Know Your Client’s Target Audience
Maximizing the impact of your communications — whether in marketing, public relations, or any other approach used to share a brand story — requires paying close attention to context. Without considering context, brands risk coming across as irrelevant or untrustworthy, even when they have a solid solution to a consumer problem. When context is properly understood, the brand message can be framed in a way that makes sense and moves consumers forward in their journey.
One key step to establishing context is knowing the brand’s perfect target audience. As the brand zeroes in on the particular market segment it hopes to reach, its message can be refined to resonate with that segment. A more comprehensive understanding of its target audience allows the brand’s message to be personalized and the impact to be amplified.
In public relations, knowing the perfect target audience is non-negotiable. After all, pitches can’t be tailored accordingly until the publicist knows the client’s ideal customer profile. The target audience defines the outlets the client’s pitches will target, the topics that will be pursued, and the tone in which they will be presented.
The following are some steps agencies should be ready to take as they seek to identify their client’s perfect target audience.
Guide the Client Through the Process
Crafting a customer avatar — a detailed profile of the ideal customer — has become a common part of developing a marketing plan. If your client hasn’t yet taken that step, you may need to guide them through it as a PR professional.
To start, ask your client to describe their ideal customer in detail. If they were to make up a fictional consumer for whom they were designing their products or services, who would they be? Seek out any details that differentiate that person from the broader consumer crowd.
To uncover some basic customer demographics, you will want to know where their audience generally lives, how old they are, if they are married, what they do or where they work, and what their general interests and behaviors are. It’s also important to know what they come to the brand for so you have a clear understanding of what they are looking for when expressing interest in the brand.
These are the types of details that will help you create the ideal customer avatar. For example, a financial planner’s ideal customer avatar might be “Rob, a 62-year-old entrepreneur from Chicago with a background in real estate investment who is looking to balance his portfolio as he approaches retirement.” Drilling down like that allows you to fine-tune for maximum impact.
Look for Context Clues in Pre-existing Materials
If your client is struggling with the process, you may be able to find clues to guide them in the content they have already developed and the consumer base they have already built. Look at their website, social media, and company reviews. The themes you find there can help point you in the right direction.
Engaging employees from various departments of your client’s brand — rather than just the founder or marketing team — can also help with the process. Those involved in product development may have an avatar in mind who they are focused on when fine-tuning product features, while those in customer support may also offer insights as to who the brand’s loyal customers are.
You may also be able to gain insights from competitors that can guide the process. Look at who your client’s competitors are targeting, and then ask yourself if you see any gaps or areas for improvement. This allows you to solidify your strategy by seeing what the competitor may not see.
Be Flexible, but Stay Grounded
Establishing a perfect target audience will allow you to build a firm foundation for your efforts. While the target audience may shift slightly depending on factors like pitch topics, news cycles, and trending events, it should always be grounded in the core of your client’s ideal audience.
For example, if you have a finance client specializing in retirement, focus on the audience they aim to serve and build from there. While you might consider targeting broader outlets like those covering economic, political, or general finance topics, always ensure the message aligns with the target audience. Going broad with pitches can help spark growth, but your efforts still need to come back to your client’s core message, voice, and brand.
Crafting a compelling brand narrative is one of the key goals of PR, but to accomplish that goal, agencies must know the target audience for their clients’ brands. By helping their clients identify their perfect target audience, agencies take the first step toward developing a narrative that will attract attention and build consumer connections.
