Hello and welcome back to another installation of our blog series regarding online tools to help your business thrive in an ever growing digital environment! This week we are taking a step back from digital tools to look at a key component of marketing: Target Audiences. What is it? Why is it important to your business? How do I do this? We will be answering all these questions and more below!
What is Target Audiences & Why is it important?
Target audiences are the main group of individuals you intend to market to. This includes all forms of marketing, whether it’s email marketing, blogging, social media, print marketing (ie. posters & flyers), etc.
Knowing who you are marketing to, helps determine the best way to reach each of these target audiences.
How to Determine your Target Audience
The best way to determine who your target audience is, is by giving your audience a face. This is done by creating personas for your ideal clients. Below we will demonstrate this for the Sudbury East Chamber of Commerce.
Persona #1
Name: Julie Jenkins
Age: 42
Annual Income: 50k
Employment: Part-time teacher / Part-time Owner of Bejeweled (homemade online jewelry store)
Home Life: 3 Children, Single Parent
Description: Julie has a busy home life, between getting her three children to different after school clubs, working part-time as a teacher, and making and selling her jewelry online through her tiny online shop. When she has the time, she likes to go for walks in the woods to collect new materials for her jewelry. She also enjoys scrolling through social media to get inspiration from other crafters.
Marketing to Julie as the SECC
Starting with age, Julie would more than likely be on Facebook. Therefore this would be a good medium of choice for her. Since she is a small business owner, with an online shop, we could maybe consider posts about resources and grants offered for small eshop owners to help them expand. Another idea could be a group for local crafters to chat together regarding tips and tricks of the field. As her income is on the lower side, it may be worth doing a cost-to-benefit type post to promote becoming a chamber member. Lastly, we can consider pushing the “discover Sudbury east” section of our website that includes the location of local hiking trails and places to visit.
Persona #2
Name: Nathan Northwood
Age: 25
Annual Income: 120K (his & spouse)Employment: 4th Generation Full-time owner of Northwood Lumber
Home Life: Married, 0 Children
Description: Nathan and his wife Natasha took over as full-time ownership of Northwood Lumber last year from Nathan’s parents, who were the 3rd generation owners of Northwood Lumber. Nathan is a recent graduate of a Business Accounting diploma & Natasha completed a diploma in Public Relations. In their spare time, Nathan and Natasha like to go for hikes. They also enjoy getting together with local business owners to “talk shop” and learn from their fellow business owners.
Marketing to Nathan as the SECC
Starting with age, Nathan & Natasha would more than likely be on Instagram/Tik Tok. Therefore, this would be an ideal medium to reach them. Leaning into the generations that are more into videos, we would be looking at creating videos to captivate their attention. Since they are owners of a 4th generation business, they may be looking for resources and grants regarding moving their existing marketing efforts more to a digital environment to expand on their current marketing tactics. Like Julie, they may be interested in knowing where the best hiking locations are and would like to see content about our ‘Discover Sudbury East” section. Lastly, as they are interested in connecting with fellow business owners, they may be interested in learning more about the Chamber’s Business after 5 events. The events can be an opening to entice them into becoming a member. As their income is on the higher side and they enjoy connecting with fellow business owners, hosting business after 5 events may be of interest to them.
Persona #3
Name: Clint Cliffman
Age: 58
Annual Income: 60k
Employment: Full-time owner of Retro Renovations
Home Life: Single, 0 Children
Description: Clint worked for 20 years with a local contractor company. After a while he decided with a couple contractor friends to open up Retro Renovations. He works really hard making your homes the way you dream it to be. Being more traditional, he relies heavily on word-of-mouth to promote his business. He does actively answer email inquiries and posts pictures of his projects on his website. Clint likes to network with fellow business owners and talk about the latest threads in the construction trade. He often considers transitioning his business to utilize digital marketing practices but isn’t quite sure how to go about it.
Marketing to Clint as the SECC
Starting with age, Clint is in the demographic of males that don’t really follow social media. Therefore, the best medium to reach him would be through email marketing. An additional option may be to send out our monthly newsletters through the mail. Interesting content for Clint may be resources and grants to grow his business, potential groups or places he can chat with fellow contractors, and information regarding the Chamber’s Business after 5 events. He may also be interested in resources and grants offered to businesses to help them transition to online components, such as social media. It may be worth email marketing him regarding the Who What Huh? Blog series that goes through online tools for small businesses.
Conclusion
Adding a face to your target audiences helps provide you with a better understanding of who you are marketing to. This in turn helps you determine the best ways to reach your audience. For example: with the three personas created above, it shows that while there are differences on the medium best used to send out the message, the content is similar between the personas. Hopefully this week’s slight side-step from online tools helps you going forward. See you all soon for some more online tools to help your business expand in this ever growing digital world.