How to define your target audience?

Defining your target audience

Before we look at the specifics of defining your target audience in the next lesson, let’s have a think about your customers.

Try to answer the questions below:

What do your customers have in common?
Are they mainly women, men or is it an equal split?
How old are they? Are they of a similar age or is there a variety of age groups?
Are they working professionals, students, housewives?
Do certain demographics purchase specific products or services?
What are their needs – and how does your business help them?

Your answers will help you build a clearer picture of your overall target audience. Defining your audience can be a bit tricky and time consuming, but, once done, it’s much easier to know where and how to interact with them on social media.

How to define your target audience

In the previous lesson “Understanding your target audience”, we asked you to start thinking about your customers (their age, gender, etc.) In this lesson, we will build on this to help you define your target audience.

As we go through this lesson, consider your current customers. Who are they? Why do they buy from you? What are their needs and interests? The key is to look for the common, or shared, characteristics.

Don’t worry if you’re just starting out. Think of your favourite shop or café and consider who their audience may be. Our checklist below will help guide you through the key things to look at.

Comments

Lesson 1 - How to Defining your target audience

1. Some useful expressions 2. Why is it important to understand your target audience? 3. Making your social media marketing more effective 4. Informing your social media marketing strategy 5. Defining your target audience 6. Key takeouts Quick Links Digital Marketing Target Audience Social Media Marketing Online Presence Content Marketing Audience Traffic

Lesson 5 - How to find your brand voice?

An introduction to the tone of voice with s ome useful expressions The tone of voice how your business speaks – the expression of your values and identity through spoken and written language. Shortened to TOV. Conversational - This is used to describe a personal TOV that speaks to your audience in an informal, genuine and friendly way, which is especially important on social media. Feed - A list of content relevant to an individual user, that is curated for them by each social platform. It’s often created by gathering a recent selection of social posts from within that platform. Each platform gives it a different name. On Facebook, it is called News Feed. TOV Guideline Document - A definitive description of what your business’s TOV actually is, and how it should be used. It’s designed to be shared with your employees so all communications from your business are consistent.

How to make your social media marketing more effective?

Making your social media marketing more effective Understanding your target audience is key to the success of your social media marketing strategy. Remember: The social media community is vast and it can seem tempting to try and appeal to absolutely everyone. But this is not the right path to take. Engaging everyone means broadening your message and, as a result, losing your unique identity. Instead, be really clear about who you are targeting. This will help you understand how to appeal to them on social media, ensuring you engage with the right people at the right time. Go beyond their demographics and consider when and why your business would appeal to people. Focusing your efforts on the right people is the first step. What else can you do to ensure the success of your social media activity? Let’s look at how Vihaan used a deep understanding of his audience to make more informed decisions: Toy shop owner, Vihaan, knows the importance of understanding his targe...

What is the key to succeed in Social Media Marketing of Brand?

Consistency is the key Shifts in TOV can be incredibly confusing for your audience. Once you’ve defined your voice, use it consistently in all of your communications. People need to know what they’re getting from every interaction with you – it’s reassuring and lets them know you’re a reliable business. However, while your TOV needs to be consistent, it also needs to be adaptable in certain situations. For example, you might be a fun, chatty brand. But while you might post something humorous to engage people on social media, you wouldn’t respond to a customer complaint with a joke.

How to build relationships with your audience or followers

Build relationships with your followers Retain your new followers by keeping them interested and engaged. The more you listen to them, the more they will feel valued. Respond to people’s comments on your posts and create your own comments too. This can spark a conversation and engage even more people. For example: Imagine you run a restaurant business. Posting your opening times and prices is not very engaging content. But if you share a new dish, ask for opinions or encourage audience participation through polls, discussions, and competitions, this could lead to a more engaged, and potentially bigger, audience. Make sure to spend time with your online community to gain valuable insights into your audience’s needs and interests. This information can also help you shape your business and the products and services you offer to ensure you remain competitive. Consider your followers as a focus group from which you can gain knowledge that will inform both your business and your soc...

Why should we conversational with our audience?

Be conversational Social media is conversational by nature. People don’t want long, dull corporate messages filling their feeds – they want engaging, entertaining, informative content from everyone they follow, including businesses. So be professional, but include personality. Be friendly. Invite responses. Stay relevant and be interested in what your audience are into. A good way to start your thinking is to recall times you’ve delivered great customer service, or had a really fulfilling chat with a customer. What did you do to make that a special, or fun, experience for them? Take this style of verbal conversation and apply it to your written communication. Top tip: Remember that social media is an opportunity for a casual and fun two-way conversation with your audience. Try and avoid sounding overly formal.

Knowledge Check Lesson 5

Question 1 of 3 Which of these three statements accurately describes what TOV is? A by-line to include in every post, which describes your business's personality and offering An expression of your business's personality through the language you use A set list of words that businesses must use in every social media post Question 2 of 3 Changing your TOV frequently can help to keep people engaged. True or false? True False Question 3 of 3 Creating a unique, personable tone of voice for your business can: Help your customers feel they are developing a real relationship with you Make your social profile rank higher in search listings Mean you don’t need to post as much visual content on your profile page Click Here to Check Answer

What is the best way to engage your audience?

Post often is the best way to engage your audience Your followers will stay interested if they hear from you on a regular basis, and the more you post, the more likely people are to see your content. The “recommended number of posts per day” is a bit of a myth. Some marketing experts advise sharing content at least once a day and some say as often as 2-3 times per day across your social platforms. The key is to find what’s right for your business. As long as you have something worth sharing, it’s fine to post. However, you should be wary of spamming your audience, as this can create a bad user experience. Think about the social channels you’re using. One may be very fast moving and suit a business that is able to publish quick, small pieces of content. Another may be slow-paced and suit a business that is more likely to publish once or twice a week. Really think about how you can keep up with the pace of the channel you’re active on. As you post, make sure to look out for com...

Answer Lesson 5 Knowledge

Q.1 Q.2 Q.3 Your knowledge check results Q.1 Which of these three statements accurately describes what TOV is? An expression of your business's personality through the language you use Q.2 Changing your TOV frequently can help to keep people engaged. True or false? False Q.3 Creating a unique, personable tone of voice for your business can: Help your customers feel they are developing a real relationship with you

Informing your social media marketing strategy

Informing your social media marketing strategy Placing your target audience at the core of your decision-making process can inform many elements of your social media marketing strategy, such as: The type of content you post (images, videos, and blogs) The way you highlight your business’s unique identity The way you share information about your products and services The best time of day to post The best channels to post on For example , You wouldn’t advertise your Mumbai street stall to an audience in Bangalore, and you wouldn’t advertise your restaurant’s breakfast menu at dinner time. It may sound obvious, but these are easy mistakes to make when first starting out. A clear understanding of your audience allows you to use your time and energy more effectively when you’re creating your social media marketing strategy. You can plan your activity around your target audience, only publishing posts that are relevant and exciting for your audience. We will discuss how to ...

Digital Skills - Understand Audience

Search This Blog

Lesson 1 - How to Defining your target audience