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Define your target audience

When thinking about who might be in your audience, try to imagine the people who identify with your brand. Who would be interested in your brand? Who might be in need of your services and/or products? Who are you selling for?
Personal Branding
7 min read
Virginie Dardenne
Last Updated
October 22, 2021

1. Who are they?

When thinking about who might be in your audience, try to imagine the people who identify with your brand. Who would be interested in your brand? Who might be in need of your services and/or products? Who are you selling for?

One way to find out is to track who already engages with you on social media. Who follows you on your business pages? Look at who engages with your competitors' posts. Who follows, likes and comments on these posts?

Bottom line is, if someone is willing to engage with you and your posts, then chances are they are your target audience.

2. What are their biggest challenges or desires?

What you personally think is interesting might not necessarily be the case for your audience, even though you could have similar interests. Whenever you are posting on your social media you need to think about what your audience would like to know more about. What interests them? What do they struggle with? Try putting yourself in their shoes.

Business owners often make the mistake of posting about what they think is interesting, but that's not the right approach to take. It's important to invest time in understanding what difficulties your audience is facing and how you can help to resolve those.

  • You should do thorough research, rely on your previous experiences and analyze your customer's potential behaviour to know what to post on your social media platforms.
  • Setting up a survey or a feedback form for your current customers or followers might also help you understand their point of view.

3. Where do they look for information?

The next step is to identify which channel is most relevant for your target audience. Ask yourself the question of where your target audience is most active and where they look for information.

Are you looking to target job applicants? They are most likely on LinkedIn where they can find useful information on how to write a great cover letter or a modern CV.

Here's an overview of the most popular social media channels and what their main purpose is:

  • LinkedIn: Probably the most used B2B social channel where you can target individuals and companies from different industries. It's a great social network channel if you are looking to generate leads.
  • Twitter: The perfect platform to share thoughts, ask questions and knowledge. It's mainly a text-based network and has a limit of 280 characters for each tweet.
  • Facebook: The most popular social media channel, great for both B2C and B2B. It's great for brand loyalty and relationship building.
  • Instagram: A social media channel where the visual aspect is very important. Usually used for B2C, because it's great to showcase products, but it can be great for B2B companies to build awareness and work on (employer) branding.
  • Pinterest: Pinterest is an image sharing service, often used to discover recipes, home ideas, style inspiration and other ideas to try.
  • TikTok: A social channel focused on short-form videos, ranging from a 15 seconds to 3 minutes. Educational and entertaining content is great for this, as well as bloopers and tutorials.
  • Youtube: The best social media channel if you are looking to use long-form video content.

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4. What real added value do you offer?

Everyone wants to find solutions for their problems to make their lives easier. This is a collective desire and it’s certainly no different for your target audience.

You should think about the problems your business can solve and ask yourself the following questions:

  • What benefits does your product or service offer?
  • What problems does your business have a solution for?
  • What is the main added value?
  • What questions might your potential customers have?
  • What does your target audience want to know more about?

With so much competition going on in pretty much every industry, you have to try and find your own take and approach in your niche and keep innovating.

A great added value and hook might be to offer something your competitors don't, such as free content, a free trial period or excellent customer service.

5. What draws their attention negatively?

Knowing what your target audience likes is one thing, but avoiding what they consider to be negative is equally important. You should always try to have an optimistic approach and stay away from anything that they dislike.

With this powerful information in hand, you will have more chances to captivate the attention of your potential customers.

6. Who do they trust?

Trust is everything to your target audience. As we've mentioned at the very beginning of this e-book, no one purchases a product or service from a company they don't trust. They want to see that you've actually done a good job with other clients and want to read previous experiences. These take form in customer reviews.

Reviews are important because they build trust and give you a certain credibility and reputation.

As the reputation of your company is crucial, taking care of the relationship with your customers is essential as they spread information about your brand on the internet and to their peers, friends and family. Everyone has internet access and can read whatever has been said about you or your company.

Receiving and sharing good reviews helps to build a positive reputation, customers will be more motivated to work with you.

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Finding your business's ideal niche in 4 steps
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