Before we get into the how’s, let’s talk about why it's important to know your target audience.

Targeting your market is defining who your primary customer will be. When you know who your customer is, you will know how to talk to them and create relevant content. You can speak their language and tailor your message to specifically appeal to them. This is step number one towards lead generation and increasing sales.

Here’s how you can find your perfect customer:

Analyze your product / service:

Your customers don’t buy what you do, they buy what you can do for them. Understand what your product / service is all about. Articulate it’s features and benefits. Make a list of the problems you are solving. How is your product or service improving the lives of people? Having a clear idea about what your business offers will shape your marketing and messaging activities for the better.

Check Your Competition:

Knowing your competition is a very important part of business development. Research thoroughly about the businesses in competition with you. Find out who they are targeting. Read about how they are appealing to their target market. Identify unfulfilled needs of the customer and turn them into competitive advantage.

Create an Ideal Customer Profile:

Depending on your product analysis, define who your ideal customer would be. These are people who you love working with and who love you back. I believe you’re already picturing a group as your target audience, let me stop you there! We want to speak to the decision maker. You want to find out who is making the buying decision and appeal to that person.

Identify Specific Demographics and Psychographics:

Here’s what you’re going to do. Go neck deep into your customer database, spot trends and similar characteristics. If you don't have a customer base to go through, build one! Talk to people who you wish to work with, learn about them. Based on this information create a very specific person who is going to be your ideal customer. Give it a name, think about factors like age, gender, income, location, education, family status, occupation, ethnic background etc. Consider their psychographic factors such as personality, core values, hobbies, lifestyle, behaviour, motivations, pain points, etc.

When you get into your customers' shoes and think about things from their point of view, you are able to imagine the gap between your product / service and your ideal customer. Now it's easier for you to bridge this gap since you are aware of what is stopping them from becoming your customer.

Tailor your voice and marketing campaigns towards solving these problems for them. Appeal to your customers self interest and ask the question what's in it for them? Get on the platforms that they are most active on. Find out which Facebook groups they’re a part of, check which instagram pages or influencers they follow and leverage these platforms to get right in front of them. Establish emotional connections. This is how you will build trust and ultimately grow your business.

Are you wondering that if you target only a specific customer profile, you are losing onto potential customers? It’s quite the opposite. You're just getting rid of the noise. What you’ll end up actually doing is building a community of look-a-like customers. A community of people who love and trust you and will voluntarily be the advocates for your business.

Remember! It’s 2020, and customers no longer buy brands. They join them.