Audience and Target Market

Why is it Important to know your Audience?

If a business owner or marketing professional doesn't know their audience, there is no way to understand why a person or business purchases the products or services they offer. Further more, it makes how to reach that market effectively, ambiguous. Some crucial reasons to why it is imperative for business owners and marketing professionals to know and understand who their audience is, include:

Knowing Key Factors Contributing to a Consumers' Buying Decisions

• Location of the business
• Pricing (How cheap or expensive)
• Quality of product or service
• Time (In relation to life, operations, purchasing, or other external influences)
• Process (How easy is it to make purchase? Steps to take to buy?)
• Personal Influences such as family, friends, groups etc..

How to Create Desire for a Product or Service

• Parallel product pairing (vehicle and gas/oil or weather forecast and umbrellas/sunblock)
• Branding (Ford Motor Co.)
• Association (Built Ford Tough)
• Premium Cognition

Knowing the Means and Methods that work Best

• Print (Newspaper, magazine, flyers..)
• Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube..)
• TV and/or Radio (Commercials, Voiceover Ads..)

Appealing to your Audience - Online and Offline

Presenting your products or services as entrancingly as possible is what a business will need to do so that the target market will engage and convert to a paying customer.

Offline marketing can be used through a number of means, such as, packaging and displaying products more attractively, enhanced condition of your product, higher quality completed services etc. Brand awareness alone could persuade someone to purchase one product over another, (ex. someone might pick up Kraft Dinner over the generic brand.)

Many businesses follow the same basic strategies in the online marketing world. Beginning with a dazzling website that integrate eye-catching elements and call-to-actions (CTA's). Ensuring that a visitor can find what they are looking for as quickly and efficiently as possible.

It is typical to use social media platforms for brand awareness, in hopes that the positive interactions will bring massive exposure or tailored experiences for target audiences.

*It is imperative that a business knows its target market and audience. Remember, it is all about the customer. Success will be determined by how well the business owner(s) gain customer interest.*

What is 'Reach'?

'Reach' - refers to the size of the viewing audience for your marketing campaigns across either offline or online means.

Determining your reach is important, but there is also the factor of 'frequency' of reach. 'Frequency' is referring to the amount of times a person in your audience sees something related to your brand. (ex. If I came across your ad for lawn care 3 times today, for the frequency it is 3, but for reach I am still just 1.)

*It is said that an individual generally needs 3-5 interactions with a brand before it is remembered and converting.*

Because of this, frequency is an integral part of reach.

So, we've talked about reach and the frequency of reach, but what good does all that do if it doesn't resonate with the viewers.

'Relevance' - effective ads and posts must relate to the audience at a specific point in time. Make it fit in the context that the audience will be encountering it.