10 Questions to Ask Your Target Audience Before Starting a Business

Gathering information about your target prospect can help you build an accurate buyer personal and ensure that you are expending your marketing budget in the right way. Basic demographics matter, but your market research won’t be complete until you have the answers to these critical questions as well.

10 Questions to Ask Your Target Audience Before Starting a Business

How Old Are You?

Chronological age matters and is covered by the basic demographics, but the generation your target prospect belongs to and the age group they identify with matters as well. A fortysomething who is single and loves fandoms and video games may identify with a more youthful demographic than his businesslike, father of four peers.

How Can We Get in Touch?

Will your target respond to texts — or not be able to figure them out? Do they prefer a personal phone call, or would that be intrusive? Email? Learning how your target wants to be contacted allows you to target your efforts in a way that resonates and increases your chances of getting read or heard.

Where do You Get Your News?

Learning where your target goes for information and news each day reveals the areas you should be concentrating on when it comes to paid advertising or marketing efforts. If you’re using online surveys, then placing them in the spots your target frequents can help boost your response rates, too.

Who Are You?

At its most basic, demographic information allows you to define your target buyer and begin honing in on that all-important persona. Are they male or female? Young or old? Parents or child-free? Educated or skilled — or both? Learning the basics gives you a framework to build upon later.

Why Do You Buy?

What helps them make that final buying decision? It is seeing a product in action, hearing about it from others or simply spotting a deal they can no longer resist? Knowing “why” someone buys allows you to position your marketing efforts in the correct places. Surveys just after a purchase can help you determine why actual buyers are choosing your products and help you hone in on this information.

What Are You Worried About?

Fears, stressors, and problems are powerful motivators; if your product or service solves a significant worry, you’ll be a hit with your target market.

How Much Do You Make — And How Much Do You Spend?

Money matters in more ways than one. Your target needs to be able to afford your service; to do this, they need to make enough income and keep enough of that income in their budget to buy. If your item is a luxury, then the “fun money” your buyer has to spend may matter more than their actual income.

Where Do You Work?

Not so much the specific company, but the industry and field may be important for your marketing efforts. The field your target works in will impact the friends they have, the groups they join and the places they go; this market research can also help you expose your existing product to new places and prospects you had not formerly discovered.

Who Do You Buy From?

Where do you shop for groceries, clothing and other necessities? What brands do you like the best? Learning about these interests can help you find natural marketing partners and discover which big brands you should be watching, too.

What Do You Do For Fun?

Hobbies, books, movies and favorite television shows can give you added insight into your target prospects interests. They also give you something to talk about; people are usually willing to chat about and answer questions about things they enjoy. A question like this makes a nice ice-breaker for in-person surveys — and reveals additional demographic information, too.

Learning more about your buyer persona allows you to really target your marketing efforts; for businesses without a huge budget, correct targeting stretches your marketing dollars and ensures you get the best possible ROI for your efforts.

Ready to learn more about your ideal buyer? We can help you set up offline surveys, market research and in-person interviews that help you get added insight into what your target wants, needs and buys. Contact us to learn how easy it is to get started and to begin focusing your efforts on the right prospects.

Originally published at QuickTapSurvey Blog.