How To Define Your Target Audience PDF

1/8/2020 How To Define Your Target Audience
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How To Define Your Target Audience

Last Updated on July 31, 2019
One of the biggest mistakes that budding personal branders make is trying to appeal to everyone. Think about
the game of darts: You have to aim in order to hit the board. (If you let your darts go without aiming them, you
probably won’t be very popular.) If you hit the board, you score. And if your aim is very good and you hit the
bull’s eye, even better!
Susan Chritton (@SusanChritton (https://twitter.com/SusanChritton)), Personal Branding For Dummies

(https://www.dummies.com/careers/ nd-a-job/personal-branding/de ne-your-audience-for-your-personal-
brand/)
You know that de ning a target audience is a business best practice. But de ning a target audience is a best
practice for anyone that needs others to give them something. It might be a salary, an investment or money in
exchange for a product or service. Whenever you need something from someone you go through at least some
of the steps in de ning a target audience.
We go through the target audience process even at an early age. Think back to when you were a kid. When you
wanted a treat you went through the target audience process. You knew that your dad probably wouldn’t be the
one to approve your request so you went to your mom and you made sure to catch her in the right mood.
That’s an example of de ning your target audience. It’s a basic example, but businesses go through that process
so they have more success. It doesn’t make sense to try to please everyone. Your time, energy and money are
better invested in a target audience. And that goes for de ning the target audience for your personal brand too.
In this chapter we’re going to take you through the steps you’ll need to follow to de ne the target audience for
your personal brand. We’ll cover a few of the basics, but we’ll also include more advanced steps for making sure
you’re targeting the exact people that can help you achieve your goals.
Building Relationships: Give A Lot To Get A Lot

We asked Yaro Starak of Entrepreneurs-Journey.com the following question:
If you were building an online presence from scratch today, what 3 things would you
consider to provide the biggest ROI on your time and money?
The items on his list were focused on the idea of an audience:
In terms of ROI, the most important three things if I was starting from the beginning are
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1. I’d rst focus on establishing a crystal-clear empathy with the audience I was planning to serve, so I know what
their problem is, how they feel about it and what they currently do to try and solve it. The best way to learn this
in my experience is in person, over the phone or a distant third is via monitoring discussions in groups, blog
comments, forums and social media.
If I don’t do this step well, I won’t have an audience or make any sales down the line, so it’s the vital rst step for
ROI.
2. Once I know my audience I would cra a clear o er based on the position I want to take within an industry
and focus on making sales as soon as possible. In my case, since I know blogging and email marketing, that o er
would be re ected in the new blog and newsletter optin form I would set up, as well as the email sequence and
blog posts that follow. All these things lead people to the product or service I was selling so I could attract buyers.
I want to know I have buyers before I build out the rest of my platform and cement my brand.
3. Assuming I’ve done these tests and I know I have a buying audience, then my focus is simple – improve tra c
and conversion. I expand what is already working, add more tra c sources, make more o ers and run split tests
to improve results.
This guide is about building your personal brand so it’s naturally going to focus on what you can do to help
yourself. There is nothing wrong with wanting to improve your status in life and achieve the goals that will make
you happy.
But for this chapter the focus shi s a bit to building relationships with your target audience. Relationships are
essential to living a ful lling life. In fact, studies (http://www.pbs.org/program/retired-site/) have shown that we
need people to be well and to thrive. Without people, all the money in the world wouldn’t make you happy.
The cliché in the world of relationships is: You Get What You Give. We all focus on our families
and ourselves. It’s natural and it’s okay, but if in order to have good things come to you, such as
quality professional relationships, you need to give to the people that you want to connect with.
We’re going to go through a step in this chapter where you will focus on the motivations of your target audience.
The reason for this is for you to focus on what others want from you. Once you know what that something is
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you have their best interests in mind.
In life and in business, when you help others achieve their goals they’ll be more likely to help you achieve yours.
You want something from your target audience, but in this chapter you’ll only get what you give.
The Person That Will Pay You

There are basically three people that t into your personal brand’s target audience:
The Person That Will Pay You

