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Defining Your Target Audience

Three factors for successful targeting

By Kristen Bohn
Group Publisher, D Custom

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If there was only a magic formula to attract your customers, an ideal offering that no one in your audience could resist. Well, perhaps you do have a superb technique but you just don’t fully know who your audience is. Targeting is oftentimes a painstaking process though its findings can turn overa profit for years to come. First, you have to define what targeting is. The answer is simple: precise defining. It comes down to learning more about your market and going beyond the usual information like age, ethnicity and income. Those three supposed “biggies” don’t define you, do they? So why should they define your audience? Instead, let’s take a look at another set of three factors for targeting success.

Validity of Statistics
The term “percent error” is a favorite saying of testers, by and large. It basically gets them off the hook. Sure it’s great for them, but horrible for you. Just because P.E. exists, it doesn’t mean it must be anything beyond minimal. True, you need to ask as many quality questions as your audience’s attention span will allow, but you also have to take the questioning environment into consideration. When forced upon someone, such as a prerequisite for registration, the subject might feel put off and thus, provide any answer. Instead, when questions are used as part of an extra reward or with the sincere compliment that the subject is being viewed as an expert, they’re much more likely to give you honest responses. It’s also important for the extra incentive to look legitimate. The fake computerized voice announcing, “Take this survey and get a free movie ticket” in a pop-up screen frequently feels like a scam or even a potential virus.

Know Their Fears, Not Just Their Dreams
A problem in targeting is only looking at the positive aspects and ignoring negative or vice versa. The U.S. Government found this out when Hispanics were underrepresented statistically in the last census. This time around they made sure to address the fears of illegal immigrants within this segment who were afraid of deportation for being involved in the survey, starting their approach as far back as 2006. In addition, the government encouraged filling the census out for the sake of funding for their towns and Hispanic leadership opportunities. Since both fears and dreams were both addressed—the strategy was successful.


Pass the Test On Who Will Test
The most difficult part of the whole process may be deciding who will create the test, choose its method of distribution and analyze its results. Survey firms can cost a small fortune—of course, the potential information may be worth an even larger sum. Many companies accomplish this on their own and that’s not always a bad option—provided they are willing to devote the energy, have people who are honestly enthusiastic about reactions and are willing to test more than once if the results don’t suffice the first time around. A third option can be custom content, creating a unique community to begin with and, therefore, more trust when asking for survey involvement. Newsletters, print publications and social media can all be tremendous bridges to invaluable information, as long as you choose your querying battles. Whichever of the three you prefer, don’t take data lightly—or you resulting sales may be even lighter.

At D Custom, we put readers first. Contact us to find out more ways to reach your target customer (or reader).

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