The Beginners Guide: Target Market Vs Target Audience

Marketing is full of buzzwords.

Some terms sound exactly the same as they sound, like pay-per-click advertising, but others can be vague.

Yes, it is true. These words are where it gets difficult to determine the intent.

Two terms often used interchangeably are target audience and market. However, how many people really know the difference?

It is important to understand the differences between them in order to create a marketing campaign that resonates with your core consumers.

Let’s get on with the beginners guide to target markets, target audiences.

What is a Target Market?

Although we could summarize the differences between target markets, audiences and their respective needs in one or two sentences, that would not give you the information you need to make a decision.

We can dive into marketing terms and give advice on how to use them in your business by breaking down the subject into sections.

Let’s start with the target markets. The target audience is the group that your product or service is meant for.

Your target market is a key part of being a business owner.

You can help your market plan later if you don’t have a launch yet or are still in the early stages of your business.

These are just a few examples.

Starbucks: Starbucks identifies a target market through its brand experience and marketing. Popular coffee chain Starbucks targets middle- and upper-middle class men and women who enjoy cafe-style food and beverages. You’ll find more high-quality drinks and a greater emphasis on quality at each of their locations.

Dunkin’ is at the opposite end of Starbucks’ spectrum. Dunkin’ is geared towards blue-collar workers who want a quick and convenient meal or drink on the move. You’ll notice that Dunkin’s locations are more casual than Starbucks, and offer a more fast-food experience.

Not every company has one target market. You may have multiple target markets if your business offers many goods and services.

What is a Target Audience?

Once you have identified your target market, you can now highlight the target audience to help you see the differences.

Target audience is a smaller group of people in the target market you are trying to reach with your specific advertising strategies.

Your target audience is the group of people who are most likely to buy a product or services.

There will be two types of target audience members: a decision-maker or a supporter. Let’s have a closer look at the different target audiences to gain a better understanding.

Lego:Legos are a great example of toy products that you can look at because they target two different audiences.

Lego’s target market is creative people who want to create fun models to use. You might think this would mean that children between 5 and 15 would be their target market, but they don’t have the buying power.

This situation is where parents who are open to providing educational and fun hobbies for their children are the target audience.

Adverts can be made that target both parents and kids. Lego advertises its products often in an educational manner, but still has enough excitement to keep younger consumers’ attention.

McDonald’s: Another interesting real-world example is McDonald’s. McDonald’s Happy Meal is now the most loved children’s menu item.

We see that the parents are the target audience, and the children are the supporters. McDonald’s markets to both these groups using a dual-pronged strategy. They appeal to parents by providing nutritional information and other health information. The toy is also a way to get the children’s attention.

Like the ones above, you should have multiple markets that are part of your overall target market.

How do you identify potential target audiences?

While learning about your target market and audience is easy, it’s the hard part. Putting these lessons into practice will be quite different.

If you want to run effective marketing campaigns, it is essential to identify potential customers for your business. If you don’t effectively position your brand, you can build the best product in a market but still struggle to find success.

Marketers can use a variety methods to find the right target audience. Let’s look at some that you could use to help your business.

1. Analyze your existing customer base

You can use data from your past business to make future decisions if you have been in the industry for some time. Pull customer data, such as income, location, age, and other information, if you are able.

This data collection can be difficult. It is possible to gather more information about your core customers by including online questionnaires or surveys with purchases.

2. Conduct market research

It is possible to find potential target markets by looking across an entire industry. You can imagine yourself as a customer in this market. Ask yourself what content is looking for.

Observing what your competitors do will give you an idea of who should you be targeting and what to do.

3. Create Buyer Personas

Buyer personas have been a popular topic in marketing over the last few years. A buyer persona is a fictional overview of specific customers who might use your products and services.

Your buyer personas are very narrow views of very particular consumers who interact with your brand. McDonald’s targets parents who want to cook a quick and easy meal for their entire family.

However, the buyer persona in this scenario may be a single father who wants to be the “cool dad.”

How do you reach your target audience?

Once you have established your target market and audience, it is time to create a marketing campaign that resonates with them.

This is the most difficult part of marketing, but you can do it with the right mindset. Although we won’t be able to show you how to create a complete marketing campaign, there are some helpful tips to help you develop a better strategy.

Add additional help

It doesn’t matter if your startup is brand new or you have been in business for several years, adding additional staff can help you market in many ways.

To help you guide your search for new marketing talent, create a hiring plan. The following are the essential elements of a basic hiring plan:

1. Targeted Positions

You need to identify the positions that would be most beneficial for your company. These positions will focus on marketing and consumer behavior. These titles include Director of Content Strategy, Market Research analyst, and Director, Creative Services.

2. Budget Estimate

Although hiring a few new employees will cost you a lot, it is worth it. It may be worthwhile to look into other types of loans that can often be used for business purposes if you are worried about not having enough money.

You can use the funds you have saved or borrowed to pay for hiring costs. Once you begin to hire talent, it is important that you establish a budget.

3. Strategy for Recruiting

To hire the best talent, you must get them excited about working for your company. A marketing plan is the same thing as a strategy for recruiting qualified candidates.

First, identify your target market. Next, think about who you are trying to attract. We recommend posting on job boards, being active on social media and attending recruitment events to reach them.

The ability to hire new employees will increase the capabilities of your marketing team, which in turn should allow you to better identify and reach your target market.

Discover New Channels

Perhaps you found out that your marketing efforts were not aligned with your target audience after this exercise. If you don’t correctly identify your target audience, this can happen. Don’t panic if this happens to your business.

It will take some time to fix your brand’s position in the market, but it is possible. Let’s first identify the channels that can help you position your brand.

1. Local Print and Radio

Radio and print can work in your favor if your target audience is over 50. Radio and print advertising space are very cost-effective today. This space can be used to create targeted ads that highlight your brand.

2. Social Media

Social media has become the preferred channel for targeting consumers in the past few years. Social media marketing is a great option, with more than 80% of Americans having at least one account on social media.

It is important to choose the right channels for marketing. Social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok will prove more successful if your target audience is younger.

If your target audience is older than you, platforms like Facebook or Twitter may be more effective. A social media management tool can help you keep your content organized.

You can also reach your target audience through influencer marketing and affiliate marketing.

Last words

You may be wondering what to do after you have identified your target audience and market and created a campaign that reached them.

Marketers are always looking for ways to improve. This is the best way for you to refine your marketing campaigns.

After your campaign is over, take a moment to review all of the data you have gathered. To compare the campaign to previous campaigns without a target audience, look at specific numbers, metrics and results. You should have done better in the targeted demographics.

We recommend that you conduct surveys and questionnaires in order to get more information than your marketing platforms provide. Ask your audience members and consumers questions such as:

• Have you ever bought X?
• Are you able to recall seeing X commercial?
• What would you do to buy X?

Data gathered directly from your target audience can help you identify areas where improvements could be made to your future marketing campaigns.

You have it! This guide covers everything you need to know regarding target markets and target audience. This guide will help you to use your advantage and reach the right audience with the correct message.

SocialPilot can help you get the social media aspect of your marketing strategy on track. With its automation, scheduling, and analytics, it helps you stay on top of everything and keep you organized.

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The first SocialPilot article was entitled The Beginners Guide to Target Market and Target Audience.

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