They say in the PR world that “the niche is the bitch.” If you have a brand or a product or service, then you need to know your target audience. Who are they and what do you know about them? How old are they? How educated? How much money do they make? Where do they vacation? Your audience needs to feel like you’re talking directly to them and that you you can help them by providing an answer to their problems or challenges with your services and products.
You may have thought that you know who your audience is; the people that use your widgets. But did you know that it’s not unheard of or even uncommon for a business to revisit who they think their target audience is? This is especially common if your audience wasn’t identified in the early stages of your business (or if you’re an accidental entrepreneur).
The easiest way to figure out who your target audience is, is to conduct a market analysis. Basically you ask your customers, readers or clients to tell you who they are. Since you’re the one doing the asking, you can be as specific as you want.
There are a couple of ways to do this. This can be something conducted formally or something more casual and conversational. You can spend the big bucks and have a company profile your audience. Or you can do it yourself using something like Survey Monkey. Me, I’m a fan of doing it myself (or at least asking a trusted, technically-inclinedish friend or VA to do it for me). And if you can narrow your questions down to 10 and settle for only 100 responses, you can actually use Survey Monkey for free – just remember it won’t be a full representation, just a small percentage of your clientele.
Here are some sample questions to consider as a starting off point. Be sure to make these questions as thorough and detailed as possible. The more you know about them, the easier it is to cater to their needs…
- Who is your audience – children, teens, women, men, babyboomers, stay-at-home moms, CEOs, gay or lesbian, child-free, etc.
- How old is your target audience?
- How educated is your target audience?
- Are they married, single, in relationships
- Where do they shop?
- What do they spend their disposable income on?
- What’s important to them?
The biggest question to consider by far is what is their biggest problem or challenge and how can your products or services help them? That’s the goal here. Figure out who they are and what they need you and your products or services for and how you can help them. Once you design your products, your services, your business around them and are able to help them to fulfill their needs, it becomes win/win for all involved.
So I ask you, do you know your target audience?
