It’s not uncommon to find companies talking about how their marketing campaigns don’t work, which makes some suspicious of some strategies. However, most of the time this happens due to not having a well-defined target audience.
This is an issue that companies often neglect, given that they think it is something that is not so important. After all, there’s no denying that this is such a basic detail that it can sometimes go unnoticed.
However, understanding more about the target audience is something that should be present in all your campaigns, given that this simple detail can make a big difference in your projects.
This simple saying sums up well why you know who your target audience is because, based on this information, you can communicate directly with them. When you shoot all over the place, it turns out that your writing and strategy doesn’t impact anyone.
Of course, there is not just one factor that determines what will make your campaign successful, as there is no magic element that will guarantee a quality performance. After all, we are talking about a very dynamic scenario.
However, there’s no denying that, once you understand who your target audience is, you’ll be able to create more targeted campaigns for more specific people. That way, the chances of getting better results are sure to be higher.
Therefore, in today’s article we are going to give you a complete guide regarding all the information that you should know about your target audience. Liked? So be sure to check out the next topics!
First of all, you need to better understand what an audience means. In practice, understanding its concept is not very difficult. In short, it is nothing more than a group of buyers who have characteristics in common.
In other words, the company identifies similar points among its consumers and, from there, can direct its digital marketing strategies and campaigns. Other nomenclatures that also refer to this concept are:
Despite the different names, they all refer to the same thing: target audience. This definition is based on the market segmentation phase. That is, buyers who have a similar profile should be divided.
To do this, the company can use a number of different characteristics, such as demographics or behavioral issues, such as age, gender, education, personality, lifestyle and the like.
All these are essential information for the company, as they are factors that influence the consumption decision. And that’s the main reason that should make any campaign worry about this detail.
However, it is still valid to point out that this information does not come “out of nowhere”. In fact, it is necessary to do a lot of research and market analysis in order to better know the profile of people. It is only after this is done that it is possible to select who the company should target.
This is how it becomes possible to reach the people who have the most affinity with the brand, product or service. As a result, the chances of converting them into customers are much higher.
At first, this concept may seem very vague in your mind, and in that case, nothing better than an example to make things clearer, right? However, it is worth noting that there is no precise example that you can take as a basis.
After all, your target audience will never be the same for all campaigns, each of them the interested audience will be different. Furthermore, these questions also vary whether it’s B2B or B2C, too. In each case, a different approach must be taken.
But, let’s say you have a bike brand and you’re launching a line aimed at those who like to go on trails. In this case, it can be said that the target audience is people from 20 to 40 years old who enjoy this activity.
Sounds simple, right? However, it is because it is simple that it becomes a problem, given that it becomes very broad. Consequently, the chances of reaching people who are really interested and intend to buy are low.
Doing a study of your target audience should be something more specific in order to exclude those who are not potential buyers. Examples of target audience:
This means that the target audience must take into account everything from geographic characteristics to some behavioral tastes.
Another thing you should understand about this subject is how to segment it. As said, understanding the concept of target audience is not very difficult, the big question is in formulating the profile of people who are interested in your product or service.
In this regard, it should be known that audience segmentation goes through several stages and has many variables. It’s not enough just to define that you want to sell to women who are over 60, for example, given that it’s too vague.
As you have already learned, the audience must be better segmented in order to communicate more accurately. As a result, the best thing you can do is make a few cuts in the market, in order to identify the profile of the potential buyer.
Now, to make these questions a little easier, check below the main segmentation variables that you can use to better define your target audience:
These are some factors you should be aware of. Now, for B2B companies, the ideal is to pay attention to the business characteristics. In this case, you should pay attention to:
As you can see above, the characteristics of your target audience are not always the same. In addition to the fact that it varies according to the product, one must consider whether they are B2C or B2B relationships. Your strategy should align with this factor.
To better understand these questions, nothing better than an example, right? So, to better understand an example of a B2C target audience, imagine you have a travel business. In this case, the segmentation could be something like:
In this case, you could still create a buyer persona that, in short, are fictitious representations of the ideal profile of each customer, which could be something like this:
See how in the case of your target audience, ideally, they should be more and more specific? That’s what will make your campaign more successful. Now, another example, but this time of a B2B company, which has a CRM software and wants to launch a publicity campaign. In this case, the characteristics could be:
Defining a target audience is fundamental to any marketing or advertising strategy. But why? Because it’s from the moment you understand your consumer profile that your campaign becomes more successful.
A while ago, mass marketing was done for everyone, evenly. As if all consumers were the same. At the time, the intention was just to publicize the product, making it reach society.
But as time passed, this strategy became less attractive. It became clear that some patterns needed to be reinvented. After all, the investment in mass vehicles was too expansive for little return.
