Finding your target audience and creating an avatar to focus on is a core business function. Knowing who you are selling to and what they are like is the key to effortless sales.
An avatar is a specific person who perfectly embodies the elements of your ideal customer. If someone hung a wanted poster of your ideal customer, your avatar would be front and center. They are likely the inspiration for your business when you created it.
With Facebook ads, Instagram Insights, SEO and other data, it’s possible to drill down so deep that you can fine tune your advertising so that your marketing investments are sure to get a return.
But how do you do that? How do you find your target audience and hone in on their needs so accurately?
First, spend time thinking about your product or service:
- What does your product do?
- What problem does it solve?
- Who is it designed for?
- Who makes the decision to purchase your product or service?
Next, think about who benefits the most from your product or service:
- What problems do they face?
- What is their pain point?
- What solutions are they looking for?
- What language do they use to describe their problem?
- Where do they shop?
- How do they identify themselves in the marketplace?
- What do they do for a living?
- What rationale do they use to make decisions?
- How do they spend their free time?
Asking yourself these questions helps define your target audience. The defining factors can be translated into the categories available to you for sponsored ads, or the language you use when you write content. The more you know about them the better you can speak directly to your audience.
Once you have asked yourself these questions, test out your theories. Social media is an excellent way to screen your tribe to see who is a potential customer. Ask questions, pose scenarios and see who bites.
Use tools like:
Surveys- Post a survey on social media to test a theory or ask a product development question.
Contests- Gather data by holding a contest that gathers information about your target audience’s habits.
Split Testing- Create graphics or titles for your goods or services and test which ones get more traction.
Forced Choice Testing- Create a dynamic where one of two choices must be made and see which gets the most attention.
Observation- Pay close attention to your surroundings and see what behaviors your customers have in common. These tools help you define your target audience and your avatar in no time at all, speeding up the process for marketing and sales.
This post is part of a 5-Part series on defining your target audience. Read on for more:
Part 1: What is a Target Audience & How Do You Define Yours?
Part 2: Why It’s Important to Have A Firm Understanding of Who Your Target Audience Is
Part 3: How to Find Your Target Audience Out of Billions of People (this post)
