Understanding Your Target Market: Define, Find & Reach Your Ideal Customer

Want to make sure your marketing is working effectively and generating good ROI? It's not enough to have a great product—you need to connect with the right people. This guide will walk through how to understand your ideal customers and build a strategy that reaches, engages and converts.

Almost 40% of digital advertising budgets are wasted on the wrong audiences, according to Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings (DAR).

1. Paint a Clear Picture: Building Your Ideal Customer Profile

Have you ever said, or heard someone say, ‘Our target market is everyone’? While there may be a very broad audience with the potential to buy, you can be sure that no product or service is truly targeted at ‘everyone’. There is an ‘ideal customer’ profile for every business and we want to get to know who they are. Forget assumptions and vague generalisations, you want to know, based on data, what the characteristics, needs, desires, and pain points are for your perfect customer - the one who benefits most from your offerings and becomes a loyal advocate.

To begin, consider the following:

• Who are they? Consider their age, gender, location, occupation, family life, and income. Are they young professionals living in the city? Families in the suburbs? Retirees enjoying their golden years?

• What are their interests? Explore their values, hobbies, and lifestyle. Are they passionate about sustainability? Do they love to cook? Are they interested in technology or travel? The more you understand, the better you can tailor your message.

• How do they behave? Get to know their online habits, brand preferences, and shopping patterns. Are they active on social media? Do they prefer to shop online or in-store? Are they influenced by reviews and recommendations?

• Follow their journey. Map out the steps your customer takes from the moment they first hear about you to after they make a purchase. This helps you identify key interaction points and tailor your communication accordingly. (See the example below!)

• Understand their needs. What challenges are they facing? What are their pain points? Think about the "job" they're "hiring" your product or service to do. Are they looking for a convenient way to learn a new skill? Do they need a reliable solution for home organisation?

• Show them the value. Clearly explain how your product or service addresses their needs and provides a solution. The Value Proposition Canvas is a helpful tool to visualise this. Perhaps your online learning platform offers flexible and affordable courses that fit busy schedules. Or maybe your organisational products create a sense of calm and order in their homes.

• Check out the competition. Take a look at who your competitors are targeting and how they are reaching them. What are their strengths and weaknesses? This can help you differentiate your brand and find your niche.

• Bring it all together. Create a profile (persona) of your ideal customer to organise these insights and create a comprehensive picture that can guide your decisions and marketing efforts.

2. Find Your Target Audience: Research and Data

Once you know who you're looking for, it's time to find them. This involves conducting research and analysing data to understand where your ideal customers spend their time and how they behave.

• Gather Information

• Surveys: Ask open-ended questions to get detailed feedback. Tools like SurveyMonkey or Qualtrics can help.

• Have conversations: Conduct interviews and focus groups to gain deeper insights from your target audience.

• Observe online behaviour: Use social media analytics and website traffic data to understand where your ideal customers spend their time online and what they're interested in. Google Analytics, Brandwatch, and platform-specific tools are valuable resources.

• Learn from existing research. Explore market research reports and industry publications to understand trends and customer segments. Sources like Nielsen, Pew Research Center, and industry-specific journals can provide valuable information.

• Prioritise privacy. Always handle data ethically and comply with relevant regulations like GDPR and CCPA.

• Complete the picture. Enrich your data with services like Clearbit or ZoomInfo to build a more complete understanding of your audience.

3. Make the Connection: Building an Effective Marketing Strategy

You know who your target market is and where to find them. Now it's time to create a marketing strategy to reach and engage them.

• Choose the right platforms. Consider where your audience spends their time online. Are they active on visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest? Do they prefer professional networks like LinkedIn? Are they engaged in online communities or forums?

• Create valuable content.

• Focus on key topics. What subjects are most relevant and interesting to your audience? For a bookstore, for example, it might be "Staff Picks," "Author Interviews," and "Book Club Recommendations."

• Maintain consistency. Create a content calendar to make sure you're regularly sharing fresh, interesting content.

• Promote your content. Share it across all relevant channels to reach a wider audience.

• Vary the format. Experiment with different types of content, such as blog posts, videos, infographics, and social media posts.

• Engage on social media.

• Listen to conversations. Use social listening tools (like Brand24 or Mention) to understand what people are saying about your brand and industry.

• Build a community. Engage with your followers, respond to comments, and create a welcoming space for discussion. (Check out this blog for more on how to build a genuine community around your brand)

• Work with influencers. Partner with relevant influencers to reach a larger audience and build credibility.

• Improve your search ranking.

• Identify relevant keywords. Use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Keyword Planner to understand what your audience is searching for.

• Optimise your website. Make sure your website is easy to find and navigate, with relevant keywords, clear page titles, and informative meta descriptions.

• Build authority. Earn high-quality backlinks from other websites to improve your search ranking.

• Use email effectively.

• Segment your audience. Group your subscribers based on their demographics, behaviour, and interests.

• Personalise your messages. Use email automation to send targeted messages based on user actions, such as welcome emails, abandoned cart reminders, and personalised product recommendations.

• Invest in paid advertising.

• Target your ads. Use the detailed targeting options on platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads to reach your ideal customers.

• Test and refine. Experiment with different ad creatives and landing pages to optimize your campaigns.

• Build partnerships.

• Collaborate with other businesses. Partner with complementary businesses to cross-promote your products or services and reach a wider audience.

• Work with influencers. Find influencers who share your values and have a strong connection with your target audience.

4. Stay Current: Analyse, Adapt, and Refine

Connecting with your audience is an ongoing process. Continuously monitor your efforts and adapt your approach as needed.

• Track your performance. Monitor key metrics for each marketing channel, such as website traffic, social media engagement, email open rates, and advertising performance.

• Visualise your data. Use reporting tools like Google’s Looker Studio or Tableau to create dashboards and track your progress.

• Gather feedback. Collect feedback from your audience through surveys, reviews, and social media monitoring.

• Be flexible. Adjust your strategies based on the data and feedback you receive.

Remember, your audience and their behaviours are always evolving, and so should your understanding of them. By staying informed, analysing your results, and being open to experimentation, you can build strong relationships with your customers and achieve your marketing goals over the long term.