Do you know what is the #1 thing that people sometimes overlook? The part that is most of the time the most important in business?
It’s something that takes precedence over anything else you do…
You see, when I’m creating a website, besides the design and the tech that is needed, there is something that is even more important…
KNOWING WHO YOU’RE WRITING FOR!
Let’s say you want to create a website about a brand or a product… The first step is knowing who the target market is…
Like for example, I work for different people and different industries, but there are some industries that I tend to work with closely… Those are service based industries.
Yes, I’ve done work for product based industries and I love working with all different kinds of business, but there is a target when it comes to narrowing down your audience.
I had to re-visit this a couple of times, sometimes we oversee it.
Here are 5 points that can help you determine who is your target audience.
1. Who have you worked with before?
This point is the most important as it can really give you an idea of who has worked with you before and you can pinpoint similarities and differences between them.
For example, I worked with people in the sports coaching world as well with therapists who help children. What do they have in common? They provide a service for children, so their message and their target market are the parents of those children.
See, there are two separate industries all together - completely different, but their target market is very similar…
Even if you only have a couple of clients, you still have the information of people who you’ve worked with, so use that information and get to know your audience so you can create your target demographic.
2. Who did you ENJOY working with?
When you look at positive experiences of who you’ve worked with, you get your IDEAL client. You don’t have to do any research because you’ve experienced it. What you can do from here is to write down their characteristics and things that they’re interested in, their hobbies, their likes, dislikes, loves, everything you can.
The most important, is to highlight the characteristics of the people who you loved working with as those characteristics will let you open up more people and that is your target market.
3. Write a list of things that your target market loves to do
When you sit down, you have the image of the person who you’re writing about, it becomes easier to see them in a different way.
For example, I know that my target market is either interested in nature or interested in spirituality. That just seems to be a common theme… I can pinpoint that detail and go from there. Ask yourself, if they’re interested in nature, does that mean that they like to go for walks? Or is it more in the natural sense of the word when it comes to nature as in natural things like fruits and vegetables…
The idea is to make sure you know what details you want to go into…
4. It’s not just related to the task at hand…
When you look at your target market, you might think that those details are not necessary, but they fit together nicely to know who is your target market. The fact that they like pizza and sports, gives you a way to connect with your audience in a better way.
5. Have fun with it!
Many times, people think that this exercise is boring and not really needed. People think that as long as you know the basics, then you’re covered and that could not be further away from the truth…
Have fun and interview people, talk to them about what they like, dislike, are interested in, etc… enjoy the process.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT
If you don’t know who you’re writing to or who you want to connect with, then how are you going to be able to make it happen?
You can say that everyone is your target market, but that cannot be all true. Just start with a simple list of people’s interest so you can actually get to know them and you’ll see that this first step is going to uncover so many different possibilities for you!