Being Honest About Your Target Customer

An improved understanding of customer buying habits and preferences has forced a shift toward a customer-centric marketing approach instead of one focused primarily on the brand and its products or services. Most customers are simply not interested in hearing about your amazing products and services. With so many advertisements coming their way, customers would much rather hear about how your products and services can meet their needs.Nearly 81% of customers have already conducted extensive research upon starting the buyer’s journey, according to AdWeek. Therefore, at this stage, your customers can benefit most from educational content and information that helps them make smart purchase decisions. In order to provide them with the right level of support, you must have an honest and clear understanding of your target audience.

Understanding Your Target Customer

When you have a clear understanding of your target customer, you can effectively create marketing content that speaks to their needs and goals at every stage of the buyer’s journey. By completing thorough customer research, you will reveal specific traits that you can leverage in the creation and delivery of your ad campaigns.

Depending on your products and services, you may utilize the demographics, buying habits, media consumption and other behaviors of your target audience to guide your marketing program. When you collect and apply the information needed to define your target audience, you can utilize targeted campaigns to reach the right people and drive customer action.

3 Key Reasons to Be Honest About Your Target Customer

Maintaining true honesty about your target audience opens the doors for improved reach and engagement with your ideal customer base. Here are three key reasons you should always be clear and honest in assessing and engaging with your target customer.

1. Value-Driven Content

Being honest about your target audience allows for the creation of value-driven content for your ad campaigns. Across the board, customers tend to respond best to content that directly addresses their needs, goals and preferences throughout the buyer’s journey.

At each stage, it is important that your content educates and guides your customers toward making the best purchase decision possible. This approach can pay off big time, as 95% of buyers choose companies that provide content to navigate each stage of the buying process. Furthermore, tailoring your content to your customers’ needs at each stage yields 72% higher conversion rates.

2. Targeted Channels

To be effective, you must deliver your content to wherever your target customers spend their time – in both the physical and digital worlds. And being clear about your target audience – as well as their needs, goals and behaviors – can greatly help in choosing the right marketing channels to use to reach them.

If you are targeting women in the 35 to 44 age range, for example, you may have more success reaching your target audience on Hubbard’s 100.3 WSHE than The Drive (WDRV). With thorough customer research, you will know where and how your target audience spends their time and how to best reach them through those avenues.

3. Relevant Branding

Having an honest, clear understanding of your target customer can help build your brand around the unique preferences and needs of those individuals. Your brand messaging, creative voice and personality can make the biggest impact when it reflects the customer you are aiming to attract.

Branding that is relevant to your customers can serve to greatly build awareness and engagement with your company. Great branding leads to optimized awareness and engagement, which helps promote increased conversion rates as well.

Value of Having a Clear Understanding of Your Target Audience

When you take the time to develop and utilize an honest understanding of your target audience, you can create an effective customer-centric marketing plan for the success of your company. Your efforts will help you create value-driven content, target the right channels and establish branding that speaks to your ideal customer. Having a honest view of your target audience is the driving force behind marketing that drives clear, measurable results.