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Your target audience is your ideal customer. They are the type of people for whom your product is designed.

Knowing your target is a vital part of the marketing process since, with this information, you can market your product or service specifically to suit them. A Yahoo study found that 54% of people find targeted advertising more engaging. And engagement is what you need to convert those window shoppers into buyers.

Consider the humble razor as an example. A razor is really just a blade or a few blades on a handheld stick. Yet, when you go to the supermarket, there are countless options. Some are marketed to women while others to men. These companies are honing in on a particular characteristic of their audience (in this case gender), and adapting their marketing to suit them. Men want to know that the razor they purchase has been specifically designed for a smooth shave whilst being gentle on facial skin. Women, on the other hand, want razors that contour the legs, knees and ankles. Do we really need different razors for men and women? Probably not. But this is target audience marketing in action. We’re going to be persuaded to buy something that feels more relatable.

So how do you, as a business, discover your target audience? Start by following these five steps.

Contents

1. Consider your current customers

Why do your present customers buy from you? Are there any defining character traits or common interests that they have in common? Is there a particular type of customer who you get more business from? Make some notes on who your current customer base is as this can help you to get a clear picture of who your target audience actually is (as opposed to who you think they are). It can be helpful to keep coming back to this point regularly to continue reshaping your marketing efforts in the future.

2. Get clear on your ‘why’

People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. Your passion and purpose is inspiring and it may be the reason people choose you over another brand. What do you care about? What drives you in business? Write down your ‘why’ (or ‘whys’) so that your customers know who you are and what you stand for. You can use this insight when constructing your target audience’s psychographic information (see below).

3. Define the benefits of your product or service

Come back to the good old features and benefits of what you’re offering. List out each unique feature of your product or service as well as the benefits of those features. There may also be rippling benefits that spring from the initial benefits. List those too. From there, consider the people who stand to best reap the rewards of those benefits. The key is to get as specific as possible and try to find a niche that separates you from your competitors.

4. Identify the demographics of your target audience

You want to consider their:

  • gender
  • age range
  • geographical location
  • occupation
  • income bracket
  • marital or relationship status
  • education
  • cultural background.

Demographics are the factual, measurable traits of your audience. They’re the easiest layer to pin down and a useful starting point, but they’re only half the picture. Plenty of people who share the same age, income and postcode want completely different things, which is exactly why the next layer matters so much.

5. And then their psychographics

This is the juicy stuff such as:

  • values
  • behaviour
  • attitudes
  • beliefs
  • lifestyle
  • personality
  • interests.

Buying is an emotional experience so you need to tap into your target audience’s psychology in order to market to them effectively. Who are they? What do they care about? Bring your own ‘why’ in because people who care about what you care about are more likely to choose your business. Where demographics tell you who someone is, psychographics tell you why they buy, and that’s the layer that lets your marketing actually connect.

Add their behavioural information

Demographics and psychographics tell you who your audience is and what they care about. Behavioural information tells you what they actually do, and this is where a lot of the real gold is hiding, because behaviour is what predicts buying. Once you understand how your audience behaves, you can show up in the right place, at the right moment, with the right message.

Things worth mapping include:

  • How they buy: online or in-store, on impulse or after careful research.
  • Where they discover brands: social media, search, word of mouth, referrals.
  • How they research: reading reviews, comparing options, asking for recommendations.
  • Their buying triggers: the events, seasons or pain points that prompt a purchase.
  • Loyalty and usage: one-off buyers or repeat customers, and how often they buy.
  • Price sensitivity: bargain hunters or quality buyers who’ll pay more for the right thing.

Map their objections

Every potential customer has reasons not to buy, the doubts and hesitations running quietly through their head. If you can identify and pre-empt those objections, you remove the friction between interest and purchase. Addressing an objection before it’s even voiced is one of the most persuasive things your marketing can do.

Most objections fall into a few buckets:

  • Price: “it’s too expensive” or “can I really afford this?”
  • Trust: “will it actually work?” or “can I trust this brand?”
  • Need: “do I really need this right now?”
  • Risk: “what if it’s the wrong choice and I waste my money?”

For each one, have an answer ready in your marketing, whether that’s social proof, a guarantee, a clear breakdown of value, or an honest comparison. The better you know your audience’s objections, the more your copy can quietly handle them.

