember that your current customer base is most likely already a good representation of your market.
Study the Data
The easiest way to begin identifying your target market is to study the data on your website and social media profiles. For instance, on Facebook navigate to your Page and find the Insights tab. After clicking on People, you'll find that your audience is broken down into graphs of age ranges, genders, and more.
You can do the same on:
- Google Analytics
- Twitter Dashboard
- Instagram Insights
- And more
As you collect the data, you'll begin to get a better idea of who the majority of your customers are. You can see how marketing to men in their 50's would be ineffective if the majority of your customers are women in their 30's.
Study Your Products and Services
Next, it's important to take a look at your own products and services. Instead of only focusing on their features, try to see them from your audience's eyes. What are the benefits that help them solve your market's problem or achieve a specific goal?
As you write down a list of each product or service as well as their ability to solve problems, consider who would benefit the most. Do you find that customer you're visualising doesn't match the data you've discovered on your website and social media channels? This may be an indication that it's time to change the type of content you're creating.
Study the Competition
Studying your competition is just as important as studying your own data and content. Take a look at their content and see if you can determine who they're targeting. As people engage with their social media posts through comments or likes, see if they share any common demographics.
You can also collect data such as:
- What other social media channels are they interacting with?
- What other interests do they post about?
- How do they describe the brand's services or products?
- What do they do for a living?
If customers seem unsatisfied with the products or services, this may be your opportunity to target the same audience. However, if the company is largely successful, this may be an indication that you need to target a niche market or a different segment.
Create a Customer Persona
Once you have a more familiar grasp of your target audience, you'll want to create an avatar or persona of your customer base. Not only will this further your understanding of your audience, but a persona also makes content creation easier. Here are a few criteria to start with:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Income
- Education level
- Marital status
- Occupation
- Ethnicity
- Hobbies
- Values
Remember that the more specific you're able to be, the better. You are also free to edit your customer persona as you gather more information over time.
For my own work with my talent agency, this was extremely beneficial as we don’t actually target the children that we represent but their parents and guardians who are often from very diverse backgrounds. Creating customer personas allowed me to create content across our media channels that would be appealing to each of the personas in turn.
Start Conversations
Last but not least, it's important to connect with your audience on a personal level in order to gain a better understanding of your target audience. Distribute surveys via your email list with specific, easy to fill out questions. You can also incentivise survey responses by offering discounts or freebies.
Instead of long surveys, keep them short and sweet with specific questions. Send out the surveys on a consistent basis so that you'll always have an idea of what your customers are thinking and how they're feeling.
It's also important to go out there and talk with your customers directly. This can be done at trade shows and events. Ask them in a candid manner what you can do to improve their experience.
Marketing the Smart Way
Taking the time to determine your target market will benefit you in a number of ways. You'll have an easier time creating content ideas based on your audience's likes and dislikes. Even better, the content you create is far more likely to be engaged and shared with a group of people who understand the benefits of your brand.
Lastly, defining your target market may also help you improve your current products or services. You'll have a better understanding of the issues your customers face and how you're uniquely positioned to resolve those issues.
Adam Jacobs is the incredibly busy Managing Director of Bubblegum Casting, and Hunter Talent. He works with some of Australia’s biggest brands, media properties and agencies to secure talented children to work in Television, Film and Modelling roles. They’ve recently launched an office in LA too.
