How can you accurately identify your core target audience?

Truly understanding your core audience is crucial because it holds a central role in your marketing strategy. 

Getting an overview of your buyers’ profiles, website traffic, or keeping track of reactions on your social media can give you a general idea of your target. However, what really makes a difference is structured and well-organized thinking that will help you define it with accuracy. 

What is the core target audience?

The core target audience refers to identifying an extremely precise target profile. For example, women aged 25 to 35, urban dwellers, high-income earners.

There are also different types of target audiences: primary, secondary, and tertiary. 

What’s the difference between a primary, secondary, and tertiary target audience? 

The primary target is the group that your product or service is designed for. This group includes consumers who fit specific criteria making them likely buyers.The secondary target audience consists of individuals who can influence other consumers thanks to their social status or reputation (for example: influencers).Finally, the tertiary target includes people who have communication abilities between your brand and the primary audience. This helps encourage the primary group to make a purchase.

The core audience: a complement to your main target

Defining your core audience doesn’t mean neglecting your broader target group. This might only make sense if you’re positioned in the ultra-luxury market, but not if you’re in the mass market. 

The core audience refers to being targeted by specific marketing actions such as: 

• SEA campaigns (Facebook Ads, Google Ads, etc.)
• Newsletter signup pop-ins
• A dedicated landing page 

These are excellent complements to your overall digital marketing strategy. 

How to define your core target audience

Define your offer

Clearly defining your offer helps you better understand your market position, and also to set up the right actions and strategies to implement.

The SWOT framework is an effective tool for analyzing your offer by evaluating market factors that could be opportunities or threats (for instance, in the cosmetics industry, the growth of men’s skincare can be an opportunity, and intense competition can be a threat).

This also gives you a clearer view of your internal strengths and weaknesses to help you choose the best targeting method for your e-commerce.

Competitive monitoring is also a great way to analyze your industry and keep track of the latest trends. 

Identify your target’s needs

You need to make sure you address the needs of your target audience—and to do so, it’s essential to identify them.

Analyzing your offer and your competitors helps you understand your target’s needs, but creating a persona can be just as effective.

It’s also vital to run a market study, a persona analysis, and a consumer survey.

A consumer survey allows you to connect directly with your audience and ask the right questions to better understand their expectations and needs.

A persona is essentially a typical CV of a profile in your core target audience. It should be tailored to your industry, your brand guidelines, etc. Of course, if you have different customer profiles, you can create several personas.

A persona should include several elements: 

• Family, economic, and professional status
• Values (for example: eco-conscious, member of a charity, etc.)
• Needs
• Purchase motivations (for example: seeking experiences, shopping for deals, preferring organic products, etc.)
• Habits (for example: into fitness, only using public transportation, etc.)
• Geographical location
• Interests
• Personality (for example: enjoys family time, self-care, going to the gym, etc.)

By following these steps, you’ll be able to answer key questions. You’ll know who is most likely to use your product or service, their profile, what prices they’re willing to pay, and more.

Core target audience examples

Luxury perfume brand: the core audience could be women aged 30 to 40, high-income, elegant, and searching for meaning. 

E-commerce for trendy dog and cat accessories: here, the core audience could include dog and/or cat owners who are fashion-forward and active on social media. This can apply equally to men and women aged 25 to 35 with high purchasing power and used to shopping online. 

French-made baby clothes boutique: the obvious core audience is parents of children aged 0 to 2 with a special interest in responsible consumption. In this case, the core group could be men or women between ages 30 and 45, high-income, and making eco-friendly buying choices. 

Online organic laundry detergent store: here, the target could be men and women aged 30 to 45, high-income, eco-conscious, and accustomed to buying online. 

What’s next? What to do once you’ve identified your core audience?

Once you know exactly what your core audience wants and needs, it’s time to choose the right communication channels, as well as the most impactful messages for this audience. 

When it comes to selecting your communication channels, look for those with the audience that best matches your core target group and analyze your KPIs to determine the times when this audience is most likely to open your messages.

You can also run A/B tests with different messages or even play with design layouts and colors. Based on your KPIs, you’ll then be able to identify the top-performing version to reach your core audience. 

Conclusion

Identifying your core target audience is essential for implementing a relevant marketing strategy. 

You have several methods to analyze their needs and expectations—such as a market study, consumer survey, or one or more personas.

Finally, you’ll be able to adapt all your actions to the information collected.

Now it’s your turn!