The Person That In uences The Person That Pays You
Your Supporter
The rst person on the list, the one that pays you, is your main focus. This might be your current boss or your
next boss. It might be the target customer of your current business or your next business. It could also be an
investor or a bank.
A er Chapter 1, you have your vision and you have a good idea of the person that will pay you and help you get
to your goal. These next steps will take you through the necessary process of re ning your target audience to
make your brand implementation more e ective.
Step One Identify The Person That Determines If You Can Advance
(Boss, Investor, Client, etc.)
In Chapter 1 you laid out a path to your ultimate career goal. There are steps along the way to help you achieve
that goal and along that path there will be people that will determine if and when you can take it to the next
level.
If you’re looking to reach an executive level with a company then the person that decides how you move up in
the business is each of your bosses along the way. For example, you might start as a sales associate. Your target
audience is your immediate superior or the lead your sales team or division.
Identify the person that is in charge of the next step in your career. It might be an investor. It might be a client.
Or it could be the boss we just mentioned. It could be a speci c person that you have in mind or it could be the
vision of a person. Whatever it is, identify that person and move to the next step.
Step Two Create A Complete Description

Next, create a complete description of the person. Marketers and business leaders do this all the time with their
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you will do the same with your target audience.
Open a document and start writing the description. Include things like:
Name
Age
Gender
Job Description
Hobbies
Etc.
Go into extreme detail. Talk about the daily tasks the person does at their job. Talk about they do on the
weekends with their family and friends. The more details you can include the easier it will be for you to target
this person as you implement your personal brand strategy. Go as far as including a photo of the person. If it’s a
real person, nd their photo. If it’s not a real person, nd a photo online that ts your vision and include it in the
pro le.
Step Three Identify The Person’s Motivations

(Professional And Personal)
As you build the pro le of your target audience you’ll get inside their head and gure out their
motivations. This is important because, as we said earlier, when you know what this person’s
motivations are you can help them achieve their goals as a way to achieve your own goals (you get what
you give).
For example, if your target audience is your current boss, the sales team leader. Their motivation might be two-
fold: 1) move up to the next position in the business, which is probably regional sales manager or a similar
position and 2) more free time to spend with his or her growing family.
Knowing these motivations, you can help your boss achieve his or her goals. You can lead new
initiatives to increase sales across the team. You can improve the e ciencies of processes to cut
down on time spent in the o ce.
Another example, your target audience is your next new client. Your client’s motivation is to grow their business,
which means more sales and more pro t. If you can help your client achieve those goals they’ll be happy to pay
you for your products and services, which helps you achieve your goals (you get what you give).
Identify the motivations of your target audience and from there you can identify your opportunities to help
them and improve your position on the way to your ultimate goal.
Step Four Identify Your Potential Opportunities

Once you know what motivates your target audience it’s time to formulate ways to help them achieve their
goals, thus
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opportunities is to go to your target audience and have a conversation with them.
For example, if you’re on the sales team and you want to help your boss, the sales team leader,
achieve a sales goal, go to him or her and discuss what the goals are. Discuss ways that the team
has succeeded in the past. Ask about any ideas the team has had recently for increasing sales.
This conversation will bring opportunities to light and you’ll know exactly what you can work on
to achieve results.
To get even more targeted, you could consider market segmentation strategies (https://learn.g2.com/market-
segmentation).
Step Five Create A Game Plan

Next, leave the meeting and put together a game plan for taking the opportunities and
achieving results. Look at the way others have done things before you. There is no reason to
start from scratch. Look for examples within your company. Look for examples outside your
company. Take the things others have done to achieve results. See if there is room for any
improvements. Then start taking each step to achieve the desired results.
Once you’ve achieved the results you can go back to your boss and discuss the speci c steps you made to help
the team and to help him or her. This kind of speci c improvement in your professional career is what will lead
to you moving up and achieving your ultimate goal.
The Person That Influences The Person That Pays

You
“ When building your personal brand, the key point is that you should have a set of 10 to 20
in uencers that you are targeting in order to extend the reach of your content and personal
brand.
Amanda Maksymiw (@AmandaMaks (https://twitter.com/amandamaks)), Content Marketing Institute

