YOUR TARGET MARKET VS. YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
Before you can grow your audience, you need to know who exactly those people are. Before you go selling anything, you need to know who exactly you’re selling to.
As a blogger, the very first thing that we crave is an audience. We want people to visit our blogs, and engage in the content that we worked so hard on, right? After blogging for a while, you think to yourself, “It’s about time I start making money. I’m ready to go full-time.” Well, before you can grow your audience, you need to know who exactly those people are. Before you go selling anything, you need to know who exactly you’re selling to.
WHAT IS A TARGET AUDIENCE?
It’s about who you’re talking to. You know? Staying up all night writing those blog posts, creating those e-courses, finishing that e-book? Your target audience are the people who crave your voice, opinion, and information that you offer in the content you create.
Let’s be honest, you don’t blog for you. Yes, blogging may be your passion, but if it’s something you want to turn into a full-time career, it has to have a purpose. Your passion is for you, your purpose is for others. So, your target audience is the group of people that you serve with your purpose. Whatever problem your blog solves, whatever frustration it eases, etc., the purpose of that is to help your target audience.
So, let’s say you’re a designer. Designing websites may be your passion, but your purpose is to create beautiful websites for a certain group of people. Who are those people? Bloggers? Businesses? Brands? Who is your ideal reader, client, or customer? Who are the people you love to help the most? Who are the people you love to serve?
HOW TO FIND YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
When you first start blogging, you don’t necessarily have an audience to find. At that point, you’re just creating whatever you THINK your audience needs. Once you start create more and more content and you see your page views start to go up, it’s time to start paying attention to your statistics. Not only do you need to what kind of people are latching on to your content, but you also need to pay attention to which content they are latching onto. By doing this, you figure out who they are and what they from you. Pay attention to what kind of people are you following you on social, what kind of people are commenting on your posts, etc.
Starting to truly observe them is one way, but one other thing you can do is just come out and ask. It may sound a little “forward,” but that’s only because it is. To be honest, people love when you just come out and ask them what you want to know. The online world can be so shady and conniving sometimes, so people want to know that you’re being up front.
"The online world can be so shady and conniving sometimes, so people want to know that you’re being up front." @bossladyblogger #girlboss
— Olivia Derby (@OliviaRDerby) June 21, 2016
Good marketing gives your audience a reason why they should buy from you over any other business in your niche.
— Roniece Wright (@theintrocreativ) June 19, 2016
You can use survey software like Typeform or SurveyMonkey to send something out to your social media or email list and just politely ask them to fill it out. Don’t sugarcoat it. You don’t have to offer a prize to do so – just ask. Let them know that you are just trying to get to know them better and what they struggle with so that you can continue to create amazing content for them.
WHAT IS A TARGET MARKET?
Your target market is smaller set of your target audience. Your target audience is the group of people who love your blog and are willing to buy from you. They read your content constantly, sign up for your email list, download all your freebies, share your content with others, etc. Think of your target market as all of the people out there who have a need for what you’re offering AND could become a customer one day.
Your target market is the people who can’t live without investing their money into you. They are the people who save up just to purchase your course, or get on a 6-month payment plan just to have you as their coach. These are the people who find your free content AND your paid content the most useful and the most valuable. I like to define the difference between target audience and target market by using the Victoria’s Secret store in the mall.
There are some girls who love VS. They go inside every time they go to the mall. They browse for a little while, but don’t necessarily always come out with a purchase. They’re signed up for the newsletter, possibly even use the sales that come to their inbox.
Then, there are the other girls who have to force themselves not to even look in the store’s direction because they know that they’ll spend all their money inside. Every time they go in they come out with a purchase, because they absolutely adore the products. They put “Go to VS” on their To Do list. They factor it into their budget for the month.
Your target audience is the girls who love Victoria’s Secret. Your target market is the girls who adore Victoria’s Secret.
HOW TO FIND YOUR TARGET MARKET
To find your target market, you need to find those people who can’t live without you. For example, my target audience is beginner bloggers who want to turn their blogs into businesses. My target market consists of bloggers who are at their highest frustration. Maybe they’ve tried to blog full-time for years and couldn’t succeed. Maybe they’ve tried to start a blog, but are extremely confused and stressed with how to make it all happen.
You need to know your target audience to know your target market. When you start to learn things about your target audience, one of the most important details you want to know is what do they struggle with most. What keeps them up at night? What frustrates them the most?
Once you figure out that pain point, increase that pain level times ten. The people who are at that level of frustration, stress, and confusion are your target market. They are the people who absolutely need what you have to offer times ten.
So, let’s do a short recap shall we? Your target audience is made up of all the people your blog is meant to serve. You can find them by creating content and paying attention to who latches onto what OR by simply surveying them. Your target market are the people who can’t help but buy what you’re selling. You can find them by discovering your target audience’s pain points and finding the people who have that same pain point at a greater level.
Check out the interview with Roniece over in the Create Kit Facebook group. If you haven’t already, subscribe to www.OliviaDerby.com here to get access to Create Kit and start building your business with daily challenges and inspiration from some of the best bloggers, coaches, and marketers on the web.
Roniece Wright is the founder and creator of BossLadyBlogger.com where she teaches beginner bloggers how to go from amateur to pro on their transition from blog to professional and profitable business. She believes, “Professionalism builds trust. Your audience has to trust you for anything on your blog to succeed. I help you get to a place where your audience trusts you enough to pay you.”
Follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Sign up for her Free Resource Library here!