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Marketing can sometimes feel like a one-sided phone call — or, if you’re a reality show lover, like you’re a contestant on Love is Blind. You know someone’s listening to your words on the other side of the wall, but you can’t always see them.
Figuring out your intended audience can help you say all the right things, so you get the sparkly ring — er, conversion. Here’s how to identify them and how this info can improve your marketing campaigns.
What Does Intended Audience Mean?
“Who is the intended audience?” is a familiar refrain in marketing meetings, along with another piece of lingo: “target audience.” But there’s a slight difference.
The target audience is the broad group of people who might be interested in your product or service, based on:
- Audience demographics (age, gender, race)
- Cultural background
- Education
- Interests
By contrast, the intended audience is a narrower group of ideal customers: the people you’d expect to actually click “add to cart.” For example, any dog owner might browse your enrichment toys, but it’s the 30-something with a border collie bouncing off the walls who will order them with express shipping.
The Importance of Knowing Your Intended Audience
Your marketing efforts should always speak to a specific intended audience, not “any hiking lover” — or worse, “women.” This strategy:
- Helps you create relevant content: Personalization is much easier when you know your audience’s preferences and needs. Talking to busy moms with caffeine addictions? Time to perk them up with some coffee puns.
- Boost conversion rates: When your content marketing actually fits audience expectations, they’re more likely to take the next step.
- Use resources effectively: If you know your Gen Z audience loves social media but is indifferent to email marketing, you can swap your weekly newsletter for memes. Boom — customer acquisition costs, cut.
5 Steps To Identify Your Intended Audience
Don’t just assume that you know who your intended audience is. They’re the real people who will actually convert, not the ones you guess — or wish — would. Here’s how to find them.
1. Establish the Value of Your Product or Service
You already know your offerings inside out, but put yourself in a potential customer’s shoes. What problem or need would make you say, “Aha! This is exactly what I’ve been looking for.”?
If you’re creating a productivity app, your intended audience might be busy grad students juggling part-time jobs, research papers, and a 300-page Foucault book. That’s much different from business owners, who might care more about invoicing than scheduling. When you understand why customers value your products, you can better outline your audience profile.
2. Conduct Market and Competitor Research
Market research uncovers who’s actually engaging with your content, but don’t just look at your brand. Understanding who your competitors are — and aren’t — targeting can also help you identify your intended audience.
Here are a few useful tools for audience analysis:
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems record location, purchase history, and other useful data.
- Google Analytics shows which demographics are interacting with your site.
- Moz analyzes your competitors’ search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.
- Talkwalker is a social listening tool that tracks brand mentions and trending topics.
3. Build a Detailed Customer Profile
Use the data you’ve gathered to outline your ideal audience profile. It should include:
- Buying habits, like only buying luxury items for holidays, or hunting for coupons
- Communication preferences
- Demographics
- Motivations
- Pain points
This information is the key to more targeted marketing. If your nature-loving, reusable-bag-toting audience cares about sustainability, your product description had better put that it’s recyclable front and center.
You can also spin this profile off into fictional buyer personas who represent different subsets of your intended audience. They’re especially helpful when segmenting your marketing or experimenting with new channels.
4. Align Audience Traits With Your Goals
You don’t have to cram every aspect of your customer personas into your marketing. Laser in on the parts that fit your goals.
Let’s say you’re trying to double your lead generation this year, and you know your intended audience of jaded millennials cares about social proof. Influencer marketing could be just the ticket to win them over in the discovery phase.
5. Refine Audience Understanding Over Time
Identifying your target audience isn’t a one-and-done deal. Market dynamics shift, brand demographics change — and suddenly you’re talking to 40-somethings, not hip college grads. By continually analyzing data and gathering customer feedback, you can make sure your marketing is always on point.
How To Use Your Marketing Efforts for Your Intended Audience
Once you know who you’re speaking to, tailor your marketing and support services by:
- Using the right channels: Go to where your customers are instead of hoping they’ll chase you down (because they probably won’t). Older adults are probably on Facebook, while Gen Alpha is definitely scrolling through TikTok. And Gen Z would almost certainly rather chat with customer service than make a phone call.
- Answering specific concerns: By addressing your audience’s questions and hesitations, you can win over even skeptical leads.
- Respecting their knowledge: Give your audience value without talking down to them. Seasoned backpackers, for instance, want unexpected tips and niche product recommendations, not a how-to guide for setting up a tent.
What Happens if You Don’t Identify Your Intended Audience?
Not properly identifying your intended audience can hurt your marketing efforts and negatively affect your overall business success. Without a clear understanding of who your product or service is designed for, your messaging becomes generic and can end up in the hands of unintended audiences.
Moreover, you risk wasting resources on campaigns that don't resonate with the right people. On a broader scale, this can lead to inefficient allocation of marketing budgets.
In the end, precise targeting is a key driver of success. By not defining your intended audience, you miss the opportunity to connect with individuals genuinely interested in what you offer and hinder your growth potential.
Reach the Right People With the Right Message
Your intended audience shouldn’t be a faceless figure or a crowded room. When you can clearly define who you’re speaking to and why they need you, your marketing campaigns will practically write themselves.
No time to do it yourself? Take advantage of Compose.ly’s convenient managed services. Our expert writers will help you create tailored content that fits your intended audience’s needs perfectly.
