Bullseye: How to discover and connect with your target audience

Target market awareness is needed for effective marketing. To determine your target audience you need to do a lot of research and deep thinking on who you are trying to reach and who your program is best suited for. Once this is determined, you can create focused, targeted marketing. The better you know your target audience, the better you can reach them in a meaningful, effective way.

Identify:

The first step is to identify your target market, and this process is started by thinking about who your program is made for. Knowing who you need to reach is useless if you don’t know how to go about connecting with them. That means the next step is identifying the channels to best reach your target customers through. For example, if you are managing a children’s activity program, then consider getting your business listed on parent review sites, blogs, and directories for children's programs. Plus, try and find lists of what parents are looking for in children’s programs these days. You will then be armed with plenty of information on how to cater your product to your audience. By identifying these customers, you know exactly who to go for lead nurturing. It is very powerful to know who is actually interested, so you aren’t pursuing leads that have no interest.

Understand Personas:

In order to connect with anyone in any situation, you should be able to identify and know how to communicate with different types of personas. It can be effective to create example personas for your target audience. By doing this you can categorize leads into different personality types so that you know how best to address them. You can also determine which type of content is best to present to different leads, as well as which channels will resonate best with them. When working on client management, it is important to get to know your customers and their individual needs so you are communicating in the most effective way for that specific customer. When you know your target audience, you should be able to identify the emotional triggers that will compel them to take action. Know their values to reach their heart, and then you have a better chance of getting the results you want. Trust is a very powerful feeling that makes marketing hit in a deep way.

Optimal Channels:

Now that your target audience is determined and well known, you need to locate the optimal channel to reach them through. Knowing the most effective way to reach your audience is a powerful thing. You need to understand what channels your clients prefer to use, and doing research in this area is bound to pay off. Research the competition in your space and look at how they’re reaching customers, and examine what does and doesn't work for them. Be careful not to copy your competitor's methods completely, but use them as a starting point to develop your own technique. You can use the same outlets as your competition, but when doing that be sure to set yourself apart. Get creative and give your customers something they have never seen before, and do whatever you can to catch their attention.

Plan & Execute:

Finally, it is time to create a strategy to promote yourself through the appropriate business channels you determined earlier. When creating your promotion strategy, think out of the box and try to come up with something that will catch people off guard and draw them in. Keep in mind the work you put in earlier to get to know your audience and try to hit those emotional triggers. Consider how to get your name out there and what unique techniques may help you to get more traffic. When doing anything, always bring it back to your target audience and what will appeal to them the best. Creating a solid marketing plan from content creation to execution is crucial to effectively discover and connect with your target audience.

Determining your target audience is essential to effective marketing and there are a lot of steps that go into doing this effectively. Once your audience is determined you should find a way to connect with them. Always go into detail and try to understand the different types of audience personas that engage with your business to ensure you are communicating effectively with each and every different client. By doing this you can accurately target your marketing to reach your target audience through their emotional triggers. Connecting with your target audience also has to do with what mediums you use when doing so. Keep these steps in mind so that you can connect with the correct people in the most effective ways.