Target

The target or target audience is, in marketing, the consumers whose characteristics and needs make them the most desirable to sell products and services to. They are also often referred to by other names such as: niche market, potential customers, etc.

In other words, the target audience is the segment of people for whom the sale of a certain product or service is oriented. Just as companies evolve, a company’s target does not always have to be the same; it evolves, so the marketing strategy should also be adapted.

1. Advantages of defining the target

The target definition phase is vital for campaigns to be successful, if you are not able to do it correctly, your campaign won’t work. It doesn’t matter if you offer a very good product or service, if you offer it to the wrong target audience. Segmentation is the key to success.

Therefore, let’s list the main advantages of defining the target:

• It allows you to put the focus of your marketing strategy on a certain segment of the population, so that you can set much more concrete and real objectives.
• You will avoid wasting money, both time and money, on campaigns aimed at a target audience that is not the right one for your product or service.
• It builds customer loyalty and retains customers by establishing longer-term links, since offering them what they need in the right way generates a relationship of trust that lasts over time.
• The better the knowledge of the target audience, the better the results of your marketing actions, since you will have knowledge of their problems and how to solve them.
• It allows you to achieve a higher percentage of sales and conversions than if you don’t define the target and try to reach a more general audience.
• You can focus on the most appropriate channels to get in touch with your potential customers and impact them according to your marketing strategy.

2. How to define your target?

When it is time to define your target, it is necessary to ask a series of questions about your company and your customer, the answers to which will allow you to successfully define your target audience. The questions can be as many as you wish, but these can be considered as the minimum for

Demographics

The first thing to do is to create a demographic segmentation, for this we have to ask ourselves:

• Age? Once we know their age, we will be able to define the right tone for marketing actions.
• Gender? Although the trend is towards inclusive campaigns (avoiding stereotypes), it is still vital to understand subscriber’s gender to correctly target campaigns.
• Family situation? The goal here is to ask questions such as: Are they married, single, with or without children?

Location

Location is vital for defining your target.

• Where do they live? Both for e-commerce that sells globally and for a local e-commerce, it is interesting to know this data in order to create local and global campaigns correctly.

Socio-cultural profile

At this point we go deeper into the demographics of our target, to obtain details that allow a more precise segmentation:

• Do they study or work? If they are studying, we can ask the question: What is their level of studies? And if they work, for example, what is their job? That is vital for understanding their purchasing power.
• Children’s age? If they have children, this information is important for any campaign.
• Do they have a pet? Important data to discover some of the target’s values.
• Hobbies? Lifestyle and the practice of sports are fundamental for preparing targeted campaigns.
• Do they read regularly? Any data that helps to create a detailed profile is welcome.

Digital profile

This is one of the most important, as it gives us a very precise idea of where we can find they and how they move in the current ecosystem of social media and web services:

• Social media networks? Identify which social media platforms they use and the frequency of use. Use of digital devices? They are linked to their age, but knowing whether they use mobile, tablet or PC is very relevant.
• Do they buy online? If so, try to obtain data on the places they use to get information before making the purchase: Google? Social media? Blogs?

Their needs

The ultimate goal is to satisfy our target, but before that it is necessary to know their needs or problems, to determine whether we can respond to it with our services or products.

• What are their needs? In order to assess whether we are able to solve them and show them that we are capable of doing so through our digital marketing campaigns.
• What are their dreams and aspirations? The objectives that the target has in the short and medium term.