Write a customer scenario success story

Once you’ve gathered all this information, bring your target audience to life with a short scenario, a kind of day-in-the-life or success story that follows your ideal customer from problem to solution. This turns a spreadsheet of traits into a real, relatable human you can actually picture and write for.

A good scenario covers their situation and the problem they’re facing, how they discover you, what convinces them to take the leap, the purchase itself, and the happy outcome on the other side. It sounds simple, but writing this story makes every other marketing decision easier, because from then on you’re speaking to a person, not a demographic.

A real-life example

Let’s pull all of that together with a worked example. Meet Sophie, the ideal customer for a premium, ethically-made activewear brand. Here’s her complete picture across every layer:

Layer Sophie
Demographics Female, 32, lives in Brisbane, marketing manager, around $95k income, in a relationship, university educated.
Psychographics Values health, quality and sustainability. Sees fitness as self-care, is conscious of ethical production, and follows wellness and sustainability accounts. Wants her purchases to reflect her values.
Behavioural Shops mostly online, reads reviews and researches before buying, discovers brands via Instagram and word of mouth, happy to pay more for quality and ethics, becomes fiercely loyal once a brand wins her over.
Objections “It costs more than the big brands.” “Will the fit and quality actually be worth it?” “I’ve never heard of this brand before.”
Scenario / success story Sophie’s old leggings are falling apart and she’s tired of the fast-fashion guilt. An Instagram reel leads her to the brand, the ethical story and glowing reviews win her over, she buys a pair, loves the fit and the values match, and becomes a repeat customer who tells her friends.

See how much more useful Sophie is than “women aged 25 to 40”? With this level of detail, you know exactly where to find her, what to say, which objections to answer and what story will land. That’s the difference between guessing and a proper customer profile.

Bring it all together

Use all of this information to identify your target audience. If you have multiple products or services, you may have more than one. That’s okay. It’s also okay if you have more than one target market for one service or product. It will all allow you to create a more personalised approach to your marketing endeavours. And this, in the long run, will get you a much better ROI.

If you’d like a hand pinning down your ideal audience and building a brand that speaks straight to them, a free brand audit is a good place to start, or explore our brand strategy work.

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FAQs

What is a target audience?

Your target audience is your ideal customer, the specific group of people your product or service is designed for. Knowing exactly who they are lets you market to them in a way that feels relevant and relatable, which is what turns window shoppers into buyers. It goes well beyond basic demographics to include what they value, how they behave and what’s likely to stop them from buying.

What’s the difference between demographics and psychographics?

Demographics are the factual, measurable traits of your audience: age, gender, location, income, occupation, education and so on. Psychographics are the deeper layer, their values, attitudes, beliefs, lifestyle, personality and interests. Demographics tell you who someone is; psychographics tell you why they buy. You need both, but it’s the psychographics that let your marketing actually connect on an emotional level.

What is behavioural information?

Behavioural information is what your audience actually does, as opposed to who they are or what they believe. It covers how they buy (online or in-store, impulse or researched), where they discover brands, how they research, what triggers a purchase, how loyal they are and how price-sensitive they are. Because behaviour predicts buying, this layer is often where the most useful, practical insights for your marketing live.

Can I have more than one target audience?

Yes, and many businesses do. If you offer multiple products or services, you may have a different audience for each. You can even have more than one target market for a single product. That’s completely fine. The goal isn’t to force everyone into one box, it’s to understand each distinct group well enough to market to them in a personalised way, which ultimately gives you a much better return on investment.

Why does knowing your target audience matter?

Because you can’t market effectively to people you don’t understand. When you know your audience’s demographics, psychographics, behaviour and objections, you can put the right message in the right place at the right time, and pre-empt the doubts that stop people buying. Targeted, relevant marketing consistently outperforms generic marketing, which is why nailing your target audience is one of the highest-value things you can do for your business.

What is a customer persona or avatar?

A customer persona (or avatar) is a semi-fictional profile of your ideal customer, built from real data, that brings your target audience to life as a single, relatable person, like our example, Sophie. It pulls together their demographics, psychographics, behaviour, objections and a short success-story scenario. The point is to make your audience concrete enough that you’re writing and designing for a real human rather than a vague segment.