What is a Target Audience?

A target audience refers to the specific group of consumers most likely to want your product or service. There are many factors that define a target audience such as age, gender, income, location, interests or any other factors that your audience may have in common. 

Your target audience might be very specific or broad depending on the products you sell.  For example, if you sell coffee machines to both home users and to cafe owners, your target audience is likely to be broad as you are catering for a big section of the coffee industry and its consumers. However if you sell industrial coffee machines then your target audience would be more specific as your everyday coffee drinker would not be interested in your product. 

Why is it important to know your target audience?

It is important to know your target audience so you know who to market your products to. This will help guide your marketing strategy and how you present yourself on social media.

This will also help you decide where you would like to advertise your products. For example, if you sell coffee beans, there is no point advertising your product at a camping equipment store as it won’t reach the people that are most likely to want coffee beans. 

In addition, knowing your target audience helps you build relationships and partnerships with the right people. For example, you want your brand ambassadors to like and understand the coffee industry, so getting someone who only drinks tea is not going to help as they do not interact with your target audience. 

How to define your target audience:

To find your target audience, you should take note of social media analytics as well as the various analytics from your website and from your current consumers. This will help you narrow down your target audience as it will give you a range for your specific demographic. 

The best way to discover your target audience is to see who is currently buying your products. Factors that you should look out for in these consumers are: 

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Hobbies
• Income
• Education level
• Profession
• Other brands that they use 

These factors will help narrow down who you should market your product towards and will ultimately help you decide what is the best way to market your product. For example, people who work in financial services may prefer products that have a direct approach to their marketing, unlike someone who works in a creative space who may want you to add something funny and lighthearted to your marketing. 

Where should you start?

Try and do some market research about the coffee industry to find out what the latest trends are when it comes to the industry. Social media is a great place to see what is trending at the moment. Also look at what your competitors are doing and try to understand where your product could help your target audience in a way that your competitor’s product couldn’t. Find your niche that only you can give your consumers.

Another way of getting your target audience is to define what your target audience isn’t – try to be specific in finding out who your audience is and who it isn’t. Is your demographic 20-30 year old baristas who work in cafés or is your target audience 30 – 40 year olds who like to make coffee at home? These two groups would require two different marketing strategies as they would have various different interests, habits and  life goals. 

When it comes to target audiences, it is important to keep track of who is interacting with your products and content. By using Google Analytics as well as the various social media analytics, you can keep track of your demographics and how they change over time. 

At PDG Media we do monthly updates on your target audiences and demographics so that you don’t have to! Get in touch to learn more about social media management and analytics.