Knowing your target audience well is essential in keeping your content writing and digital marketing appropriate for your ideal customers – you know, the people you’re trying to nurture into becoming paying customers.
And that means identifying your ideal customer, using their kind of language, and knowing what they need from you.
What is my target audience?
Target audience is the term we use to describe the group of people you are aiming your marketing at.
It goes a step further than that though – your ideal customer. The people out that that are your dream customers and who you would move heaven and earth to be able to get in front of and be noticed by you.
You should have a profile for your ideal customer or client (and in the probability that you sell more than one product or service, you should have one for each rather than trying to catch them all with the same one.)
We call this the “ideal customer avatar”.
You need to consider age, race, location, gender, job, interests, family, and a whole lot more.
It might seem a little creepy, but the more you know and understand about the person you want to as a your customer, the more effective your advertising and marketing will be.
Don’t get stung by the ‘everyone’ cliché.
If you’re struggling to come up with an ideal client profile because you truly believe that your product is for ‘everyone’ – you need to ask yourself some tough questions.
- Why is it for everyone?
- Is it not age specific, at all?
- If it’s truly universal – who do you want as your customers?
It’s better to pick one individual and consider as many aspects of their life as possible to create an effective avatar. That doesn’t mean you can only market what you do to 30 year olds called Susan, but putting a name and a face behind the person you want to talk to, understanding their family life, career, hobbies, interests, pain points, problems and how you can help them will make your marketing more effective.
Here’s a reminder of why communication is key when winning new customers.
How should I talk to my target audience?
Content writing and marketing isn’t just about conveying a message.
The words you use must reach out to your ideal customer and make them believe “this is for me, I must read this!”
In the majority of cases, this means your writing should be conversational, simple and effective.
So, take another look at your ideal customer avatar and consider how they would talk to the people around them.
- What kind of words would they use?
- What kind of tone would there be?
- Would they be fun and interesting, or more formal?
- Is there industry jargon they’d expect everyone to know?
Now put those answers into action when you write.
Once you’ve got your first draft, read it out loud and consider ‘does this feel like it might have been written by one of my customers?’
If it doesn’t, it needs a bit of editing.
Sparking a rapport with your target audience means that they need to be able to identify with what you’re saying and sharing with them. The language you use plays an important part in this.
But content writing isn’t just about using the right language
How well do you understand the needs of your target audience?
One of the best ways of building rapport, and knowing how to talk to your target audience is by understanding their needs, pain points and problems.
Do you know what keeps your customers awake at night?
What will happen to them if they don’t fix their immediate problems? Will they have poor health, go bankrupt, lose their home, lose out on precious time with their family?
Better yet, do you know how your product or service can solve that problem or worry for them?
Remember your early conversations with previous and current customers and recall what their problems were, they probably didn’t tell you the ins and outs but if they needed to generate more leads to make money quickly then it’s a good clue that money was an issue for them.
Knowing your customers inside out really is the key to marketing effectively to them.
And that means you really have to work hard on establishing your target audience.
Understand who they are, and what they stand for.
Know what keeps them awake at night, and how you can fill that void.
And know the right language to use to have a direct sales conversation with them.
And that, is the ultimate cheat sheet when it comes to target audience. So, the next time you want to start a new marketing campaign, or even write a new blog – make sure you know the answers to those questions.
