How marketers can create their own target audience to generate quality leads.
In marketing, you need a defined target audience – specific groups of people most likely to buy your products and/or services – because it allows you to focus your marketing efforts to reach your best prospects and key customers to maximize ROI opportunities. This holds true for B2B brands, whose target audience may technically be other brands and companies, but ultimately are driven by people, who still expect the same attention to detail in marketing efforts as B2C brands afford consumers – including providing highly relevant and personalized content and messaging.
To determine your target audience, you can:
- Understand your existing customers. Review demographic and sales metrics from your existing customers to build a profile of who they are, where they are, what they’ve purchased, and when. Interview existing customers to understand needs and desires, their perspective on your product and/or service, and any gaps that exist.
- Audit your social media platforms. Understand the demographic makeup of your followers and those that engage with your content and brand.
- Review any previous marketing performance metrics to learn what did and didn’t work.
- Take a look at your competition. Understand who they are messaging, where, and what message they are sending. A strong competitive review can set you apart by allowing you to fully understand the marketplace and find opportunities and niches for your brand.
Keep in mind that you may have several different target audiences depending on the tactic or activity. For example, you might host an event that broadly invites members of an industry but also have an email newsletter that goes only to customers. Build and define your target audiences for each campaign and tactic based on the goals and objectives of your effort and the way in which people engage with it.
As the pace of changes has quickened dramatically, it’s important to review and update your target audiences on a regular basis. A good rule of thumb is to review your target audiences each year as you plan for the next year, and also when you embark on any major campaigns. Diong this will not only allow you to ensure your efforts are reaching the best people, but also provide the opportunity to adjust messaging to improve the effectiveness of your campaign.