You’ve got the product that you believe will change lives, and the passion to get you to the top, but you’re not quite ready just yet… Before your business venture can be successful, you need to determine your target audience, and for many start-up businesses, this can be easily overlooked.

We have devised 5 simple steps for you to follow to help you define your target audience.

Understand the customer problems you solve

To kick-start defining your target audience, understanding the problems you solve is key. Once you have established what these problems are, you can then work out what type of person is most likely to encounter these problems.

Use demographics

It goes without saying that you wouldn’t try and market a skydiving experience to couples aged 70 and over, or a couples holiday to single students under the age of 21. Establish the demographics of your target audience by asking yourself the following questions:

– What age range are you targeting?

– Are they male or female?

– What is their marital status?

– What is their occupation/profession?

– What is their income level?

Determine target customer psychographics

This can be a little trickier to guess as this is based more on the personality types of your target audience, however, this is just as crucial, especially if your product is niche. Think about the interests, likes/dislikes, attitudes, and opinions of your target audience to help define customer psychographics. For example, if you are marketing a reusable drinks bottle your ideal audience would be people concerned about climate change and product waste.

Determine a target location

Determining where your target audience is situated will help you with location-based marketing campaigns. For example, a small start-up business may look to target customers within a 20-mile radius of their town during the initial few months. Eventually, this can be increased, and as the business develops further, they will be able to identify where most of their customers are located so they can specifically target those areas during future campaigns.

Look at the competition

Take a look at some of the successful companies in your industry and establish who their customers are, what their customers are willing to pay and how they best communicate with their customers.

Also, check out their social media pages and reviews online to understand what their customers are saying about them, to help identify any weaknesses that you can turn into an opportunity with your business.

As the marketplace is everchanging, you’ll want to make sure you keep learning more about your target audience to stay ahead of the game. Re-evaluate your target market every six to twelve months to ensure your marketing strategy is the most cost-effective is can be. Need help? Get in touch today.

Square Media is Northamptonshire’s premiere Web Design & Marketing Agency experienced in developing effective content and marketing strategies for forward-thinking companies in the local area. Our team of specialists consistently deliver outstanding results working in a variety of areas such as Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media Marketing Consultancy, Pay Per Click (PPC) and AdWords Management amongst a wide range of other services.