The PEOPLE whom Future Founders Should Address
Interview Series for The PROJECT Framework
The PROJECT Framework is a tool and a workshop format aimed at future founders to turn your idea into a purpose-driven business.
________________
Today, we decipher PEOPLE, being the P in P.ROJECT, a.k.a Target Audience.
My guest is Claire Siegert, who is a marketing advisor and the co-founder of Businettes, a digital platform for female founders. She started her own business in autumn 2019 and worked as a project manager in the innovation and startup ecosystem before.
________________
Future founders should address a pain point or a need for a group of PEOPLE. To know their PEOPLE, they should define the target audience. So, let us start with the term.
Raya: What does the term ‘target audience’ mean?
Claire: The target audience is the group of people you want to sell your product to and whom you will address when communicating on any marketing channel. The audience is not necessarily the user of your product — in some cases, there is a big difference. For example, if you create products for kids, the primary target audience will be their parents. Or if you offer a service for corporates, the target audience may be the HR department and not the single employees.
People outside your target audience may buy your product, which is fine! You just can’t address EVERYONE when communicating; otherwise, you cannot build a brand with which anyone relates to or identifies.
Raya: What’s the first step founders should take into defining the PEOPLE they need to address?
Claire: Founders should try to pursue ideas of products or services with a concrete user in mind. This helps to design the product/service when you know WHOM you’re doing it for and HOW it would be used.
Then the next step is to divide the people surrounding your business into different groups. Your target audience will just be one of these groups (groups can be: potential partners, potential investors and more.).
Raya: If I am a solopreneur, defining the target audience on my own seems not only a lonely exercise but also one that is tough to validate. Who else could we invite to help us with this exercise?
Claire: Talking to friends or colleagues can be very useful to concretise the image of a target audience. Maybe you know someone in the branch you’re digging in, that can give you precious market insights? LinkedИn is a powerful tool to look into what your contacts are specialised in.
You could also look into your competition’s audience (for example, screening their social media followers) to get an idea of their target audience and to validate your presumptions.
If you have a potential customer in mind, the best thing is to contact them and present your business idea. You’ll quickly understand if they are interested; if they understand why you’re doing it, etc.
Raya: When we want to sell our offer, it’s tempting to believe that EVERYONE needs it. How to narrow down our expectations and find the core target audience?
Claire: Haha! This would be an ideal world — but yes, we can be tempted by this thought, as we usually believe in the product we build and hope everyone else to feel as enthusiastic about it as we do.
It helps to look at market figures to have an overview of the total market volume out there and to know the competition. Still, first of all, it’s crucial to imagine a marketing persona before digging deeper. When you have the marketing persona in mind, you add up how many people correspond to this marketing persona and then compare the number with the market volume. This gives a rough impression of whom you COULD address theoretically speaking.
Raya: Why are Marketing Personas so important?
Claire: Marketing personas help you to get in your target group’s shoes. They force you to think precisely about your target group’s lifestyle, habits, needs, dreams, buying behaviour, age, gender and much more and in detail. The better you know and understand your target group, the more personalised you can design your communication concept. You want to catch their attention and stay in their minds.
By the way, make my persona by Hubspot can really help you think of all aspects concerning your persona.
Raya: Which are the critical components of a Marketing Persona?
Claire: The critical part is the assumptions we make when creating the persona. So, it is important to double-check with real potential customers if our assumptions are realistic.
Raya: How many of these “human beings” do we need to create?
Claire: As many as needed but at least one. In some cases, I recommend creating one marketing persona per marketing channel because not the whole audience may use the same marketing channels. It really depends on your product.
Raya: How can we test in real life if our assumptions for the target audience are correct?
Claire: Ask your target audience!
And you could also look into your competition’s audience (for example, screening their social media followers) to get an idea of their target audience and to validate your presumptions.
Raya: What is your startup at the moment? Which PEOPLE do you address?
Claire: Together with my friend and co-founder Victoria, I’m founding a digital platform for women who want to establish their own businesses. So we address young women with visionary ideas, potential founders, so to say. And of course, existing female founders.
Raya: What do you learn about your startup idea by communicating to your PEOPLE?
Claire: I learn what they need and want from my product and what they like or dislike in my concept.
_____________________________________________
If you have any questions for Claire, please leave your comment below, or contact her here.
If you want to sharpen your idea with The PROJECT Framework, contact me.
If you want to watch our conversation, follow @smartset.group on YouTube.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