Furthermore, communication with the public has become flawed. Therefore, segmenting the target audience is essential, as communication becomes more personalized, where it is possible to create phrases to win over your customers and make the sale even more accurate.
Apart from that, among other reasons why it is essential to define your target audience, we can mention the following:
As soon as you reduce the number of people to make a sale, it becomes possible to adapt your language in order to make your interlocutor better understand the message and, consequently, it becomes more effective.
Furthermore, it is when you have a more well-defined target audience that it becomes possible:
For sure, this is the main reason that should make you have the definition of your target audience as something present in all your strategies. After all, companies can optimize their investment by running campaigns that are more assertive.
That way, they don’t waste efforts on those who aren’t interested in the product, nor have the chance to buy. A great example of this is what happened with Banco Original together with Serasa Experian.
In this case, the conclusion was reached that segmenting the audience is efficient since, in doing so, the cost per thousand (CPM) is reduced by half. On the other hand, the volume of qualified leads increased to 30%.
When you define your target audience well, you end up making the brand better understand some of the behaviors of each consumer. In other words, it starts to get better opportunities to close deals.
By doing such an investigation, it is possible to know which market segments are not being well served by current solutions, for example. Or even that companies are not even listening to customer needs.
And it is in this context that a brand can take advantage and offer better conditions to close a particular deal. This is a very valuable opportunity, given that it has a high potential for adherence by the target audience. For this, the company must focus on a solution to solve the need.
It is only after you choose your target that it becomes possible to define the market position. It is a process that aims to conquer a unique space that is valued in the minds of consumers, for example.
However, it only becomes possible when you know your audience and get close to them. This happens because the characteristics of the public support the development of the value proposition and the construction of the brand.
In this way, it is possible to align values to consumers, in addition to the differentials that your audience values.
In today’s market, it has become increasingly important to stand out from the competition, even so that your number of sales is much higher and, consequently, generates more profits. And one of the ways to do this is by doing a good research of your target audience.
The concern of companies is not to be just another brand. They care about becoming a reference. An authority. That is, they want their consumers to remember them whenever they need the product category.
However, doing this considering the public in a mass way will certainly not generate this result. It should be understood that each consumer has different needs and wants. And to become an authority, you need to consider these questions.
It’s when you win over these people that the competition doesn’t have a chance over them, given that your brand has already captivated them. Therefore, defining your target audience is a weapon capable of differentiating you from your competitors and, thus, differentiating yourself from your competitors.
It is very common for people to confuse target audience and persona, and there are even those who use it as a synonym. But even though they are related concepts, each one has its own definition. It’s not the same thing.
Actually, target audience and persona are two marketing tools, which aim to define with whom the brand should dialogue. They are correlated, but not the same. In short, the target audience is nothing more than a market segment with characteristics in common.
It is ideal for those who want to direct strategies. In contrast, the persona is the personification of the ideal customer, through the description of a character. In other words, it must represent the characteristics, profile and behavior of the consumers the brand wants to target.
As much as one delves into behavioral and psychographic issues, describing the target audience tends to be more general, since it only considers some more specific issues. Therefore, it becomes the main criticism that this approach suffers.
The persona is a deeper description of the character’s profile. That is, it takes into account habits, tastes, interests, pains and needs. That is, it encompasses all the complexity of the human being, making it more affective.
However, this is not just a superficial description. Does this mean that there is a big conceptual difference? The target audience must have a target that must be hit. The persona, in turn, tends to represent the audience with whom one wants to interact.
This means that the target audience is more at a strategic level, for defining market positioning or for segmenting paid media. The persona is already ideal to use in content marketing, social media and relationship strategies.
Now that you understand the subject better, you must surely be wondering how to define a target audience, right? In this regard, know that there are some precautions you should take. Among all of them, we can mention the following:
There’s no way to believe in guesswork. Creating an audience based solely on what you think will work is certainly not the wisest choice. In fact, this is a big mistake that many companies make.
If you create something without research, it will only result in a frustrated result, as your strategy will not resonate in the market. Segmenting your audience takes a lot of research. This means that you must access data that is real in order to better understand your decisions.
Another big mistake that many companies make is the fact that they create products before they even know if there is a latent need for it. But the truth is that a good entrepreneur does the opposite: he first identifies a market opportunity and, from that, creates strategies.
Shooting in the dark is not always the best choice. The ideal is to have more security about your product or service. It is this market perspective that will make you create something according to your consumer’s expectations.
In fact, this is a way to become a reference and stand out from your competitors, given that you will offer exactly what is needed to meet your needs. Furthermore, the definition of the target audience must represent a good opportunity for the brand.
There’s no way you can create good strategies for your target audience if you don’t deeply understand your entire company and its respective services and products. Once you know who your potential audience is, you should know how to communicate with them.
