Everyone needs an audience, whether you are a freelancer, a blogger, a business owner or even a politician.
Not having a target audience is like throwing a bowl of pasta on the wall and hoping it sticks.
From my past experience, the process of identifying and defining your audience takes the following steps:
Get a good understanding of what business you really are in
You sell online communication courses, but you are in the business of personal development
You sell website development service, but you are in the digital transformation business
Coca Cola doesn’t sell coke, they sell a feeling.
Who is most likely to buy from you and why?
Explore by talking to people in your network of friends and business contacts. Research online, ask questions and expand your thinking.
Collect the dots and organize them so that you can connect them later to make sense.
Deep dive into your market segment
Once you settle on an industry and market segment that feels like a good fit for your business, deep dive into that segment to understand who the buyers really are and what do they want.
Researching customers can be categorized into:
- Exploratory and specific
- Quantitative and qualitative
Research methods will also depend on the type of business
If you’re a B2C business, selling a low-price product, you will have to rely on demographic data, personality attributes and psychographics.
Here’s how Hubspot explains the difference between demographics and psychographics”
Demographics: Age, Gender, Occupation, Ethnicity, Geolocation, Education level, Religion
Psychographics: Personality characteristics, Lifestyle, Social class, Attitudes, Principles & beliefs, Activities & Interests
The two popular research methods in B2C are:
- Surveys
- Focus groups
For a B2B situation with a high-consideration decision product or service, relying on demographic data may not give you the full picture.
Low-consideration decisions are impulsive and in the realm of our sub-conscious. It is hard to identify and narrow down the specific set of influencing factors for a wide audience.
You don’t think twice about buying a toothpaste. You stick to your favorite brand or pick one that catches your attention. And it is hard to explain why a lot of the times, so imagine trying to interview a buyer about why they chose a particular toothpaste. You will get a wide variation in answers and no meaningful patterns out of it.
In the case of high-consideration decisions, the buyer thinks, researches, consider options and then finally takes the decision. In such a scenario, finding what triggers the buyer to look for a solution, what motivates him or her to search for options and on what criteria does the buyer finally make a decision can be gathered through a structured process of talking to potential buyers.
Before that, here are some great resources for you to find macro-level data about the economy and your specific industry.
Study the market
- GlobalWebIndex
- Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends
- Comscore
- Gartner
- Nielsen Norman Group
- Nielsen
- BuiltWith Trends
- W3CTechs
- Statistica
- SimilarWeb
- SpartToro
- Microsoft Trends Report
- Deloitte Tech Trends
- Industry Reports
- Pew Research
- Census Data – US, India, Europe
- US Small Business
- data.gov.in
- https://data.worldbank.org/
- https://www.imf.org/en/Data
- https://data.adb.org/
- CIA
- NITI Aayog
- Indian Ministry Websites – Tourism, MSME
Data + Insights = Knowledge
Analyze the competition to understand your audience
Look for insights in the following places:
- Competitor websites
- Blog (Competitor and Industry influencers)
- Customer testimonials and review – find common patterns as to why they like your competitor’s service
- Competitor’s audience on social media – who are they and what are their profiles
- Digital tools for research
- Google Search – use advanced search operators to narrow down your results
- Google Trends
- Google Alerts
- Google Keyword Planner – free tools available within your Google Ads account (not Adsense)
- Google Surveys
- SEO tools
- Ahrefs – SEO Keyword research tool
- Moz
- SEMRush
- Ubersuggest.com
- ranksignals.com
- Buzzsumo – A content research tool
- Alexa Site info tool
- Spyfu
- ispionage.com for checking your competitor’s Google PPC spends
- mailcharts.com – track big brand’s email marketing activities
- owletter.com – capture and analyze your competitor’s marketing emails
- Owler – track news about companies
- mention.com – social media tracking of competitors
Gather data from the above tools, but for insights, you will have to speak to people – experts and potential customers, particularly the buyers.
The structured approach to talking and interviewing buyers in your market and building archetypes is called Buyer Personas.
How to create Buyer Personas
Buyer Profile: We’ve discussed this above. Demographic and psychographic data can be found through industry reports and places like LinkedIn.
Buyer Insights: While focus groups and surveys can help with getting general information, it does not give us actionable insights on which you can build your marketing strategy.
Adele Revella in her book ‘Buyer Personas’ talks about the 5 Rings of Buying Insights:
- Priority Initiatives – What are the buyer’s triggers that starts them on a journey to look for solutions.
- Success Factors – What do they hope to achieve as an outcome, operationally and personally.
- Perceived Barriers – We all have our biases and worldviews. Understand what barriers might be preventing them from considering a solution like yours
- Buyer’s Journey – A B2B sales process is usually similar for most businesses. It can be encapsulated into the following stages: Awareness, Consideration and Purchase. The steps taken during these different stages can help us trace the buyer’s decision-making journey.
- Decision Criteria – What are the attributes of your solution that a buyer finally makes a decision on?
Interviewing for Buying Insights
- Identify buyers
- Who considered and chose you (clients)
- Who considered but chose a competitor (this type of buyer can provide you with the most valuable data)
- Who considered but maintained status quo
- Who never considered you and chose another
- Contact only those who have considered or bought a similar solution in the last 6 months
- Ask good questions, listen and record (with permission)
- Organize this information gathered into the 5 rings of insights mentioned above. Retain the buyer’s words and vocabulary.
- Match these insights which reflect a buyer’s wants and needs to your features and capabilities.
- Hire a copywriter to craft your marketing message that highlights your capabilities in the context of your buyer’s wants using words and language that is familiar to them.
Additional Reading & Resources:
Book Recommendations:
