Get a grip on your target audiences
Think about it: what do Bas Smit and Thierry Baudet have in common? Surprisingly, quite a bit. Both are men, living in Amsterdam, in their early forties, married, and fathers. Both studied at university, have published (at least) one book, and are quite rich. And yes, they both love dancing—salsa, if possible. Judging purely by demographics and lifestyle characteristics, you might easily categorize them as “the same type.” Or are they?
You saw it coming: as a marketer, it’s absolutely essential to deeply understand your target audiences. It’s a prerequisite for getting your message across effectively. But how do you go about this? And what if you don’t have the budget for extensive market research? Can you still make reliable statements about your audience? Our answer: yes! We’ll explain how to tackle this—and how we can help.
Look beyond age, gender, education, and income
People can appear so similar, yet ultimately it’s what goes on “in their heads” that matters. What do they value? What are their concerns? What do they need? That’s what you want to tap into with your brand. So, we choose to look beyond lifestyles and instead focus on mindstyles. Some research agencies really understand this. For example, Motivaction developed the Mentality model, which segments “the Dutch” into mentality groups—clusters of people with shared worldviews, such as in work, leisure, and politics. It’s incredibly valuable. But even if your marketing budget doesn’t stretch to hiring Motivaction, you can still leverage these insights. Even if it’s just to get yourself into the “right mindset” during a brainstorming session, prompting you to look beyond age, gender, education, and income.
Our workshops support you in this process. Together, we zoom in on target audience behaviors, exploring why they do what they do, what might be required to shift these behaviors, and whether such shifts are reasonably achievable. For example, we examine the knowledge level and motivation of your target audiences. What do they already know? How motivated are they? And what does that mean for you as a marketer?
Example from our own practice: for our client Merk-Echt (a trademark agency), we broadly divide the intended blog readers into “entrepreneurs with low knowledge and motivation, who are unaware of the importance of trademark registration” and “entrepreneurs with high knowledge and motivation, who either have or are considering trademark registration—and already know a lot about it.” We then adjust both the blog topics and the approach and tone of voice accordingly.
Bring the right people to the table
A key condition here is involving the right people in such a session—those who are close to the end-user or customer. They know what frustrates them, the most common questions they ask, why they drop out, and what they value most. Customer service, sales, and staff “on the floor” are the people we want at the table when discussing target audiences. We specifically ask our clients to include them. This helps validate gut feelings and minimizes confirmation bias and tunnel vision as much as possible.
Validate your findings
Fair enough: this last part is never entirely achievable. We marketers are only human, after all. That’s why it’s all the more important to validate findings. We regularly sit down with (a cross-section of) the people involved, simply to check if what we’ve heard and concluded holds true. A good, in-depth conversation with a handful of people can sometimes yield far more insight than a survey of 200 respondents.
Define content needs: what should your content do?
At gr8, we like to summarize the list of (validated) findings into content needs: what do our insights mean for what the target audience requires? Do they, for example, need reassurance? Motivation? Or simply information? What will help them? And what, therefore, do they expect from you and your content?
For Avans University of Applied Sciences, aiming to attract more students to technical programs, we tailor our messaging (and content) precisely to the stage these students are in—and the needs that go along with it. For example, students in the “no idea yet” stage primarily want to understand what they’d be choosing (inform) and assess whether they “fit the picture” (identify). Doubters, on the other hand, want to be reassured that they’re making the right choice (validate) and feel confident that they can succeed (reassure, empower).
Becoming relevant through communication starts with understanding your audience. We’d love to help you with that. Interested in brainstorming about your plan?