(https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2012/01/using-content-to-build-your-personal-brand/)
The number one person that you’re targeting with your personal brand is the person that will
pay you: employer, investor, client, etc. However, that’s not the only person in your target
audience. The second person on your target audience list is the person that in uences the person
that pays you.
In uencers include any person that holds another person’s attention in some way. It might be a business partner.
It might be an industry writer or an industry speaker. It could be a mentor, client or vendor. These people hold
attention and in uence the decisions that your number one target audience makes. And that’s why you need to
pay attention to the in uencers. If you can earn their trust, their approval then you can win them over and they
can in uence the person that will pay you.
We asked Pat Flynn (https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/) the following question:
If you were building an online presence from scratch today, what 3 things would you consider to provide the
biggest ROI on your time and money?
His response included a note about in uencers:
Free content that is obviously worth paying for.

A product or so ware of my own that would serve my target audience by providing a solution to a very
speci c need.
Free, higher-level help to in uencers in the industry to start to build those important relationships.
Here are the steps to follow to identify the in uencers and win their approval.
Step One Identify The Influencer

There are a few ways to gure out the people that in uence the person that pays you.
First, look at the social media pro les of your target. If it’s a real person you can look at
theirs and if it’s not a real person you can identify a handful of people that t your
description and look at their social media pro les. You’re looking at the people this person
is following or connected with. Twitter is a great indicator for this especially if your target is
active on Twitter. The people they follow are people that occupy their attention. Also look at connections on
LinkedIn. These two social networks are usually the two most commonly used by professionals.
Next, look for online publications that have readership demographics that match your target from the rst
section. Professionals usually have industry magazines and websites that they follow and subscribe to. The
writers on these sites hold great in uence over your target, but also pay attention to the people included in the
articles. Industry publications o en contain quotes, interviews and mentions of people in the industry including
business owners, managers, consultants and others. These could also be in uencers of your main target.
Step Two Create Descriptions

Create a description of each person that in uences your target. Make a description for each of the
important connections on social media as well as the people involved in the publications. These
descriptions, like the ones in the rst section, will help you to better understand who these people
are and how you can earn their trust and get them to mention you when talking to your target.
Step Three Create A Contact Plan

Once you understand who the in uencers are and where they are online you can put together
your contact plan. This will be your way to connect with the in uencer and help them with the
things that motivate them.
The basics would include connecting on social media like LinkedIn and Twitter. It also includes following any
blogs the people write or contribute to. Follow the blogs, comment on the articles and make yourself visible to
the in uencer.
The next step is to get more aggressive with the way you reach out to make connections with
in uencers. Now you’ll start using contact forms and emails to reach out and connect. You’re
looking to build a relationship with the in uencers so you can be top of mind when they’re
in uencing the person that you want to pay you.
Think back to the motivations discussion in the earlier section. You need to gure out what motivates these
in uencers. If their business peers of your target then nd out what would help them make more sales. If they’re
vendors then gure out how to help them get more clients or gure out how to help them improve their
standing with your target. If they’re writers then gure out how to help them get more pageviews. When you
know what motivates people, you have a better chance of making a connection.
Your Supporters
“ In my Amazing Career Project coaching program and in my client work, I’m fortunate to witness
rst-hand hundreds of dreams and visions being birthed into the world – new products and
services, new businesses launching, new books and lms under development, new methods for
teaching, leading, and educating, and more. There is so much creativity and innovation today in
our world—it’s inspiring.
I’ve also seen many new inventions and ideas die on the vine without the proper support,
encouragement and feedback. The most important form of support that keeps an idea going and
brings it into being is your support network—your “ambassadors”—people who believe in you
without reservation and spread the word about the value and importance of your endeavors, and
open crucial doors for you.
Kathy Caprino (@KathyCaprino (https://twitter.com/kathycaprino)), Forbes

