Targeting a broad audience that isn’t interested in your products or services – or can’t afford them – might boost website traffic on paper, but it won’t add any money to your wallet. To ensure your business is more than just a hobby, you’ll need to pinpoint your brand’s target audience to hone in on people who will engage with your product and ultimately make repeat purchases.

In a previous blog, we talked about 6 Steps for Small Business Success. How can we grow our target audience?

What is a target audience?

A target audience is a consumer group likely to be interested in your product or service. Many companies base their target audience search on traits like gender, age, occupation, location, socioeconomic status and education level.

How to identify your target audience?

Communication is vital to identifying your target audience. To effectively analyze the buyer data you receive consistently, implement the following best practices:

1. Use the data from your best customers.
   What makes a buyer love your products and make repeat purchases? Look for patterns in information such as when additional purchases are made, as well as the buyer’s location, age and preferred social media platforms. You can also survey your customers if you need specific data reference points.
2. Follow competitors, and track your industry.
   Stealthily watching your competition can help you find ways to improve your services. For example, if your competitors are lacking in the customer service department, invest in additional ways your customers can contact you, such as via online live chat or a Facebook group. 
3. Narrow down your target audience.
   If your business caters more to men than women, it’s vital to market to men. Even if your customers are already predominantly one gender, you can further narrow your market by age group, location, interest and buyer type. 
4. Invest in marketing tools.
   Going through your customer data to find patterns, customer analytics and other pertinent information can be daunting. Fortunately, marketing tools can help you collect and analyze the business data you need to be competitive in your industry.
5. Use hashtags to help leads find you.
   In most cases, businesses will find that their target market spends a great deal of time on at least one social media platform. Whether that platform is Facebook, YouTube or LinkedIn, use analytics to find out where your target market is hanging out.

This blog is based on Business.com

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