In 2021, people crave authenticity more than anything else. They want to know what brands stand for and if they can align with those brand values. At the end of the day, people don’t want to be sold to – they want to be spoken to.

When it comes to connecting with a target audience, brands need to build up the know, like, and trust factor. They need to make a great first impression that leaves people wanting to know more. So, where do you start?

You start discovering your target market by understanding who your target audience is and how they want to be spoken to. When you’re first building awareness, it’s not about talking about yourself; it’s about talking to the people you’re marketing to. Start by asking, how can I genuinely connect with the people I most want to serve?

Get to Know Them

A target audience is a group of people who consume your products and services. Every single business has one (or more) target audience.

If you want to build up the know, like, and trust factor with your target audience, you have to know who they are.

3 Ways to Find Your Target Audience:

Defining your target audience can be tricky. Sometimes brands misidentify their target audiences. In other words, brands may not be reaching potential customers because they don’t really know who they are.

Every single brand benefits from understanding its target audience.

Develop a buyer persona

A buyer persona is a profile of your ideal customer. The profile includes a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer’s short and long-term goals based on market research. A buyer persona may consist of a range of demographic information, including location, age, and income. It should be as detailed as possible to know who your ideal customer is so you can create the types of content that attract more people who cannot get enough of your business.

We actually created an updated buyer persona in 2020 for Smack Happy!

First, we revisited our brand messaging to make sure that we still felt aligned with our mission, vision, and values.

Second, we conducted some market research and sent a survey to our clients to better understand how we’ve helped them and what they were looking for when they originally came to us.

Lastly, we created our buyer persona! We outlined the specific challenges that clients face when they come to us and what they’re ultimately looking for. We also considered what motivates them, how they consume information, their buying preferences, and more.

By the end, we had a detailed profile of the type of person we want to work with, and we’ve even used this information to help inform our new website design (after you finish reading this blog, go ahead and poke around the site)!

We made sure that every detail (in our design and copy) speaks to our ideal target audience so that they feel seen, heard, and represented.

Branding for Your Target Audience

A buyer persona helps business owners attract ideal customers. While a buyer persona helps identify a target audience, branding helps a business stand out to its target audience. Branding helps give small business the recognition it deserves.

The right branding helps you stand out and stay top of mind. It helps you become unforgettable to your target audience. Incorporating a well-crafted branding campaign with your marketing strategy will speak directly to your target audience and inspire them to become loyal customers.

Understand customer concerns

Understanding customer concerns can help you get to know your customers better and quicker. Keeping up with their concerns not only involves great customer service but marketing and advertising as well.

What makes customers happy?

Take time to speak with current customers about their experiences- good and bad. It’s an excellent way for you to know what makes your customers happy and what to avoid doing in the future.

If you want to better understand what influences potential customers to purchase or object, ask them.

The platinum rule of doing business: keep your clients happy, and they’ll keep coming back.

If you want your potential customers to know you, like you, and trust you, then you should take some time to get to know them first. What keeps them up at night? What song do they listen to on repeat?

Even the little things count because what you’re doing is building a relationship with them and taking the time to show them that you care. And that goes a long way. Some would even say it helps people fall in love with your brand.

When your audience is happy, everyone is happy.

Know your competition

Brands should know who their competitors are for sales purposes, but having this information can also help them identify their target audience.

Simply observe who your competitors are targeting, and acknowledge if their audience is similar to yours or if your audience is a bit different.

The fact that someone else is doing something similar to you is a good thing. It means that there is a need for your products and services. And instead of looking at your competition as that – competition – see them as collaborators and remind yourself that work is abundant for everyone. Plus, no one has your unique style, flair, and personality, and your target audience will choose you for you. They’ll want to work with a brand they can relate to and identify with.

Marketing experts can help you quickly identify your audience.

Are you stumped as to just who your audience is? Find the right marketing expert, and your target audience will be quickly identified and reached. The right marketing expert will have your business branded just right to help you reach your goals.

Knowing your audience is about knowing who you most want to serve.

Strong brands inspire strong connections. So ask yourself, who do you love to connect with? Who are you working with when you’re doing your best work? Who are you having a conversation with that turns into a client relationship without you even trying? When you show up as your full self, you attract people who want to work with you. So who are they? And how do your products or services help to change their lives? Because your target audience isn’t the output of some marketing algorithm. They are living, breathing human beings on the other side of the screen who need someone to help them out with a specific problem they’re facing. Are you that person to help them?

If you are, show up and reach out to them. They’re looking for you. Want some help telling your brand story and connecting with your target audience? We’d love to help. And don’t forget to poke around our new site and check out some of our latest branding work!