You’ve heard it said: if you’re marketing to everyone, you’re marketing to no one. Defining your target audience clearly is the cornerstone to any marketing tactic or campaign’s success. Your target audience is the group of people you want to purchase your company’s products or services – which means you want them to see (and appreciate) your marketing efforts. A recent poll showed that 4 out of 5 customers prefer personalized ads from brands, so it’s more important than ever to know your audience. This creates successful marketing campaigns, but it also builds relationships and brand loyalty, which are essential to your business’s long term success.
When asked “how to define your target audience,” most marketers begin to list customers’ ages, locations, and budgets – and of course, these data points are crucial! But if you’re relying on demographics alone to paint your customer profiles, you’re missing an important piece of the puzzle: psychographics. Oxford defines psychographics as “the study and classification of people according to their attitudes, aspirations, and other psychological criteria, especially in market research.” To market effectively, we must identify our target audience’s needs, pain points, desires, and behaviors.
Neuroscience has proven that decision making happens on the emotional side of the brain far more often than its logical counterpart. In short, that means the key component to winning your target audience over is understanding what matters most to them. What do they want or need? What’s causing them pain or frustration? How can your brand, product, or service resolve it? Ask these questions, and you’re well on your way to a foolproof marketing strategy.
Combining demographic data with psychographic insight will create a holistic profile of your ideal customer. At Redstory, we recommend writing specific customer profiles based on your collective findings about your target audience. If you’re feeling stuck about where to begin, create your first profile based on an existing loyal customer! If they’re a fan of your business or brand, the odds are that others like them may be interested, too.
Most businesses have between 2-5 customer profiles – it all depends on the scope of your business and how many different kinds of customers you serve. Three profiles is a great place to land if you’re trying this out for the first time. If you’re just starting out and don’t have customers yet, or you have a diverse group of customers and don’t know who to base your profiles on, consider your dream client and build a profile based on them. No matter how many you create, they should each include:
So, how do you get those four pieces of information to build a fantastic customer profile? For us, data collection happens in three stages.
1. Interview your team.
It may seem obvious now, but often, marketers forget that their own coworkers have the best insights – especially the client-facing departments! Interview your business’s sales team, customer service representatives, and anyone else who works closely with customers. They’ll likely be able to offer all kinds of important customer information, from demographic data to consistent pain points. They can tell you which products are flying off shelves and which services seem to receive negative customer feedback, and why. They might even be able to give you the names of a few customers to contact in step three.
Once you have your team answers in hand, zoom out for some secondary research. Statistical data can help you write customer interview questions that will provide you with the best information. For example, market research may reveal certain trends or external factors for you to ask about, even if your customers aren’t explicitly aware those trends are affecting their decisions.
If you want to know what your customer base is like, get to know them! Getting to know your clients will give you invaluable insight that statistical research never could. Ask your customer what attracted them to your business in the first place, what keeps them coming back, and what potential pain points they experience as a customer.
Once you’ve completed your research, put it all together in an ideal customer profile template. Here are a few great templates to try! Templates are the perfect way to synthesize this information and share it with your team – plus, they’re easy to replicate or edit as your business grows and changes.
Want to build marketing campaigns that reach those you want most as customers? At Redstory, we build experiences designed for human connection. We’d love to help you find your ideal customers and serve them well for years to come. Send us an email to get connected.