Target audience: what is it, what is it for and how to create one?

The digital world has brought many changes, and not only related to technology, it has also influenced many aspects in all areas. However, the methods and systems used before all this revolution, also allowed the achievement of good results.

That is why we must know what they were based on and discover how we can apply that knowledge to complement the techniques we currently practice.

One of the skills of marketing is the power it has to reach a large number of people through techniques that allow promoting a product, service or brand. This is because before choosing the best strategy, the target audience is considered.

Therefore, we are going to learn a little more about this public, how it is built and what it is for. are you coming with me?

What is the target audience?

The target audience is a group of people that meets the general characteristics of individuals who consume or need our product, service or brand.

We can define our target audience through some demographic criteria, such as age, gender and socioeconomic level. This information can be supplemented with some other data, according to the segment in which we operate.

Each type of public demands a different treatment, it is not the same to address a 63-year-old woman as a 22-year-old, for example.

From the definition of a target audience, it is easier to choose the ways to reach the audience you want to conquer.

How is the target audience built?

To build the target audience for your business you have to know some characteristics of the group you want to become future customers. The essential facts you need about them are:

• gender;
• age;
• location;
• social class;
• purchasing power;
• training;
• main consumption habits.

With this data you can now create your target audience, considering the ranges of the majority. Here is an example of a target audience:

“Women, between 35 and 40 years old, who reside in the city of Quito, class B, with a monthly income between 700 and 1,200 dollars, with higher education, who make monthly purchases in large supermarkets.”

What is the target audience for?

Having clear what the target audience of a brand is, the following can be defined:

The language to be used when talking to them

As I told you before, it is very different to talk to men and women with quite different age ranges. Therefore, by having a well-defined target audience, you will know how to target them correctly in order to reach them more easily.

The way your campaigns will be done

The visual part of your campaigns also depends on your audience, from the use of colors to the type of images you are going to use. If you know who you are targeting, it will be easier to choose these details correctly.

The vehicles where your campaigns will be published

By knowing your audience, it will be easier for you to understand which are the media they consume most frequently and that is where you should channel your campaigns. In this way, you will be able to reach the public that can really consume your product.

As a consequence of having defined all this, you optimize your resources.

By focusing on an audience with a higher probability of becoming a customer, you get better results and, by directing all your efforts on them, you spend much less than if you were directed to anyone.

To create an effective strategy, the more information about your audience that you can use to your advantage in your campaigns, the better.

If you know your market you will be able to decide more easily which are the most effective marketing actionsthis will allow you to know which stocks to invest in and which ones can become useless expenses that will waste your time with those who will probably never become your clients.

What is the difference between the target audience and the buyer person?

In digital marketing, the term target audience was displaced by buyer persona. They have many similarities, but also great differences. Let’s see a little more about this.

The buyer persona is somewhat more specific than the target audience. While the target audience is generally defined, the buyer persona is the ideal client defined with all its characteristics, even the most minimal, taking into account your needs, problems and desires.

The target audience is a group of people, and the buyer person is only one, they even have a name and in some cases even a physical image.

So that you better understand the difference, here is a summarized example of a buyer persona:

“Mara, 36, marketing manager of a large company in Santiago, has a postgraduate degree in digital marketing. Married with a teenage son, she likes to go out of town with her family at least once a month. She loves her job , but she feels pressured and is thinking of opening her own business.”

As you can see, the buyer persona reflects the ideal client and not a group of people like the target audience does.

In some cases within digital marketing, the buyer persona has so many details that what really matters sometimes remains in the background. For this reason it is good to bring a bit of the concept of the target audience so as not to forget what the true purpose of its construction is.

Directing the efforts of a campaign to a specific audience will always help us to bring good results. The way we will define our audience will depend on the niche we are in, as well as the objectives we have to achieve the results we expect.

If you want to better understand the difference between buyer personas and the target audience, do not miss this article that will help you clarify all your doubts.