How to make your product, product or service popular? In the modern world, any financial expenses, whether going to the supermarket, visiting a museum or relaxing at a resort, are perceived by people as investments that must solve a problem, generate income or have an ultimate goal. And the more attractive this or that investment is from the point of view of the result, the more money a person is ready to spend.
What is the target audience?
In order for your product to become a way for someone to achieve a real goal, you need to know how to determine your target audience. To begin, let's understand the essence of this concept.
The target audience is a set of potential consumers, that is, those people whose problem your service or product can solve. For a more accurate determination of the needs of a particular group, the entire population of individuals is usually divided into segments by gender, age, social status and financial status.
When introducing a new product to the market, all manufacturers dream of making it popular and successful. But, unfortunately, rarely does anyone know how. Defining the target audience of the product means laying the foundation, relying on which it will be possible to slowly and without unnecessary costs build a reliable advertising campaign.
Limit or summarize?
In determining the target audience, many experts make a common mistake. Unfortunately, it can have negative consequences. For example, they believe that a clear restriction of a certain group of people as a target audience and orientation of the promotion policy only to them will expose the product to the risk of losing consumers who could make a spontaneous purchase.
But this is a myth. Today, the share of random purchases in the market is extremely small. Its percentage is steadily falling, which is explained by a decrease in household incomes and, accordingly, more accurate cost planning. That is why it is very important how to correctly identify the target audience, and competently orient the promotion precisely on it.
Target Audience Features
Knowing the basic characteristics and criteria will help you figure out how to determine your target audience without any problems. . This group of people has the following characteristics:
- Interest. People should be interested in the product, seek information. It is difficult to sell a car to someone who does not know how to drive and is not going to study.
- Ability to acquire. The group to which the advertising message is oriented must have the means to purchase and have the need to complete it.
- Willingness to change loyalty to the current seller when exerting marketing pressure. Fanatical brand followers cannot be interested in even the most ironic arguments. In order to respond to your message, the buyer must be ready for dialogue.
The correct definition of the target audience implies its compliance at the same time with all three parameters, since an interested consumer, ready to move from a competitor to you, may simply not have sufficient financial ability. Or, on the contrary, have money and need a product, but be a strict adherent of another brand.
More criteria!
The second, no less common mistake made in the process of identifying target groups is the insufficiency of the criteria used. To correctly identify and take into account the needs of a particular person, it is not enough to know his age, place of residence and gender.
Within the same age group, there may be consumers with diametrically opposed hobbies, various psychological characteristics and lifestyle. The deeper your immersion in the world of potential buyers, the more you learn about them. And you’ll better understand what problems they can solve.
Ask yourself the right questions.
For a clearer picture of how to determine your target audience, experienced professionals recommend compiling a list of questions. Having answered them in detail, you can imagine the final consumer in as much detail as possible and find the shortest path to it.
- Determine the gender of your consumer, decide for whom you are manufacturing your product. Winter shoes can be created for both sexes, but for ladies it will be graceful boots, and for men - practical boots.
- Identify the age category of the people you work for. Try not to spray. The sharper the border, the more accurate the sending direction. Thin stiletto winter boots are unlikely to suit older women, and teens prefer running shoes even in winter.
- In what area do your consumers live? And if they will use your products, how? It is much easier to determine the target audience of the product, if you understand that leather insulated winter boots are good for the city in the middle lane, and high boots for the village of the far north.
- What does a potential buyer do? Where and in what position does he work? The motivation in the decision-making process directly depends on the level of education and the social status of a person. A wealthy lady-leader can easily decide on the purchase of a second or even a third pair of winter boots, while the trolley bus driver will barely have enough money and imagination for one weekend shoe for each season.
- What excites your consumer? What are his problems? Does he want to dress warmer in winter? Or maybe become more stylish? Or just feel comfortable in good shoes in a slushy winter? The answers to these questions are also important.
Create a description
After answering the questions, make a description of the consumer. Analyze the lifestyle of your recipient: where does he go, what TV shows does he watch? Rides in a car and listens to the radio? And maybe he reads an advertisement on the rear window of a trolley bus? What restaurants does he take his wife to, what films does he like to watch with his children?
A detailed story about the person for whom you created your product will quickly help you understand: where and what kind of advertising should be placed, in which news blocks to insert a promotion video. And also where to put the booklet: in the mailbox or on the table of the nearest beauty salon. Are you still wondering how to identify your target audience? Then we consider special cases.
Determining the audience of the company
Organizing your own business, especially at the initial stage, requires not only material, but also intellectual costs. And not in the very last place, along with the ability to correctly draw up a business plan and develop a development strategy, there is such a need, as to determine the target audience of the company. That is, to understand who your efforts will be directed to.
A feature of determining the target audience of a company is the choice between an individual buyer and a business as a consumer. The analysis of the first group is more complicated. The market, to which it is oriented, is subject to significant fluctuations, which means it is characterized by low stability. The choice of the second segment as the target audience is less lable, but requires significant development costs.
Target audience for the site.
The specifics of determining the target audience of an Internet resource consists in a clear understanding of who and for what purpose this or that content may be interesting. When developing a website promotion strategy, it is important to consider not only the gender, age and income level of potential users of the resource, but also the operating system and browser that they use. And such a factor as a place of residence, on the contrary, will not be of paramount importance.
Features of the promotion of Internet resources dictate the need for a more thorough study of the interests of the audience. But, on the other hand, they provide an opportunity to attract the so-called random consumers. For example, by promoting “do-it-yourself car repair”, you’ll attract to your website not only representatives of your target audience, but also users who have entered “car repair” or “do-it-yourself repair” as a request.
Another method that will help you quickly navigate in how to determine the target audience of the site will be the use of key phrases with low, medium frequency and competitiveness when planning your promotion. In order to make your group as specific as possible, do not use comprehensive “windows”. Select, for example, "wooden windows with double-glazed windows."
How to determine the target audience of the service?
Determining the target audience is a laborious process that requires special education and significant experience. The success of an advertising campaign directly depends on how competently and accurately potential customers are identified and how their needs are identified and taken into account in detail. And the return on funds invested in the promotion.
In addition, knowledge of how to determine the target audience and analyze the behavioral characteristics of the group will make it possible to create a service that best solves the problems of consumers and surpass the capabilities of competitors. In addition, it will be possible to predict a change in consumer preferences. As well as the behavioral characteristics of the target audience. Based on this, the manufacturer will timely correct the features of promotion. He will have the opportunity to identify and apply the most effective motivation to influence the addressee's decision to purchase.