By Valeria Hernandez
As any expert communicator knows, the foundation of an effective and successful public relations and marketing campaign is to have a solid grasp of your target audience. Once you determine your ideal target audience you can then craft compelling messages that resonate with them, define which channels of communication they prefer and ultimately how to communicate with them. As with any aspect of PR, target audiences should be defined strategically with research. It’s important to hone in on a niche market in order to cater to an audience that is more likely to be interested in your brand and allow you to focus your efforts on reaching them.
A good rule of thumb is to learn more about them by defining their demographics and psychographics like personality traits, values and lifestyles. This will help you identify what draws them to your brand. Do your brand’s values align with their values? Are they interested in your brand because it fits with their lifestyle? Do they prefer Instagram or spend their time scrolling through Facebook? Do they read the newspaper or would they rather go online for information? Understanding these key differences through extensive research is particularly important in the planning process.
When you have clearly defined your target audience you can start to engage with them on social media. By this step, you will know which social media platforms they gravitate toward and how to communicate with them. Once you begin engaging with your target audience, it’s important to have an authentic, meaningful relationship with them. Share and create content that is of value to them and maintain a steady conversation. Your posts should be relatable, creative and captivating.
So next time you jump into your next public relations and marketing campaign, it’s important to build your foundation and identify your target audience. Define their key characteristics to begin building relationships that will in turn lead to improved strategies and tactics. Go the extra mile and do extensive research to learn more about your ideal market. After all, these key first steps will be the driving force to the success of your campaign.
Have any questions on how to define your target audiences? Shoot us an email at info@olivecreativestrategies.com and we’ll point you in the right direction!