Who are your customers? That sounds like a simple and straightforward question that everyone in your company should be able to answer.

But the truth is, there is nothing simple or easy about identifying a brand’s target audience. Without a clear idea of who your target customers are, it will be difficult for you to formulate brand objectives and marketing goals, or even make a connection with potential buyers.

The importance of knowing who your customers are

In an ideal world, the answer to the question of who your customers are should be everyone. However, the reality is that not every person is a suitable customer. In fact, trying to be a brand for everyone can undermine your marketing efforts and branding strategies.

Who are the people should you target?

In order to better answer that question, it is crucial to define what exactly the term “target market” means. In essence, a target market refers to a group of people that your brand wants to reach out to through the use of messages.

A brand’s target audience is the people who are most likely to buy the products or services that you offer and who share a few crucial characteristics, specifically, behavior and demographics.

Finding your target market enables you to find your prospective buyers and better understand them. In turn, this allows you to optimize your campaigns and get better results for your investment and efforts.

At the onset, your search for your target customers begins by casting a wider net. But as you get access to more detailed information, you can zero in on a particular market segment.

The very idea of limiting your branding and marketing efforts to a specific market segment may seem counterintuitive at first. You might even think that you are limiting your brand’s potential to reach people. However, it is crucial to understand that finding your real prospective buyers is more efficient. Plus, focusing on a group of people does not necessarily exclude consumers from buying your products or services.

Conducting target market research

When it comes to finding your target market, you cannot rely on guesswork or your gut feel. You will need to do some legwork and approach things from an objective standpoint, ready to dismiss your initial assumptions based on the evidence that you gather.

Here are a few helpful tips to get you started:

• Start with your current customers

If you are already selling products or services, you do not need to start from scratch. You can leverage your existing customers to gain insight on which ones genuinely belong to your target audience.

With your current crop of customers, you can find the defining characteristics of your target audience. But what exactly should you look for?

Start with the age of your customers. It is not necessary to accurately pinpoint the age of each and every customer. You do, however, need to know which generation your customers belong to.

Next, you need to identify where your customers live. Knowing this vital piece of information can help you in a couple of ways. First, you can fine-tune your message. And second, if you are building an online presence, you can find the optimal time to post status updates and ads.

After that, the next order of business is determining the spending power, habits, and patterns of your existing customers. By knowing these, you can address the concerns and preferences of the people you are eyeing to target.

• Leverage your online assets

Many of today’s customers perform online research on each of the brands that offer the products or services they are planning to buy. And while these consumers may not have bought anything from you yet, knowing who these people are can give you a snapshot of the market that you might need to target.

Fortunately, there is a wide variety of tools that you can leverage to see the people who are checking your websites and social media accounts.

• Scope out the competition

Your competition provides you with invaluable information that will help you clearly define your target market.

Identify the people your competitors are targeting with their online and offline ads. You might notice a specific segment which you might have been ignoring.

Online, you can get an overview of how your competitors’ approach to specific segments as well as gain insights into what works best with these consumers.

• Make a statement

A target market statement, to be exact. After compiling and evaluating the data from the previous steps, your next task is to create a target market statement. This is crucial in defining your target audience.

Your target market statement should contain a few critical information. These include the location of your audience, their educational attainment, behaviors, and interests.

• Always be testing

You won’t get everything down pat at the start. The great thing about using social media is that you can determine which ads resonate with your target audience the most by performing tests.

Once you are done with the creative aspect of your ad, you can begin reaching out to your prospective buyers through social media ads. Start by choosing which platform to use. Next, zero in on a specific demographic for your ad.

When you post these ads, make sure to track the results. This will give you a baseline which you can then use for A/B testing.

Nothing is set in stone

After you have identified your target market, your work is not yet entirely over. Sometimes, you have to revisit your previous research and evaluate whether your products or services should still focus on the targets that you have initially set for your brand or not.

In some instances, you may have to make a few necessary adjustments to reflect the changes your brand has undergone.

Identifying your target market is never a one-off task. Drawing from your research and past lessons, you need to continuously evaluate your customers to maximize your potential as well as the work and resources that you have put in.

AUTHOR BIO

Stuart Harris is the Creative Director at Yellow, a Dubai branding agency, digital partner and advertising company working with progressive businesses to build bold, meaningful brands.