Cover photo courtesy of @aiynajane / @ashleylnesbitt / janelladelbella on instagram
Target audience, target market. These words get tossed around daily in the world of small biz, but what do they really mean and how the hell do you find them – let alone market to them?
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a particular group of consumers at which a product or service is aimed.
Let’s break that down into way simpler terms. A target audience or a target market is basically the type of person who is wanting to buy your product. On a very wide scale they are usually broken down into both gender and age (Example: Women age 25-54). That being said you can niche your buyer down so much farther and actually find out who is purchasing your stuff and how to reach them.
“Who is your target market? Who is buying your stuff?”
If your answer is “Everyone” you are WRONG! Not everyone is going to buy your product, so why waste your time selling to the people who aren’t. Is an atheist going to go to church? No. So why try to sell them a bible? You catch my drift. Here are a 5+ questions to ask yourself to really dig deep about who your target audience is and how to start marketing towards them and only them! By the end of this hopefully you will have at least two specific “people” in mind who you can mentally picture and can direct your posts to in social media.
1. Is my person male or female?
2. How old are they?
3. What is their lifestyle? (This is a whole new bag of cats. Think: Do they have money, are they married, are they single, independent or dependent on others, do they have kids, do they work full time, are they a student, what is their job, are they artistic, are they analytical, what does their fashion style look like, what do they wear… the list could go on)
4. What is their insecurity, or what are they afraid of? (Find this and make your product the solution!)
5. What is their name? (You make this up of course!)
By answering and thinking about these questions you will get a better sense of who you want to buy your product or who is already buying. You will be able to easily direct your posts to that specific person and connect with them on a deeper level. Need more help? Here’s an example:
My company is Knitatude, I make knit accessories and decor for your home. My items range from $60 scarves to $475 chunky blankets. One of my target customers is named Heather. She is 55 years old and is a stay at home mom. She is well put together (nails done, hair did) but truly lives for the comfy side of life. Her husband has a respectable job and brings in a considerable amount of money. She has two kids who are both in university and she loves to spoil them rotten whenever they come home to visit. She loves textures, deep fall tones and warmth in her house and likes showing this off to her neighbours. She is still trying to keep up on social media and is just getting the hang of instagram. She’s scared something else will come along and god forbid she will have to learn a whole new social media system. She just got the hang of the last one! She has a bubbly personality, but wants to make sure she is still hip and keeping up with the times. She loves supporting local and in order to do that she buys knit infinity scarves since it’s something her daughter likes and she’s found she likes them too! Since she easily gets chilly, she loves knit blankets and scarves because she can use them all year round.
FURTHER: I’ve niched it out to imagine what Heathers schedule is like too! I know when she wakes up, what book she is reading, what magazine she picks up to sift through when drinking her tea in the afternoon, how she dresses and what her favourite colours are. This helps me know when to post on social media so I know she will see it, as well as what to post to catch her eye, and what to talk about in my posts that she will relate to.
If you don’t have a target audience yet, don’t worry! You can make it up and start directing your posts at those people. Brand yourself in that direction. All you can do is find out more info and use it to your advantage. Good luck!
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Chantal is the sole owner and knitta behind Knitatude. She loves anything knit and thinks “the bigger the better”. She is a huge advocate for being as comfy in your skin as you can be and is extremely loud and exuberant. You can catch her on all the social media links below.
Instagram: @knitatude
Facebook: Knitatude