As I started doing social media, I realized that majority of the people do not know how to define their audience. So today, I’ll be discussing how to gain clarity on you should be “speaking to” or targeting in your marketing.
Who Do You Want To Be Reach?
When you start off in your business, you tend to want to reach everyone and market to everyone.
I get that. BUT that would more often than not, render your marketing efforts moot.
In marketing, it is always a must to define your target audience. Who do you want to reach? Why would want to reach out to them?
This is what I call the feelings part to your business:
- Why did you start your business?
- Who will your product or service help?
- How will your product or service help?
For example, as a virtual assistant is your service meant to give back time? If so, who would you want to give back time to? Would it be to mothers? Why? Is it so they can spend more time with their families?
Diving deeper into these questions would allow you to make a concrete marketing plan.
Who Are You Talking To?
Now let’s dive deeper and try to figure out who exactly you are talking to.
This is what I call the descriptors:
- Hobbies
- Occupation
- Marital Status
- Dependents
- Style
- Music Genre
- Location
All these would help you define and build your story and your brand. Because to sell your product, you need to know who exactly to sell it to and how to sell it to them.
Why You Need the Who
Knowing who you are talking to is knowing whose pain points you are trying to solve. If you are able to define that demographic, then it would be easier for you to target your marketing to people who will most likely be interested in what you have to offer.
This would allow you to:
- Know which platform your target market is on
(i.e: Stay at home moms that love DIY projects-Pinterest. Health ‘buffs’ – they would be on Instagram and Facebook.)
- Graphics/Video- what type of graphics would appeal to your target market?
- Mapping out your content- knowing who your talking to would help you publish quality content that speaks to your target audience
- Time of Day – knowing who specifically you are talking to would define what time they would be more targetable and online to see your posts or content
- Competitors – in order to know stats, you need something to compare what you are doing to
Final Thoughts
If you don’t have your who down, your marketing will be all over the place. It will look like you’re marketing to everyone because you are marketing to everyone.
You’ll be pulling hair trying to be on every platform, at different times within the day, spending for ads that are too general and not giving you the return you are hoping for.
When you set your who, you would be able to niche down and have a ‘direct’ line to the people you are talking to, making it easier for you to create your funnel and gather your leads.
Take time to go through those questions. Try as much as you can to be detailed and specific to be able to properly define your audience.