Businesses identify and define their target audiences to achieve business goals in the long run. In every stage of your business, you need to clearly know who you\u2019re selling to. This will determine the success of your brand.<\/p>\n
1. Determining the feasibility of your product<\/strong><\/p>\n This goal should be set before launching your business. Feasibility is about predicting if your product or service will be profitable. Understanding your target market and their pain points will help you determine if your business will be successful.<\/p>\n It will also give you insights into areas that may need improvement.<\/p>\n How to price products is a challenge faced by many new entrepreneurs. Making sure you\u2019re not pricing too low or too high is indeed a dilemma.<\/p>\n If you know your target audience well, you\u2019ll get a headstart into setting a price. Along with other elements like profit margin, the knowledge of how much your customers are willing to pay for the product will let you set an appropriate price.<\/p>\n Your brand is how your target audience perceives you. To strike the right chord with them, you need to clearly understand them. Here\u2019s a guide on building a brand for small businesses<\/a>.<\/p>\n Getting to know your target audience will enable you to improve aspects of your business.<\/p>\n Understanding your ideal buyer persona is a strong tool to have to get the most out of your marketing efforts \u2014 be it social media marketing or paid ad campaigns. You\u2019ll be able to create content that is useful to your target audience and distribute it on channels they\u2019re most active on.<\/p>\n When it comes to defining your target audience, you can just stick to the basics or go in deep and create a detailed persona. Let\u2019s look at the questions you need to answer to get a basic picture of your target audience.<\/p>\n Who will buy your product? This might seem like an obvious step, but many businesses actually skip identifying their buyers correctly. Let\u2019s look at an example to understand this further:<\/p>\n A business sells organic soaps based on different themes. Who will buy their product? Of course, everyone uses soaps. But that doesn\u2019t make their target market \u2018everybody\u2019. Their products are for women who are hyper-aware of skincare, want to use only natural ingredients, and are fun-loving. The soap brand now has a specific demographic which it can target. It\u2019s narrowed down from \u2018everyone\u2019 into a very specific and niche audience.<\/p>\n Key takeaway<\/strong>: Do the same for your brand by identifying how unique you are from other similar brands. Create a character sketch for one ideal person who would love to buy your product. This will be your guide for further targeting.<\/p>\n Another question you need to ask yourself when defining your target audience is about product usage.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a look at an example from a real DTC brand:<\/p>\n Heelium<\/a> sells premium and comfortable products that are made with sustainable materials. They are mainly for outdoor wear (workout, sports, adventure etc). They can be used daily and can be maintained much easier than regular outdoor wear.<\/p>\n Key takeaway:<\/strong> Getting to know your audience starts with getting to know your product well. Defining every aspect of its usage will lead to a better understanding of who would use it.<\/p>\n This is the most important question you need to answer. Having a string answer will let you plan more successful marketing campaigns and build a better brand.<\/p>\n People buy products that make their life easier, even in the least way possible. Your product might have lots of cool features and look amazing. But if customers are not convinced that it will help them, you won\u2019t have much luck in selling it.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s consider the apparel brand Saadaa<\/a>. Their statement product is cotton pants available in multiple colours. Their minimal and comfortable pants are revolutionary in a fashion industry that are filled with uncomfortable clothing for women.<\/p>\n They practise sustainability in both product manufacturing and packaging. Thus, Saadaa became an instant favourite for women who want comfortable and stylish clothing, and also practices sustainability.<\/p>\n Key takeaway:<\/strong> Understanding what problems your product solves will let you find audiences that are facing those problems.<\/p>\n With the basic details out of the way, you can go into the nitty-gritty of the target persona \u2014 generate more specific details like customers\u2019 potential age, occupation, and income. For this, you will need to do market research. There are a number of ways to do this. Let\u2019s have a look at the most popular audience research methods for DTC brands:<\/p>\n Certain organizations have published detailed reports on online consumer behaviour and general statistics. We at Instamojo recently published the eCommerce Trust Report<\/a> \u2014 an extensive survey report on how the factors influencing customer trust online. You can download the report for free<\/a>. Although it isn\u2019t specifically related to target audience, the report will give you a headstart.<\/p>\n You can also find reports related to your specific niche. All you need to do is a search on Google with keywords such as [your niche] eCommerce + survey\/reports.<\/p>\n Where would you get better insights about your audience than directly from them?<\/p>\n If you already have a customer base or a community on social media, you can conduct interviews and short surveys to get more information about their preferences.<\/p>\n Offering some sort of incentive for participation \u2013 like a gift card, or discount code \u2013 will encourage enthusiastic and genuine answers from participants. The good stuff comes from asking about their daily routines or watching them use a competitor\u2019s product. It\u2019s important to ensure all interviewees fit the criteria of your intended market.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a list of characteristics to identify through consumer surveys or interviews:<\/p>\n Having an up to date picture of your audience\u2019s habits is extremely useful.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t need anything fancy to conduct surveys. Social media and sending survey forms via on emails are great ways to start. Here\u2019s an example of a customer survey by a DTC brand sent on their newsletter, which leads to a survey form:<\/p>\n Analysing your competitors is an easy way to get more details about your target audience. Check out their social media pages and see how their audience engages with them.<\/p>\n Want to have a clear picture of who you are targeting? Use a buyer persona template to outline the characteristics of your target audience. Once you have done your research about your audience, get it on paper so that you can visualize it and take action effectively.<\/p>\n Get your free buyer persona template here<\/a><\/p>\n Now that you know how to define your target audience, let\u2019s look at how you can reach them. You can use one or more of the following methods to introduce your target audience to your brand.<\/p>\n As an eCommerce brand, having a social presence is inevitable for the growth of your business. But, simply creating an account is not enough.<\/p>\n Once you identify the preferred social channels of your ideal buyer, create content that resonates with them and makes them aware of how your products aligns with their needs.<\/p>\n For example, Fablestreet, a clothing brand which sells modern casual wear for women, has an active Instagram page where they share outfit inspiration and other helpful content for their community. They also regularly post content around their products:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A post shared by FableStreet (@fable.street)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n2. Set proper pricing<\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. Build a strong brand<\/strong><\/h3>\n
4. Improve product or service<\/strong><\/h3>\n
5. Maximise marketing results<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Identifying target audiences: the basics<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Who will use the product?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. How will the product be used?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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![\"heelium](\"https:\/\/www.instamojo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/heelium-online-store.png\")
3. What problem(s) or pain points will the product solve?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Saadaa](\"https:\/\/www.instamojo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Screenshot-2022-10-14-at-10.53.59-PM.png\")
How to do audience research<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Industry reports and surveys<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Customer surveys and interviews<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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![\"survey](\"https:\/\/www.instamojo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/survey-email.png\")
<\/p>\nCompetitive analysis<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Free buyer persona template<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"ecommerce](\"https:\/\/www.instamojo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Buyer-Persona-ans-100-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHow to reach your target audience<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Social media<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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