Defining your target audience is probably one of the hardest decisions you’ll have to make. Despite it being a standard marketing practice; many web-experts don’t spend enough time to identify their target audience, but can you blame them? It is one of, if not the most, time-consuming process.
The thing is, some things are just unavoidable and can’t be swept under the carpet. If you want to optimize your strategy, know this – any time you think you saved on not researching correctly will come back to haunt. How? If you don’t know what your potential client wants, then how can you market it to him?
This is not just for the rookies – this goes out to all affiliate marketers, experienced or not.
Who is my audience?
The first thing you need to do is answer these questions:
- Age
- Gender
- Ethnicity
- Location
- Marital Status
- Education
- Occupation
- Equity
When you answer these questions, then you begin to paint a picture of the demographic that suits the profile of the audience you want to sell your services. This is not to say that there are limitations – that’s the beauty of affiliation. For instance, if you’re advertising real estate and then referring clients to agencies, you have a much broader audience – as we’ve already established in a previous article, somewhere someone is always looking to buy or rent a house.
So now that you’ve analyzed and profiled who your services would be most suitable for, you can start tailoring your content to meet their needs – visually and mentally. There’s no golden strategy that’s universal and works for everyone and everything. Just like everything life, this is a process of constant growth and trial and error. The only way to find out what works for you is to try it, track the results, and optimize as you go.
Where can I find my audience?
This is a very vague question, and any answer would be equally ambiguous. Where you can find your audience depends on many things like what your product is, what strategies are competitors of the industry using, and your resources. No one says you can’t reinvent the wheel, but especially if you’re just getting started, it’s best to stick to a wheel that’s already been tested. Once you’re comfortable with your product, your audience, and your approach, you can experiment without worrying.
Now I know this may sound a little creepy, but any data on your audience will only help you optimize your approach.
Watch out for:
- Websites they share
- Social media posts
- Events they attend
- Popular hot spots
- If they are using a forum
Now for the tricky part – propelling your marketing campaigns to the next level. That requires the secret ingredient, and the ironic thing is it’s not so secret, and everyone has it – Empathy.
How do I empathize with my target audience?
The empathy exam: the key to unlocking your ultimate marketing strategy. For this, you’ll need to go the extra mile – follow their additional activity online. See where your target audience is shopping, what they’re reading and watching. Aha! You just found where you’re going to place your ads. Not only will you optimize your exposure, but you’ll be able to find other relevant content so you can better develop your own. It’s worth it, and to be honest – it does make or break you.
So, you know where your target audience comes from, where they like to hang out, what their marital status is, what they buy, or would like to purchase. Ok, let’s take a step back for a minute. It seems like you may now know too much or at least enough to deduce some personality traits. Now it’s time to examine intent. – What are their intentions?
This is where psychology becomes a big piece of the puzzle. Let’s call this process of analyzing personality traits “psychographics,” and it starts with recognizing the traits of your target audience and then the incentive behind the action. This is one of the most significant pieces of the puzzle, so we’ll dedicate an entire article to breaking down “psychographics,” so stay with us and become a master at marketing your product online.
