How to discover your ideal audience in 3 easy steps

First, let's define what an ideal (target) audience is. Marketing Evolution states: "Your target audience refers to the specific group of consumers most likely to want your product or service, and therefore, the group of people who should see your ad campaigns. Target audience may be dictated by age, gender, income, location, interests or a myriad of other factors." Essentially, it's a group of people that have a problem that your product/service can solve.

 

"Your target audience refers to the specific group of consumers most likely to want your product or service." - Marketing Evolution

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So with that in mind, how do we begin determining who our ideal audience is when it comes to targeting them for our products/services? The answer may not be what you think. Instead of looking outside of our business and focusing on the clients and customers needs, we must first dive deep in to the core of our own business. Let's get started:

 

1. First and foremost, we must define our Brand Heart. Your Brand Heart is the core behind your business & brand. Your brand heart includes things like the businesses' purpose, vision, mission and values. You can define these by asking yourself questions like:

• Why does my business exist?

• What does the future look like for my business?

• What am I here to do?

• What are my businesses' values?

 

2. Next, we must dive into our Brand Landscape. This is where you will analyze your competitor's to determine the environment in which your business/brand operates. You'll also look at your businesses' personality to find ways to differentiate yourself from your competitors. You can do this by looking at:

• Who are your competitors?

• What do they offer?

• What does their brand look and feel like?

• What are their strengths and weaknesses?

• What makes them similar to your business?

• What makes them different from your business?

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3. Lastly, we must look at our Brand Essence. Your businesses' essence is essentially its personality, voice and tone. This is where you will learn what humanizes your brand and how to keep consistent communication through all of your content and marketing. Do this by asking yourself:

 

• How do you want people to feel when they interact with your business?

• What are adjectives that describe your business/brand?

• What do you want to convey when speaking with your audience?

• What type of language do you use?

• What are buzzwords or phrases that you want to avoid in your content/marketing?

 

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With these questions in mind, you'll be able to identify the core values and services that your business provides and therefore who is the best fit for them. Not only that, but you'll be able to differentiate yourself from your competitor's to attract more eyes to your content and marketing. Sounds awesome, right?

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Ready to dive in to your own Brand Heart, Landscape and Essence? Click here to grab your free Brand Strategy Workbook where you can explore and define these questions for yourself.