As a person who is not a marketer, but often gets involved in the marketing process, I am often asked questions about what is online marketing. So I decided to write down a few questions and answers, which can be really helpful in giving you a better understanding of what online marketing is, and how you can use it to better your business.
The word “catalyst” is one that comes up repeatedly at those of us who work in the marketing and communications field. When we need to get ideas and momentum moving, we can often turn to the catalyst. But what is it, how do we define it, and how do we use it?
What is content marketing? Some say it’s the influx of tactical, customer-focused content that improves engagement, retention, and revenue for your business. Others say it’s a new way of using content to grow your business and reach new customers. Both are true, though there are several aspects to it. To get the most out of content marketing, you need to master these three things—what it is, how to define it, and the best use cases.
When I first started marketing, I thought traffic was everything.
I wanted to become as big as companies like HubSpot. Just look at their stats and see how many visitors they got:
Their visitor count was 29.61 million out of 11.74 million visitors per month. In 2023, their revenue was $280 million.
Now let’s take a look at NeilPatel.com’s statistics for the same period.
I had about 8.717 million visitors per month out of a total of 3.616 million people.
If you look in terms of unique visitors, HubSpot gets 3.24 times more unique visitors than I do.
Theoretically, I should be worth three times what she is, right? I wasn’t worth a tenth of what they were worth.
Why? That’s because I chose the wrong audience and HubSpot did. Fortunately, I figured out where something was wrong, and now we have about 20 million visitors a month.
I want to help you not make that mistake again. Marketing is a tricky business, so why start by finding the wrong people?
It will take you years and a lot of money, like I did.
Identifying your target audience is the first and most important step towards success for any business or activity, especially if you are just starting out.
Who is the target group?
The target audience is the percentage of consumers that the target company is trying to reach with its advertising efforts.
Here’s the simple version: your target audience is the people you want to reach with your marketing efforts.
It’s about appealing to a group of people who have the same background, goals, interests and concerns as your ideal customer.
Essentially, you want to target the people who will buy your products.
Targeting people who don’t want to buy your products or can’t afford them may get you more traffic to your site, but it won’t do you much good. You’ll be tearing your hair out trying to figure out why none of your visitors are buying anything from you.
Before we dive into the details of targeting, let’s talk about personas, because many people confuse them with their target audience, which can waste time and money.
Difference between target group and persona
You already know the definition of the target audience, so I won’t bore you any further.
The data is typically used to determine the target audience:
- Age
- Type
- Level of education
- Purchasing power
- Social class
- Location
- Consumer habits
An example of a target audience: Female, 20-30 years old, lives in Los Angeles, Bachelor’s degree, monthly income of $4,000-6,000, fashion and decorating enthusiast.
If you start a business without knowing exactly who your target audience is, you could end up like I did a few years ago in HubSpot’s shoes – and we don’t want that!
Here’s another example. Let’s say your company sells educational toys. So your target audience may be children, mothers, educators or teachers.
Or you have a business selling motorcycles. Your audience certainly won’t be under 18, will they?
Don’t try to reach everyone to increase your chances of sales and profits. This will cost you more in the long run and reduce your profits.
Now let’s see what personas are.
What is a customer personality?
In marketing, customer personas are customer profiles that could be your ideal customers.
Personas are fictional characters that represent the characteristics of your real customers. Developed based on audience research, they can help you better target your marketing efforts.
A persona is someone who is likely to be interested in what you have to offer because they have a strong connection to your brand, and you should make an effort to make them a customer and keep them.
A persona involves much more in-depth and detailed research than your target audience because it includes:
- personal characteristics
- Purchasing power
- Lifestyle
- Interests
- Engagement with social media
- Specialised information
Example of Persona: Mariana, 22 years old, blogger. Lives in Miami, Florida. She has a degree in journalism. She has her own blog and posts makeup tutorials and fashion and decorating tips. She always follows fashion events in the area and attends meetings with others in the fashion industry. As a digital influencer, she cares a lot about what people see on her social media profiles. In his free time he likes to work out indoors and go to the gym.
The main difference between a persona and a target audience is that a target audience considers the entire audience in a more general way, while a persona is more specific.
Why goal-setting makes a difference
My mistake was not identifying my target audience from the beginning. I just created content and started marketing to anyone who wanted traffic.
That’s too vague, because not everyone who wants more traffic fits my ad agency.
Maybe you just want to be famous on Instagram or YouTube, which a lot of people do, but that’s not going to help me make more money.
It’s funny, but there are more people interested in getting followers on Instagram than there are interested in learning SEO.
Once you know your target audience, it will be easier to find and research keywords. For example, I know not to spend too much time writing on Instagram or Twitch, even if the search volume is high.
They often bring in irrelevant traffic and waste my time and money.
Once you know your target audience, you can do proper keyword research and find opportunities that will not only generate more traffic, but more importantly, revenue.
Now let’s define your target audience.
How to identify your target audience: 6 questions to ask
Determining your target audience is not rocket science. It all comes down to a few simple questions.
Six, to be exact.
Analyze each of the questions below and you will know exactly who your target audience is.
1. Who are they?
When thinking about who your target audience might be, you should consider people who identify with your brand.
To find out, just keep track of who follows, likes, shares and comments on your posts on social sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram.
If someone is willing to communicate with you, they are probably your target.
In many cases, your ideal audience isn’t active on social media, but they often make purchases from your business or sign up for your services.
Even those who have bought from you only once should be included in your target audience, as someone who has bought once may buy again.
