I talk a lot about your audience or your target audience and how you should focus on them. But I haven’t gone in much detail about who your target audience really is… and isn’t.
So you have a business or a blog or you’re on influencer on social media. Whatever it is that you do, you have a target audience. The people who you are speaking to. Those people, though, aren’t just every single follower or reader you have. They’re different. They’re special. They’re the ones you’re doing *gestures broadly* ALL THIS for.
It’s just really important to note that when I say target audience, I’m not talking about all of the people in the world who will ever glance at your posts or see your logo. Your audience is not anyone that sees or hears what you do. Having eyes and ears does not make someone your audience. More to the point, just because someone is following you or subscribes to your newsletter does not make them part of your audience.
You get to decide who your target audience is. You decide this by sitting back and figuring out why you’re doing what you’re doing. Why is your business worthwhile? Who could benefit from your products or services? Who needs you?
Those are the people that you’re targeting. Those are the ones that you’re speaking to with every blog post and reel and special offer that you create. Those are your people.
You can be as specific as you’d like when figuring out who your audience is. If your business creates and sells hair products, then thinking of your target audience as anyone who has hair is honestly not very helpful to you. Instead, you should focus on people with curly hair and a dry scalp if that’s what your products are made for. Or people with thinning hair and oily scalps if your products help with that. Whatever it is that your products actually do, the people who have the pain points that it solves—those are your target audience.
So even though you’re sure to collect some people that aren’t in your audience along the way, don’t ever lose sight of who it is that you’re really trying to talk to. Tailor everything you do to those people and don’t worry about the rest.
All the best,
Ryanne Zender
Disclaimer: While marketing is based in part on statistics and psychology, it is not an exact science. Every business and market are unique. What may work for one business, will not necessarily work for another. There are no guarantees in marketing, and this post is for informational and educational purposes only and does not replace professional advice. You can check out the full list of disclaimers and disclosures here.
