How to Start Defining Your Audience

A Quick Guide for Small-Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, and Entrepreneurs-to-be

It’s dangerous when you start your own business. Whether or not you realize it, you’re taking a risk. Every hour that you spend nurturing your own business is an hour you’re not earning a more stable, reliable buck from an established workplace. If that’s not intimidating enough, every dollar you invest in your own business is being risked on the chance that it may fail.

It’s not a pretty reality, but important to keep in mind. You may not be a natural planner. You might not enjoy spreadsheets. But if you don’t plan your business’s target audience (which creates a foundation for future marketing), you’re heightening the risk of your investment.

On a happier note, there’s nothing quite like feeling ownership of your work. For many of us with backgrounds in larger corporations, starting a business is a chance to restore that feeling of ownership and mastery of your work. It can be an exciting journey. But where do you get started in marketing your business to others — especially on a limited budget?

Out of loyalty to my work (at Verity Communications) I should put a caveat right here. When your business is growing and you have incoming cash, keep this in mind:

• You cannot do everything. As soon as you start moving product or your services are in demand, you will probably need help. DIY doesn’t work forever.
• If you do not delegate, your business will eventually suffer. Lots of businesses start turning a small profit, but fail when they start to grow because their owner is unwilling to delegate certain responsibilities to others.
• Firms of marketing and branding professionals (like me) are easy to hire to help direct and implement marketing strategies. In fact, it’s a good idea to hire a marketer as early as you can afford it, because they’re people who’ve spent time becoming experts in the field, are in tune with the latest changes in marketing technology, and can foresee and prevent roadblocks to your business’ success.

//end caveat

Assuming you can’t afford the services of a marketing firm yet, what do you do? Whether you’re operating an Etsy store out of your home, or trying to bolster business for your brick-and-mortar, this post is for you.

Before crafting your marketing campaign, the absolute first thing you need to do is figure out who will want to buy your product. I’m going to list off some questions, and I highly recommend printing them off, grabbing a cup of coffee, finding a quiet place, and thoughtfully brainstorming the answers. I promise, this is key, foundational stuff. Asking yourselves these questions will pay off big in the long run.

Ready? The goal of these questions is to give you a really clear picture of who might want to purchase your products. Be as specific as possible, because the more you define your customers, the more easily you’ll be able to see how to reach them. You can either use the list below, or download the worksheet I’ve created:

• In very broad, sweeping terms — who will want to buy your product?
• How old is your target audience? (This can be an age range — but remember, “Age 0 to 100” is probably not a realistic age range.)
• Does your product appeal to both genders?
• How much money does your target audience make (approximately) and what kind of places do they work?
• Based on your answer to the previous question — is your product or service going to be a “big purchase” for that group or something that’s very accessible and easy to afford?
• What social issues speak to them?
• What are they saving for? (Retirement? Paying off college loans? Travel?)
• Religion? Are they very religious, or nominal? What religion? Even if they aren’t religious, your target audience has stated or unstated moral values. What are they? (Respect for the environment, ending poverty, equality, community gathering, the family, etc.)
• Where do they live? A city? College town? The country? How might their location relate to how they view or value your product/service?
• Do they have children?
• What do they like to read? What does that say about how they view the world?
• What are their goals? What kind of person do they want to become? (Ex: Successful, confident, balanced, peaceful, accepted, etc.)
• Can you describe what their life would look like after they achieve their goals? (This is to help you flesh out what their goals look like in specificity. Lots of people may want to be successful, but what does success look like for your particular audience? Does it mean financial independence? Or simply the confidence to invite over friends and cook dinner?)
• What are their fears? (Ex: Financial insecurity, responsibility, a boring life, loneliness, etc.)
• Why would this group like your product/service?
• What aspects of your product would they love?
• In what way might your product help them become who they want to be?
• In what way might your product/service help your customer to overcome any obstacle between them and their goals? (Ex: If you’re selling a briefcase, consider how that briefcase might make your target audience feel more prepared to take on the world or conquer that job interview.)
• What kind of social media does your target audience use? What are their most frequently-used apps?

Answering these questions may feel a little silly or hyper-emotive. But using your imagination here is key to full articulating your business’s marketing plan. Before you can research, you have to have premises.

Were any of those questions difficult to answer? Were you unsure which kinds of apps your audience used, or what their range of income might be? Now’s the time to revisit the list with concrete evidence. Be sure to circle any part of your answers that are debunked by the research. You want to be aware of your blind spots, or misconceptions you might’ve had about your target audience, so you can be sure not to fall back on that assumption again.

Small businesses can’t always afford the market research that’s necessary to answer every question. But it’s still vital to ensure that your assumptions are based in fact, and let facts hone your perspective on potential customers.

Here are some ways to start learning and finding data:

• Plug the info you’re most certain about into Facebook IQ and see what kinds of groups Facebook suggests. This can help you look at your audience in a different way and give a little more insight into who they are.
• If your target audience falls into a certain generation, try to read up on that generation’s values and trends. (You can do this by searching through Google News, or looking up articles in AdWeek, Business Insider, or on the websites of research firms like Pew Research or Gallup Poll.)
• If you’re trying to target a large group, say, millennials, then you need to break that down some more. Be really specific. (Ex: You might think you want to target millennials, but maybe you’re really only going to appeal to people right out of college…or people who’ve just had their first kid.)
• Google things like “What’s the most popular social media network for teens/Gen Y?” Try to flesh out your written answers with statistics.
• You can also go about this from another angle — by searching the competition, seeing in what ways they succeed in reaching this audience you’ve outlined, and in what ways they could do better. This is a chance to look for gaps in the market. If your product is (for instance) a vegan shoe, you could see if the other vegan shoes are high quality, or low quality, stylish or not. Judge from the research you’ve collected whether that business is truly competing with you for the same type of customer, and then how you could better communicate to the audience you’ve outlined.

At the heart of these questions is the issue of discovering what your target audience values, needs, and loves. If you can learn that, you can start building a bridge to reach them.