{"id":71274,"date":"2023-06-23T18:57:59","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T18:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/glossary\/target\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T11:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T11:42:13","slug":"target","status":"publish","type":"glossary","link":"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/target\/","title":{"rendered":"Target"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The target is the group of people a company aims its products, services and communication at, because they are the most likely to buy them.<\/strong> It is also called the target audience, target market or target customer.<\/p>\n\n

Defining your target helps you decide what to sell, at what price, through which channels and with which messages. Without one, your marketing speaks to everyone and convinces no one.<\/p>\n\n

What does target mean?<\/h2>\n\n

Target<\/em> literally means the mark or bullseye, the point you aim at. Marketing has used it since the 1950s to name the audience a brand is “aiming” at.<\/p>\n\n

Spanish speakers often misspell it as “tarjet”, “traget” or “targuet”. The correct spelling is target<\/strong>, and its plural is targets<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

What is a company’s target?<\/h2>\n\n

A company’s target is the profile of the ideal customer it is aimed at. It is not “anyone who might buy”, but the specific group that gets the most value from the product and brings the most value to the business.<\/p>\n\n

Think of an online English school. Its audience might be professionals aged 25 to 45 who need the language for work and are short on time.<\/p>\n\n

A company can have several audiences: one primary and one or two secondary. They also change over time, as the market and the company itself change.<\/p>\n\n

Types of target<\/h2>\n\n

Depending on the characteristics used to describe it, these are the most common types of target:<\/p>\n\n

Type<\/th>What it considers<\/th>Example<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Demographic<\/td>Age, gender, marital status, income, education level<\/td>Women aged 30 to 45 with children<\/td><\/tr>
Geographic<\/td>Country, region, city, climate, urban or rural setting<\/td>Residents of a neighborhood within a 5 km radius<\/td><\/tr>
Psychographic<\/td>Values, lifestyle, interests, personality<\/td>People who care about sustainability<\/td><\/tr>
Behavioral<\/td>Buying habits, frequency, loyalty, product usage<\/td>Customers who buy from the online store every month<\/td><\/tr>
Digital<\/td>Social networks they use, devices, how they search and shop online<\/td>Users who shop on their phones and follow brands on Instagram<\/td><\/tr>
B2B<\/td>Industry, company size, job title of the decision-maker<\/td>Hospitality SMEs with 5 to 50 employees<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n

In practice, targets are described by combining several types. The more specific the combination, the easier it is to get the message right.<\/p>\n\n

Target, target audience and buyer persona: the differences<\/h2>\n\n

Target and target audience are synonyms: both describe a group of people with shared traits.<\/p>\n\n

The buyer persona<\/a> goes one step further. It is a semi-fictional character that represents the ideal customer within that target, with a name, age, job, goals, problems and objections. One tells you “who”; the other helps you understand “how they think”.<\/p>\n\n

Targeting, for its part, is the act of aiming a campaign at that audience. We explain it in customer targeting<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

\"Infographic<\/figure>\n\n
\n

Speak to your target audience with the right message<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Segment your subscriber list and send each group what it is interested in. Free for up to 80,000 emails a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Create a free account<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

How do you define your company’s target?<\/h2>\n\n

You can define it in five steps:<\/p>\n\n

    \n
  1. Analyze your current customers.<\/strong> Look at who buys the most, who comes back and who brings the best margins.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Find what they have in common.<\/strong> Age, location, industry, interests or the reason they buy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Study your competitors.<\/strong> Notice who they are targeting and what gaps they leave uncovered.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Write down the profile.<\/strong> Combine the demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioral traits, and add their needs and problems.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Validate and adjust.<\/strong> Test the profile with surveys, interviews or small campaigns, and review it every so often.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

    A good target is measurable (you know how many people it includes), accessible (you can reach them) and profitable (it pays to target them).<\/p>\n\n

    \"Infographic<\/figure>\n\n

    Target examples<\/h2>\n\n

    This is how the target audience changes depending on the business:<\/p>\n\n