Target Market — A 360 Overview

The target market power lens

I was in the same boat before I ran a paid campaign for a client…

Yeah, you are not alone. I was of the opinion that there isn’t any difference between target market and target customer.

Since I wanted to make my way towards campaign, learning more about it was the only option.

If you’re someone who wants to run paid campaigns or start a business, it’s vital to understand about your target market.

Understanding the dynamics of the corporate world is the key to staying afloat in its high tides. The target market and target audience concept will help you do so.

What is the Target Market?

The target market is the final consumer the company wants to sell its products. The procedure involves breaking down the entire market into several segments and redirecting particular marketing strategies towards them.

Generally, you can categorize a target market by location, age, social status, income, and lifestyle. Besides this, a wide range of demographics you can consider include evaluating their careers, interests, hobbies, etc.

What is Target Audience?

A target audience is any group in the massive population who will likely turn into customers of any business. It is the narrower specification of prospects of any venture.

Identifying the target audience will help a business define its core customers and craft marketing strategies. It enables a company to opt for more intentional and personal outreach towards those most likely to convert on their platform.

Types of Target Audience

As mentioned earlier, target audience research enables you to understand the potential customers and their pain points.

The more you drill into your high-value audience segments, the closer they are to convert. Defining your target audience with its specific traits can benefit entrepreneurs.

Before we begin to discuss the perks of evaluating your target audience, it is essential to fathom the four types of target audiences:

Age Group

By focusing on the age of your consumers, you can reach out to them in the most conducive way.

For example, Millenials need a different targeting strategy than the baby boomers. A product for aged adults requires an advertisement that works on modifying their perceptions. In contrast, an item sold to young people asks for a more happening advertisement campaign.

When you use age as one of your strategies, you can concentrate your efforts on the specific factors that tempt that particular age group.

Income Related Grouping

Most of our needs and desires stem because of our financial status.

By analyzing the income of your target audience, you can determine the prices to charge and discounts to offer. For example, products aimed at a high salary group will have more cost than those marketed to low-income groups.

This distinction is based on the value perception and how much your customers can spend.

Gender-Specific Categorization

A gender-specific marketing campaign is aimed to fulfill the needs and wants of consumers according to their gender.

For example, an ad targeting expecting mothers will appeal to the emotions a woman faces as her body transforms. Entrepreneurs can tap into these emotions by providing their consumers with what they need in this phase of life.

When you answer questions and resolve troubles a particular gender segment faces, you automatically turn into a brand they can rely upon.

Geographic Target Grouping

You can meet the needs of particular groups depending upon their geographic location.

Some service outlets, like salons and restaurants, target people living nearby. They have a narrow target audience towards whom they direct their campaigns.

This categorization makes it possible to reach out to people who can impact your business.

Examples of Target Audience

Let’s check out the following target audience examples to understand how it works:

Athletic Shoes

Primary demographics

• Age group: 19–30 years
• Gender: 70% males, 30% females

Primary psychographics

• Considers athletes as role models
• Loyal to a couple of sports brands
• Wants to look stylish but values comfort too

Challenges

• Loves the overall outlook of designer shoes, but they don’t fall within his/her budget limit
• Trying to find footwear that is as good-looking as its comfortable

Preferred content types

• Videos
• Content enriched with visuals
• Social media posts

Organic Protein Bars

Primary demographics

• Age group: 18–30 years
• Gender: 60% male, 40% female

Primary psychographics

• Loves to go out with friends
• Feels loyal towards brands that uphold sustainable values
• Wants to consume a nutritious diet but falters often

Challenges

• Doesn’t have time to eat when they are busy
• Has a confined food budget
• Wants a protein source that they can consume on-the-go

Preferred content types

• Videos
• Events
• Social media recommendations

The Key Difference Between Target Market and Target Audience

A target market is the group of people that any brand plans to reach out with its promotional activities. Meanwhile, the target audience is a segment or group within that market towards which a company redirects its advertisements.

Hence, the target audience is a subset of the target market.

Target Market vs. Target Customer

Target Market is the entire group towards which a brand directs its promotional campaigns. But the target customer is an individual who is most likely to purchase from the brand.

Having a well-defined target customer allows you to start a genuine conversation with that customer.

Once a company has cultivated genuine relations with the target customers, they will likely benefit from loyal customers and recommendations.

How to Identify Your Target Market?

The following steps should help you to identify your target market from a massive population:

• Analyze the customer base and carry out their interviews
• Market research to determine the current trends
• Study the competitors
• Creating personas
• Use Google Analytics

Following these steps will help a business to chalk out its target customers. It refines their promotional strategies and allows them to tweak their product or service according to customers’ demands.

Key Benefits provided to a Business

When a business knows its target market, tailoring its pitch becomes easier. Some other perks they can enjoy from this knowledge are:

• Refined target market — They have a clear picture of their potential customers
• Staying objective — They address the pain points of the prospects instead of providing unnecessary services or information
• Evaluate their market segments — A deep insight into market segments makes it easy for a business to resolve customers’ issues

How to find your target audience?

After studying the merits of this endeavor, we can safely state that pointing the finger at your target audience is much-needed. Some ways to do so are:

• Create a reader persona to craft blog content that appeals to the target customers
• Study the social media analytics and evaluate what people are looking for
• Check the website performance and examine which CTA gets the most clicks, which tab is opened the most, and what the customers are entering in the “search” bar.

FAQs

What is a target audience?

The target audience is a group in the population likely to become customers of any business.

Who is the target audience?

The target audience is a group in the market who should view your ad campaign. It may be dictated by gender, age, income, location, and a myriad of other factors.

How to find your target market?

Finding your target market is a process that involves plenty of research and examination. It starts from studying your current customer base, evaluating your product/service in light of customers’ perceptions, and modifying them to suit customer demands.

Using resources and analyzing the competitors is a core step to finding your target market.

Final Thoughts

Having a vivid picture of the target market can make oodles of difference in how a brand runs its marketing campaign. According to Shopify Plus, Global B2C ecommerce sales were expected to hit $4.5 trillion by 2021.

If the virtual world keeps expanding at this pace, it will significantly impact the corporate sector. Staying on the edge of research is essential to know all about your target market and learn how to grab their attention.