There’s no point in making a big sales effort if you don’t make a similar effort to keep the customers you’ve already acquired.
Customers want to feel special, which is why the after-sales process is so important. The relationship with your customer must be maintained even after the purchase.
2. What are their main challenges, problems or wishes?
What’s cool, interesting and good for you may not be good for the buyer.
Don’t think about yourself when it comes to identifying the challenges, problems and desires of your target audience. Put yourself in their shoes.
Do not make suggestions based on your opinion. Implement them after research based on data, past experiences and analysis of your prospects’ behavior.
Understand your audience’s biggest challenges so you can try to solve them.
3. Where do they look for information online?
Everyone needs information.
We are bombarded with masses of information every day, but where do we look for answers when we need them most?
Find out which communication channels work best for your target audience and try to address them in the specific language of their world.
For example, I know that my audience reads marketing blogs and spends a lot of time on social sites like YouTube and LinkedIn to absorb information.
4. What real benefits do you offer?
Everyone wants to find solutions to their problems and make their lives easier. It’s a collective desire, and it’s no different than that of your target audience.
Think about your product and the problem it solves. What advantages does your product or service offer? What can it do to solve these problems? What is the core value of the proposal?
With so much competition, you should try to find your competitive advantage in your niche and always try to improve your product by offering something more that others don’t have. For example, better customer service, a free tool or a free trial.
5. What do they notice that is negative?
Optimism helps a lot, but thinking about the negatives can also be helpful, especially when it comes to target groups.
Instead of thinking about what your audience wants, think about what they absolutely don’t want and avoid it.
With this meaningful information in hand, you are more likely to captivate your potential customers.
Avoiding what they see as negative is the first step to getting their approval. After that, all you have to do is apply other strategies for effective marketing.
6. Who do they trust?
Trust is essential for your target group. Nobody buys a product or service from a company they don’t know and trust.
That’s why Amazon reviews are worth reading and so important for sellers. You know it creates trust; it also helped Amazon become a trillion dollar company.
Although this is the last question, it is one of the most important.
Your company’s reputation is essential. It is very important to maintain relationships with customers as they recommend your brand online and to their friends and family.
If you get good reviews and positive feedback and build a good reputation, customers will be more motivated to buy from you.
How to tailor content to your audience
Now that you know your target audience, we can create content for them.
Everyone creates content, right?
Type a search term into Google and you’ll get thousands, if not millions of results for each keyword.
If you google the best headphones, this is what you’ll see:
First, there are the Google Shopping product options, with offers and pricing for a variety of headsets for different audiences, needs and tastes.
Below is a list of websites and blogs with information on the different types of helmets and how they compare:
There is no shortage of material on this or any other subject you can find. Anyone can create and publish texts without any hindrance.
The question is how to make this content more personal and attractive to consumers.
Everyone produces content. Millions of publications are published every day.
The key is to create content that focuses on your ideal customer and no one else. Generic content can generate more traffic, but will also generate fewer sales.
Find topics that are important to your target audience
To find out what your audience is looking for, you can use Ubersuggest. Simply enter a keyword that is relevant to your target audience.
Click here in the navigation on the left on the keyword ideas. This will take you to the report that looks like the one below.
You now have a choice of topics. Not all will fit, but some will.
I recommend searching for long terms, such as. B. the best headphones for running (assuming your target audience has an active lifestyle). More general terms like better helmet will generate traffic and make some sales, but they won’t convert as well as more specific terms.
The same is true if you are doing keyword research for the service industry or even B2B.
Create content for different parts of the funnel
Once you have created a list of keywords to focus on, you can ask yourself what kind of content to create.
You want to create content based on your funnel. Essentially, you want to cover every step of the funnel.
The top part of the funnel includes content created for visitors and prospects – people who visit your website, blog or social media accounts.
Thinking at the top of the funnel, the idea is to create content on more general topics, with clear and accessible language.
This could be educational content that generates curiosity or interest in your product or service, or content that is somehow related to your industry.
The conversion takes place in the middle of the funnel. In other words: At this stage, the person who has a problem and the intention to solve it is considering buying your product or service.
It’s the middle of the road, but it’s not the sale itself, because it’s still about ideas. In the middle of the funnel, you get closer to your target audience and create more identification.
Go on: Capacity of the bottom of the hopper. This content is more focused on your product or service.
You can present details about the features, benefits and other direct information about your product or service.
The chance of conversion is much higher here, because this particular audience has already pretty much made their buying decision and you want to give them one last push.
Target audience FAQ
How do you define your target audience?
Think about who your target audience is, what issues they face, where they communicate online and who they trust. Do market research and get to know your current customers.
What is an example of a target group?
Female, 20-30 years old, living in Los Angeles, Bachelor’s degree, monthly income of $4,000-6,000, passion for fashion and decorating. They struggle to find the right products for their home and rely on brands like West Elm.
Why is the target group so important?
If you target a large audience, you are wasting time and resources. Once you have identified your target audience, you can focus on the people who are most likely to convert.
Target audience Conclusion
Knowing your target audience is just the first step to a successful marketing plan, but it does not guarantee success.
You always have to create content. You should also create a plan for promoting content to reach your audience. That’s why I talked about keyword research in this article.
Finally, make sure you know the basics of SEO. You can’t reach your audience if you don’t follow search engine best practices.
Have you identified your target audience yet?
- SEO – Unlocks a large amount of SEO traffic. To see real results.
- Content marketing – our team creates epic content that gets shared, attracting links and traffic.
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