However, this is only possible once you understand all your products and know how to adapt your language to them. How would you convey design products to design, for example?
You or your company can only do this once you understand the products or services you have to offer. To make this matter a little easier, try to answer the following question: what problem will my solution solve when someone buys it?
An urban mobility company may propose the following solutions:
This means that it is only based on the characteristics of your company and the problems it is capable of solving that it will be possible to reach your audience.
Segmenting the market is another important step to more accurately reaching your target audience. Once you have an overview of the market, consumer and product, the next step is to define the bases of segmentation in order to make the division.
At this stage, the ideal is to return to the variables that we have already mentioned: psychographic, behavioral, demographic and geographic. Start by profiling the public that consumes your service or product category, to make it simpler.
Assuming you sell toothpaste, anyone can buy it. However, there are those who look for toothpaste to whiten their teeth. On the other hand, there are those who opt for those with a lower value.
Besides that, there are mothers who are looking for one that has a pleasant taste, to brush their babies’ teeth. It is within these variables that you will work and create your most specific target audience. You can even cross these same variables with others, and generate different market segments.
Okay, you’ve done the market segment, now what? Now it’s time to analyze which ones have the most potential for your brand. However, it must be done in the right way, which has a connection with your company.
It’s not very easy, but there are a few questions that can help you define your target segment. Among them, we can mention:
Ideally, you should be able to measure the segment, so that you can assess the market potential it represents. But if it is segmented by psychographic and behavioral characteristics, this can be more difficult.
For this reason, the tip is to obtain data from the IBGE, for example, and other market researches in order to reach a number of people who make up the segment.
It is from the analysis of the attractiveness of the segments that it will be possible to define the target audience of your brand. Given this definition, it will be important to document the description of the characteristics, so that the entire team obtains knowledge and free access, whenever necessary.
After all, the same brand can work with more than one segment, as long as it is able to create new strategies specific to each one of them. Even because, when a company has many products in its portfolio, each one of them must target a different segment.
Coca-Cola is a great example of this, as it offers products for different types of consumer profiles. However, each of its product lines has specific strategies to be able to communicate with its target audience.
Next, after you’ve defined your target audience, it’s time to map out the positioning of each market. If your company works with more than one, you need to define the positioning for each of the segments.
This way, it will be possible to outline strategies that are specific to each audience, which refer to the marketing mix, that is, the famous 4 Ps of marketing:
In addition to all these concepts that we have already presented, there are some other questions that you should understand about the best tools to create your target audience.
They are essential because they help especially in the stages of market analysis and the attractiveness of the segments. So, in relation to the tools that may be useful to you, we can mention the following:
Of all the tools, Google Analytics is certainly the main one, as it helps to measure and understand a range of web data. Its purpose is also valid to know better the public that already follows your brand.
After all, it generates data from interactions with your site. In addition, it will be possible to ascertain the profile of the public, as well as the latent characteristics and interests. Another tip is to use Google Analytics to analyze the words searched in the site’s internal search.
Google Trends is a great way to see trends over a period of time. After all, through it it will be possible to identify which are the subjects that are generating the most interest in recent times.
In this way, it will be possible to identify a market opportunity, for example, in addition to the potential of a segment.
There’s nothing better than doing market research with consumers themselves, is there? After all, the accuracy becomes even greater. As a result, there are a number of forms that can help you in this process. Among them, we can mention:
These and others allow you to ask questions directly to the audience and, in this way, it will be possible to better understand the needs of each one.
Another tool that can be your ally in this process are research institutes. The IBGE, for example, offers very complete data on the Brazilian population in general, which will certainly help you to profile your audience.
In addition, it will also help to quantify the market segments. Serasa Experian is also another body that can provide essential data on the Brazilian population. Mosaic Brasil was developed by the company, which divides society into groups, based on a combination of 400 variables.
Mosaic Business, on the other hand, offers the same data, but it segments companies in Brazil. This is a ready-made segmentation, with deeper descriptions about the segments. And you can use it within your strategies or just to cross-reference with the data you’ve obtained about the market.
A lot of people don’t know, but Facebook has a huge and very rich database about the population. Best of all, everything is available in the Audience Insights tool. That way, you can get information about everyone on Facebook or those connected to your page.
In this way, it will be possible to trace data on location, marital status, gender, education, position, lifestyle, interests and many others. Facebook is still able to capture more specific information, such as people who are in a new relationship or those who live far away from their family.
All of this helps your company to create a campaign that is more accurate and capable of generating better impacts. Best of all, you can save this data to create a targeted Facebook Ads campaign.
As you can see, knowing how to create your target audience is essential, given that this will be able to make your company achieve better results within your campaigns. Even if it’s a detail, it makes a huge difference.