Identifying your target market may seem like a simple enough task, but there is an entire rabbit hole of data to go down to make sure you’re doing this properly. Luckily for you, I have broken that down for you below.
Analyze your current users.
Already have a business up and running? Great. Your first step will be to look at your current users.
Current users will tell you so much about your target. What you’ll want to start with is similarities in habits. Do you notice a common trend with your users?
- How they’re finding you.
- Where they’re going on your website.
- Where they’re leaving on your website.
- Demographics…
- Age, Gender, Location
- Income, Education, Occupation
- Etc…
- Income, Education, Occupation
- Age, Gender, Location
The more you know about your customer, the better you can understand what your actual, current, audience is like and if that is what you’re looking to build on. Meaning, are you reaching the people you want to reach? If your current users are way off of what you feel your target audience should be, it’s time to reassess strategies.
Where can you analyze your current users?
My recommendation is to analyze your current users via Google Analytics. Some website platforms and plugins allow you to see some of this data, but for the most amount of data you’ll want to have Google Analytics installed in your website and track there within. If you have questions on this, give us a shout.
Don’t have a business up and running yet? That’s great too; it’s never too early to identify your target market.
The best place to start in this area is to brainstorm who you are wanting to connect with. Understanding your audience this way will help you launch a healthy website and digital marketing strategy. Get analytical from here and utilize things like “Google Keyword Planner” tool to get search volume on what you want to rank for.
In addition, Google will supply you with similar search terms that they feel may relate to what you’re trying to target. This is always helpful in understanding what your audience is actually searching. As opposed to what you think they’re searching. I’ve seen many times where a business has been targeting search terms with no search volume and once we switched their targeting to what real people actually search for, their traffic and sales went up.
CTA: Research your keywords. We can help you with this…I live, eat, breathe, and sleep search term data.
Analyze your competition…properly.
Similar to search term analysis, this is another area I have seen where clients think their competition is one thing, but it ends up being another. Digitally speaking of course.
You’ll want to begin taking the search terms from the analysis above and applying them to search. Look at what you find in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Look at the ads as well as the organic results. TIP: Make sure you are logged out of your Google account when searching so you can get a more authentic organic result. This will still be based on your location and other factors, but it’s a start.
For me, I also utilize special software that tells me exactly who your competitors are in organic results as well as PPC (pay per click) results. Who is dominating the ad space in your industry? What are they bidding on? If applicable, who has their local focus heightened to the top of the snack pack, map section, and GMB business listings? How many reviews do these competitors have? Questions like these will fine tune your knowledge to best understand, and in turn compete with, your digital competitors.
Don’t forget to look at psychographics!
Okay okay… what in the world are psychographics?! The dictionary defines psychographics as “the study and classification of people according to their attitudes, aspirations, and other psychological criteria, especially in market research.” This is where we get personal. Super personal.
Let’s break it down into 3 categories
- Activities
- Attitudes
- Personality and Values
Activities
Just to name a few…
- Camping
- Hiking
- Fishing
- Reading
- Gardenings
- Painting
- Travel
- Surfing
- Gaming
- Reading
Attitudes
These are opinion based questions. You can offer up surveys, polls, and so forth to gain insight on your customers’ opinions on various topics like religious beliefs in correlation to advertising, current social needs, importance of eco friendly use in the workplace, and so forth.
Personality and Values
This is the area that takes the same analysis from both activities and attitudes. Some of this information can be found in analytics, while other will take more research by reaching out to your users.
Psychographics is a huge undertaking but can be invaluable to your business. If you take the time and effort needed for this, you will surely reap the rewards.
Well, there you have it! You have been given a path to take to understand just who your target audience is, or should be. Got questions? We’ve got answers! Feel free to contact us if you have further questions on this, or if you need help. We love helping!