Defining Your Target Audience

Your target customer is the specific and narrowly defined group of people you aim to serve with your business. This audience is also sometimes called your niche market. It’s tempting to think that if your audience is huge (women ages eighteen to eighty, or anyone who likes art), that means it will be easier to reach your customer. Actually, the opposite is true. Think of an image of a target. Hitting the bull’s-eye of the target means you’ve hit the mark. It’s not a huge area. It is important to narrow your target in a meaningful way so you can easily find and communicate to your intended audience. Otherwise, you will be wasting time, money, and effort unsuccessfully reaching many people who are not interested in what you have to offer. Not only does this waste resources, it also can erode your sense of value and confidence in your offer. In terms of target audience, trying to be all things to all people usually results in not being anything to anyone.

Psychographics are values-based assessments of customers. They describe what brands they buy, how they spend their time, and what work they do. Following are some questions to help you understand the psychographics of your customer.

Demographics describe quantifiable physical, vocational, educational, and geographic attributes including age, sex, race, address, level of education, salary, job title, work status, marital status, and family situation.