How to Identify Your Target Audience

Being a successful business owner all starts with knowing your target audience. If you aren’t aware of your target audience, I would suggest taking the time to organize your thoughts in order to get a firm grasp on who you’re going to serve and how you’re going to serve them.

In order to get a good grasp on your target audience, ask yourself these three questions to know who you’re going to benefit.

What needs and wants are you trying to fulfill?
A product or a service is all created from needs and wants that you’re trying to fulfill. For me, I’m trying to fulfill the NEED of female business owners having a consistent marketing strategy and the WANT of shining on social media. Taking this need and want into consideration, I crafted my copy to attract those needs and wants.

What are your interests?
Working with clients who interest you is one of the most important things. If you don’t feel emotionally invested or interested in the project, then you most likely won’t be putting your 100% effort into your work. This is something I struggled with – when I started my first business two years ago, I accepted any client I wanted because I just wanted to grow my business. But then I realized I was dealing with clients who had businesses that just didn’t interest me – so I felt that I couldn’t wholly contribute. I ended up ending my contracts with them, and my business actually BENEFITTED from that. I’m now more conscious of the clients I take on, as I want to make sure that they’re a part of my target market. For me, my interests are fashion, beauty, exercising, women in business, having a good time, and building confidence – ALL of my current clients fit at least one aspect of those interests.

What are your skills?
Make a list of what you’re good at and refer back to it when putting together your services page. Your skills are important because they will help to define your services and products as well as who will benefit from them. For me, my skills are social media management – specifically Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram – and blogging. I ONLY help clients who need these services – I don’t try to stretch myself to do anything else. Know what you’re good at and offer it – you’ll end up attracting the right people.

I’ll admit that when you first start your business, it may be hard to really zone in on who your target audience is – it may take a LOT of trial + error, but you will eventually realize the type of people that is best for you. I’ll be honest when I say that I’m STILL trying to focus on who I serve best, but each day I continue remind myself of my values and “perfect client.” How would you describe your target audience?