(https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2014/01/13/how-to- nd-great-supporters-who-will-nurture-your-
growth/)
Finally, we have to remember your support team. These are the people that support you in your e ort to move
through your professional plan to achieve your brand vision. Supporters can include family members, friends,
colleagues, co-workers, mentors and anybody that can o er support as you work your way to your vision.
The team is important because you can believe in yourself, but it’s good to have people providing reassurance
when you get frustrated. It’s good to have people there to tell you the truth if they see something in your e ort
that they feel could be better. You’re only one person and without supporters, you won’t have all the tools
necessary to achieve your goals.
Step One Identify Your Support Team

The rst step is to simply identify your support team. We just mentioned some of the potential
people that can make up your support team. Reach out to a select few that you trust the most. You
want these people to be both support, but honest when dealing with you. You don’t want a group
of “yes” people that only agree with what you’re doing and what you think is best. You want
people that will challenge you and push you to be your best.
Chances are good that most of the people you reach out to will be open to your professional goals and they’ll be
willing to help you. Let them know that it will require conversations and feedback on their part and that it will
last for a long time. Most will agree, but don’t be o ended if not everybody agrees to help.
Step Two Let Them Know Your Goals

Next, once you have a handful of people on your support team you tell them what your goals
are. These are the goals you established in the rst chapter of this guide. Share your plan with
your support team so they can see your vision. Ask them for feedback on your goals. Some
might question parts of your plan and that’s good. The purpose of the team is to challenge
you and to provide di erent perspectives on what you’re trying to accomplish.
Step Three Provide Regular Updates

Next, setup regular updates with your support team. Monthly might be good for those closest to
you, but it might be much for those that are less close. In general, quarterly or even every six
months is good to keep your supporters updated.
You want to tell them how your progress is going. Tell them the speci c things you’re working on and how it’s
going to contribute to achieving your professional goals. They’ll give you feedback and encouragement, which
will be important because you’ll run into setbacks along the way and knowing that you have people supporting
you is great.
The updates will also keep you motivated. People can be motivated on their own to do well and you probably
are, but it’s good to feel like you have other people watching you. This gives you an added bene t to keep
moving forward, to keep working on those projects to make each step along the way.
Give Back To Your Supporters By Asking Questions

It’s not a one-way street with your support team. People want to help you, but to get the most
out of the relationship you’ll need to reciprocate the e orts for them. They might also have
goals for their professional life and you can work together to help each other reach those
goals. You can be each other’s support team. You can o er advice, criticism and challenge
each other.
Another common thing that professionals are doing today is setting up their own groups or boards. It might be a
group of startup entrepreneurs that meet every quarter even if it’s a Google Hangout or something where they
go over the important aspects of each other’s businesses. They check-in with other and report on progress, but
they also ask questions and get opinions on strategy. It’s a real help for professionals because you get input from
successful people on what you’re doing and it also keeps you motivated because you want to do well each time
you check-in with your group.
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1/8/2020 How To Define Your Target Audience

How To Define Your Target Audience

Susan Chritton (@SusanChritton (https://twitter.com/SusanChritton)), Personal Branding For Dummies

Building Relationships: Give A Lot To Get A Lot

The items on his list were focused on the idea of an audience:

Accept Read More (http://www.quicksprout.com/privacy/)

The Person That Will Pay You

The Person That Will Pay You

Step Two Create A Complete Description

images of the exact person their employees

you will do the same with your target audience.

Step Three Identify The Person’s Motivations

Step Four Identify Your Potential Opportunities

Step Five Create A Game Plan

The Person That Influences The Person That Pays

Amanda Maksymiw (@AmandaMaks (https://twitter.com/amandamaks)), Content Marketing Institute

We asked Pat Flynn (https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/) the following question:

His response included a note about in uencers:

Free content that is obviously worth paying for.

Step One Identify The Influencer

Step Two Create Descriptions

Step Three Create A Contact Plan

Accept Read More (http://www.quicksprout.com/privacy/)

Kathy Caprino (@KathyCaprino (https://twitter.com/kathycaprino)), Forbes

Accept Read More (http://www.quicksprout.com/privacy/)

Step One Identify Your Support Team

Step Two Let Them Know Your Goals

Step Three Provide Regular Updates

Give Back To Your Supporters By Asking Questions

Accept Read More (http://www.quicksprout.com/privacy/)

COPYRIGHT © 2020 · QUICKSPROUT

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