You may be asking yourself what ‘target audience’ means . . . A target audience is a selected group in which specific goods or services are targeted towards, such as goods or services.

Once you have determined who your target audience is, your next step is knowing how to effectively market to them. This means that you are where you need to be and that your content and offers are displaying what they want to see. If you have taken the time to figure out your target audience, don’t let that work go to waste by not utilizing what you’ve learned and making sure your advertising is beneficial to your audience:

Be Where They Are

When you are working to reach your target audience, perhaps the most important thing you can do is be where they are. You want your business to show up wherever your audience will be looking.  For example, if your target audience is 25-40 year-old professionals, utilize social media and online platforms, as these are mediums that this demographic actively engage with. However, if your products or services are aimed at 65-80 year-olds who are likely retired, you may want to go for print publications, specifically those that your demographic would be likely to read: magazines, newspapers, etc.

Whether you decide on online or offline advertising, based on who your customer base is, you shouldn’t push away other potential customers by limiting yourself. Your target audience is your most important audience when it comes to marketing, but don’t let that scare you away from showing up other places, as well.

Cater Your Content

Once you are showing up where you need to be for your audience, be sure that your content is catered to them and what they want to see.. Don’t post just to post when it comes to social media, but instead focus on posting content that your viewers want to see and will find valuable. This will keep them interested in your business and will also help you to gain other followers, through their interactions. Remember, people aren’t going to interact with boring content online. If they don’t find your posts relevant, they won’t want to engage.

How can you be sure your content is catered? Well, your email campaigns should focus on the problem that your customers are seeing, and how your business can fix it for them. For example, when winter rolls around, do your customers have a working furnace? Have they had a tune-up to be sure it’s safe? These are the kinds of questions you should be asking when writing content for your viewers. When it comes to social media, people love to see tips and tricks and find information they didn’t otherwise know about your industry.

Use Your Voice

People love interacting with other people. Often times businesses make their marketing sound so robotic with their content. Instead of sending out a newspaper ad or Facebook post that says, “This weekend: 20% off all HVAC services!” consider writing it so it’s a bit more personable, “Put away those snuggies! This weekend only, we’ll fix your heater for 20% off. Just in time for winter!” That makes your business seem more like it’s run by a person, rather than a big corporation. Besides that, people like messaging that stands out and doesn’t get lost in the rest of the online/printed jumble.

Don’t let your target audience pass you by! Be sure to show up where they will see you, and give them the content and messages that they want to see.

For more insights on marketing strategy that actually works for small business, connect with Jay Bean, Founder of FreshLime and Small Business Marketing Expert on LinkedIn and Twitter. If any of these tips have helped you or if you have anything to add, please comment below. We’d love to hear from you!