Knowing Your Target Customer

Knowing your target customer is essential for any business, big or small, and it can be especially important for startups and businesses that are still in growth mode. When you know who your ideal customer is, you can tailor your products and services to fit their needs — and that is the key to success.

Defining and understanding your intended customer helps you focus your marketing efforts, understand what products and services to offer, and figure out who to sell them to. Start by doing some market research and profiling your current customers. Keep in mind that your intended customer is someone that you want to buy what you are selling; that is why you are creating your product for them.

How To Build Your Target Customer/Avatar?

Trying to sell without knowing your target market is the equivalent of throwing darts at a target on the wall. You might be able to hit it once or twice, but for the most part, you’re going to fail miserably.

Target audience profiles provide you with marketing guidance and make it easier to deliver consistent messaging. You are more likely to drive conversions if your products fit what your consumer is looking for.

These are the steps on how you can build your target audience:

1. Identify their role in the purchase process: Sharpen your focus and know who is involved in the buying process. It could be an individual or even a group. Knowing what position they occupy in their organization will help you to think like them and write content that appeals to them.
2. Make a list of their demographic data: When you create personas, you are trying to accurately portray your consumer in a way that makes them identifiable. Although it is impossible to know every characteristic of an individual, compiling these basic data points will help you weed out any assumptions or generalizations you may have.
3. Find out their struggles and discomfort: In order to identify the needs of your target market, you have to understand their problem. Research why they are dissatisfied with what is offered on the market and note down all pain points that they have. This will provide a platform for you to create content that solves these problems.
4. Determine their objectives and interests: Behavior is not determined by emotions and feelings but rather by objectives and interests. Your target audience is not solely concerned with your product but with their core goal. Knowing what they aim to achieve will help you prioritize your messaging and align it with the goals of your prospect.
5. Figure out what motivates them: For consumer behavior change to take place, you have to discover what really motivates them. Knowing the primary and secondary factors in their buying decision will help you determine how you can best sway them in favor of your product.
6. What social platforms they gravitate to: Knowing the types of social media platforms they use will give you insight on how to reach them. If your target audience is active on Twitter, then sharing or promoting your content there will help deliver your message to them effectively.
7. Discover their language: Your buyer persona may use different words to describe the same thing. What they say and how they talk is an indication of their background or culture. Knowing the words that they use to communicate with you will help you to relate your product to their everyday life.

Determining What Market They Are In

As an entrepreneur running a business, it is important to know your core audience to be successful in marketing. You must first understand your target audience and know their wants and needs. Once you have a good idea of who your customer is, you can start creating marketing materials that appeal to them specifically.

Target customers could vary in many ways, but they generally have some characteristics in common. It is also important to keep these factors in mind when marketing your business so you can appeal to the right people.

These are the benefits of knowing your intended audience:

• You can tailor all of your marketing materials: When you know your target audience, you can make sure that the images, colors, fonts, and content are right for them. For example, if they are older people, you don’t want to use bright neon colors in your marketing materials.
• You write copy around that persona: If you know your target audience, you can figure out the language they speak and how they talk. You can then write a copy that appeals to them, including their likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc.
• You get better results: When you get into the head of your customers, you start getting better results because your marketing materials are more appealing to them. They will also better understand the product or service you are offering, making them more likely to buy.
• You can meet their needs: By knowing your intended audience, you can start to understand what they need and want. You can then create products or services specifically to meet those needs so customers are more likely to buy them. The more you know about your target audience, the better you can meet their needs. If they have a specific need that is not being met by any other businesses, you can offer and create them exactly what they want.
• Your company will gain trust: If you know your customers, they will feel like you are one of them. They will be more likely to buy from you if they believe in the same things you believe in. They will also be more likely to share your information with others, which means you get more exposure.
• You can pinpoint weaknesses: If you know your customers, you can figure out where they might have problems or what they are dissatisfied with. This can give you insight into how to improve your product or service.
• You can adapt quickly: If you have to change something about your business or marketing, you can do it quickly. You don’t have to guess what problems your customers might be having. Instead, you know exactly where they are struggling and why.
• You can be more effective: When you know your target audience, you can market to them in a way that gets more attention and actually makes a difference. You know what makes them tick and how they respond to certain kinds of marketing materials.

Conclusion

The more time you spend understanding your audience, the easier it will be to create content that resonates with them. Addressing their needs and wants will help you grow a loyal following of customers who are eager to buy from you again. If you want to create a marketing plan that works with your customer, it is important to know who they are and what matters most to them.

Spend time building your customer avatars, so you can have a better understanding of how they think and feel about the world around them. Marketing should be personalized in order for customers to receive value from engaging with your brand or company. By knowing your target customer, you will be able to better understand what their needs are, which can lead you to deliver more value through your marketing.