Who is your target audience and what makes them care about your product?
This is one of the first questions I ask all of our clients before starting a project. From just that single answer, I’m able to frame how all video or animation should be communicated. Everything from the story, style, length and where it should be placed.
The problem is, however, the answer I often get to that question is something along the lines of, “Everyone from 18-100 years old, men and women of all ethnic backgrounds that care about (whatever the product does)”. That, of course, is just too vague to be able to pull any real information from.
But how specifically do you need to get before you’re able to pull that great information and make great communication? Well, there are 4 main things you need to know about your audience and in this article, I’m going to help you understand each one so you can start making a difference in your marketing right now.
When you know a lot about your target audience and develop messages directly to them, something incredible happens. You form a connection with them.
When you know a lot about your target audience and develop messages directly to them, something incredible happens. You form a connection with them. A connection that cannot be formed by running tv ads that scream at people to buy your product or a connection that cannot be formed by cold calling people. When you’re able to connect with people on a deeper level, a lot of things happen including people sharing your product without being asked, positive reviews and most importantly, more sales.
Here are the 4 things you need to know about your audience:
1. Geographics
You need to know your audience’s location in the world, as specific as you can possibly be. Are they international? National? Regional? Local?
If you run a food truck, it would benefit you more to focus on the local area you’re able to serve. If you run something like a copywriting business, you might want to focus on a larger region or even an entire country. But again, the more specific you can be about where your audience is, the more effective your communication can be.
2. Demographics
That includes their age, gender, marital status, income, ethnic background.
All of these things play a role when it comes to how you communicate with your audience. Think about it, would you talk to a 13-year-old girl with a $5 a week allowance the same way you’d talk to a 50-year-old married man making $100k a year? Probably not.
3. Psychographics
That’s the activities, interests, attitudes, personality, aspirations, values and opinions of a group of people. Possibly the most important out of all 4 of the things you need to know about your audience. The idea here is understanding what they truly care about and what drives them to make decisions.
Knowing the demographics of your audience simply isn’t enough. Let’s take that 50-year-old married man that makes $100k a year and name him Ben. Now let’s say we also have a guy named Alex that also falls into the same description. What Psychographics can tell you though is that Ben likes camping with his family, works 40 hours a week and goes to church every Sunday. Meanwhile, Alex works 60 hours a week, work is his profession and his hobby, the pursuit of climbing the corporate ladder is what drives him. While they have a lot in common, what’s different about them would lead you to communicate with them differently.
4. Behaviors
More specifically, their usage rates and patterns when it comes to your product or industry. Is your product something they currently use? Do they use it yearly, monthly, weekly, daily? More importantly, HOW do they use it?
As an example, maybe people are buying your product most around Mother’s Day As a gift. That alone can tell you quite a bit about what you need to know, but more importantly, it can help you adjust your ad spending to be the couple weeks leading up to Mother’s Day.
So now the question is, how do you gather this information on your audience?
Go to where they are and talk to them. Yeah, this is way easier said than done, but unlocking information about your audience is probably the single most important part of your business’s success. Maybe this could be in your store. After a purchase is made, you can simply have a short conversation and pick up on a lot of these details. I will say though that if you start asking direct questions your audience will likely not want to participate unless they’re given something in return. If you were to give a 10% off coupon to learn the 4 things needed in understanding your audience, you will have likely gained many times that investment.
