A Guide On How To Figure Out Your Target Audience
You've heard of them before, but do you actually have a target? Here's the no-nonsense guide you've been waiting for that'll help you stop throwing punches in the dark.
You open your eyes gradually as you wake up from what should have been a short nap. It takes a second, but as you feel a sway accompanied by the sounds of water hitting wood, you remember that you’re the captain of Vision, your ship. You’re welcomed on deck with the distraught faces of your divided and disheartened crew. Supplies are low, morale lower, and a once-promising journey now feels aimless. Dreaming of wealth and adventure, you had set sail. Nine islands and 139 days later, without a plan or direction, the journey has become a futile odyssey.
This is the story of most businesses. Well, businesses without a target audience who have no clear understanding of who they're serving. They drift aimlessly, chasing this person today, and whoever falls in their lap the next day. This must not be you.
Everything about building the brand of your dreams leads to the person you’re solving problems for: your target. If you don’t have a clear picture of who that person is, you’ll have serious problems on how to position your product, the right price to sell, choosing a strategy, the best platforms to build a community, the type of brand identity that will resonate with them, and a plethora of problems that will keep popping up as you grow. Today, let’s eliminate that by answering these four questions that’ll ensure you hit the goal with your brand:
What do you want?
What do they want?
Who’s ‘they’, really?
How do I keep ‘they’ fulfilled?
Let’s go!
1. What do you want?
I lied. Everything is about you. Nah, that’s still a lie. Everything starts with you. Yeah, that’s more like it. You see, you’re the visionary, the one that will direct this ship called your brand, and we need to know if this is a type of journey that you’d really like to embark on.
While you can start and successfully manage any type of business, I believe that the best brands are built by founders who have an emotional connection to the gap that is being filled. It could be that you’ve identified a need in your personal life and have chosen to build a solution that solves it. You might also have experience working in an industry probably as an employee, and have identified things that can be made better. It could also just be something that gets you really excited, something you’re always talking about when you meet people, something your friends will call you for from the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire hot seat.
Whatever the reason, having a connection to the problem gives you a competitive advantage as it gives you the drive to do more than someone who’s just doing this for ‘business’ or because it’s the latest cool thing. This will be very important on days with stormy clouds. Bonus point: Having this connection gives you a cool founder’s story.
2. What do they want?
Now, if you just set out to solve the problem for yourself alone, that’s a hobby or a side quest. To build a business, you need to figure out if other people have this need as well. How do you do this? Time to put on your Sherlock Holmes hat (big up if you have the pipe as well).
Start by asking friends and family. You’re also probably in at least one community. Ask people there. Next, do an online search. Use Google, Reddit, Quora, Twitter, or any similar platform to see if people have expressed a similar need. Your goal here is not to draw up a business plan but to get a feel for what the need is and see if your solution is actually needed.
If you've already started your business, it’s not too late for this. In fact, you have an edge as you have access to data on what people want or don't want. What questions do people ask when they’re about to make a purchase? What feedback do people leave after using your product? Remember, the goal is to know what they want, not what we think they want. Which brings us to the next question.
3. Who’s ‘they’, really?
So, let's say there’s this person you really like, and after some time spent with them, you’ve decided that you want them in your life as a partner. To do this, you must show the person that you care about them. You remember their birthday, how they like their coffee or tea, and the name of that colleague that’s always stressing them. You become invested in them.
We do literally the same thing for the person that we’re trying to solve that need for. You and this person don’t live in a vacuum. They’re different ships that are trying to dock in their minds and pockets. They also have more than 6,000 thoughts per day, and it’s your job to ensure they think of you when they’re trying to fill that need you have a solution for. So, we draw up what the marketing people call a target persona, a fictitious person that we can pin attributes to that helps us know more about people like them. Here’s a framework I use with my clients.
Start with a basic profile. Give them a name, an age range, a gender, an occupation, and similar relevant information.
Build on this by fleshing out their common interests. What do they spend their time doing? Where do they spend that time? What do they spend money on? Who do they follow on social media? Know everything about them that builds on the basic prfoile. The more, the better.
Figure out their driving force. What spurs them to do what they do? What are their desires? What are their values? What other needs do they have? If you built on their profile in the previous step, in this step, you’re going a layer down to see what makes them tick.
A word of caution. Don’t become too rigid or spend an unhealthy amount of time on this. The persona is an ever-evolving system. As you do business, you’ll notice there are things to be added and removed from your persona. It’s a living tree that’s to be nurtured forever.
4. How do I keep ‘they’ fulfilled?
At this point, you should know a lot about your target. This will be one of your most important navigation tools as you embark on this journey of building a timeless, valuable brand. Your crew, which includes your employees and everyone that will be working with you, should also have access to this information to empower better decision-making.
To keep your target fulfilled, you always want to ask before making decisions: How does this help them? You are truly concerned with how to make their lives better, finding ways to do this beyond your product. When it comes to the product, you want to think about ways to bundle so much value that aligns with them that you’re the obvious choice when they’re shopping around.
You are also empowered to know the right platforms to invest your time in, how to build a community they’ll love to join, how to create the best campaigns that’ll resonate with them, and so much more.
Another word of caution. It’s very tempting to choose more than one target audience. If you’re just starting or have not fully maximised your current market, focus on just one target. It makes many things easier. Trust me. Multiple target audiences are mostly for brands that want to tap into new markets for growth. They have successfully captured the hearts of a primary target audience before journeying to new islands.
Conclusion
Congratulations! You’re now equipped with what you need to figure out your target audience and persona. If you’ve made it to this paragraph, you’re already better than most founders and entrepreneurs, as you understand the importance of having a destination as you achieve your vision and are better fortified. Let this be the foundation on which you’ll execute all your strategies, and watch how you’ll keep getting the biggest bang for your buck as you move with purpose in this vast ocean called the market.