Free Case Study: How I Helped a Content AI Founder Identify His Right Target Audience.

Last Updated on Mon-Sep-2024 by Robert Bogere

Struggling to identify your right target audience? Or Want to know your current audience is the right fit?

In this new gig environment, one principle remains the same. It’s good to know your target audience for your business.

Whether you’re launching a startup or improving your strategy of any brand, knowing who your product/service can make/break your brand growth success.

This today’s post explores into an example of how I helped a content AI founder identify his target customers, transforming his strategy and setting them on a journey to brand growth.

I’m sharing with you my best practices for identifying your target audience, supported by research and strategies. Shall we chief? Then let’s make it….

What is a target audience?

It’s a group of consumers characterized by behaviors and specific demographics like female extreme athletes between the ages of 18 and 25 – Hubspot.

Marketing evolution defines the target audience as your specific group of consumers interested in your product or services.

All definitions point to one thing and that’s a group of people. Of course, you can’t reach everyone.

And there’s no one-size-fits-all. That’s why you need to know your target audience. Target audience can be identified by age, gender, habits, behaviors, income, location, interests, etc.

Discover: How you can set your brand objectives, OKRs, and goals for your brand.

Types of target audience

Your target audience can be segmented into different types:

1/ Interests

2/ Intention

3/ Demographics

1/ Interests

With this, you segment your groups based on interests, likes, entertainment, hobbies, etc. Think of personal preferences/values. Cultural associations include primary language, religious holidays, or normal habits.

2/ Intention

This is a group of people looking for a particular product to collect more information before doing so. Think of buying intention determined by tracking your active customers shopping for a product/service.

Sort your group of people looking for a particular product/service such as a new entertainment system/electronic. This helps you know their pain points hence creating customized messaging.

3/ Demographics

This target customer refers to the broad range of information describing a person/a group of people. Demographic factors include age, gender, nationality, ethnicity, etc.

This type includes gender, educational and income level, marital and parenthood status, etc. Geographical location like municipality, district, city, Sub-county, county, district, etc.

Target audience vs. target market

A target market is a set of customers your brand plans to sell to or reach out.

Whereas

A target audience is a segment with your target market that’s being served Ads

The above makes your target audience a more particular subset of a target market. For example, let’s say you’re Rob clothing collection a New York-based brand selling trendy streetwear men’s clothing.

Your target market could be:

• Urban-dwelling millennials and GenZ people
• Fashion-conscious men valuing self-expression
• Men with disposable income willing to buy good Streetwear clothing.

Then your target audience would be:

1/ College students living in urban towns interested in street clothing

2/ Influencers with a good following interested in marketing your brand

3/ Young people working in a creative industry who like style and show off.

Knowing the roles of your target customers, you need to understand your target audience by learning their demographic data and knowing particular roles they play in the buyer’s journey.

Discover: The proven time when your startup should focus in branding

Importance of identifying your target audience

1/ Efficient campaigns

According to Google study, companies that accurately define and their target customers experience 2.5x more marketing campaigns and higher conversion rates than those that don’t.

This is simple. When you know who your target customers are, you can develop your brand messaging, product features, benefits, and strategy to meet your target customer particular needs and preferences.

2/ Impact on your branding

Your branding efforts are as good as their alignment with your target audience. For instance, a brand offering to tech-savvy millennials will likely use different language, platforms, marketing channels, and visuals to target retirees.

When you do it wrong, this will lead to wasted money, missed opportunities, and a lost brand identity hence losing out.

3/ Personalized marketing

A well described target customers allow for personalized messaging leading to an increase in consumer engagement and brand loyalty.

Research from Epsilon showed 80% of consumers will likely do business with a company if it offers personalized experiences. This happen when you know your target audience.

Challenges of identifying your target audience

Despite the above benefits, defining your right target audience is not an easy task.

Startups and small businesses, struggle with this due to limited expertise, changing products and services, trends, and the pressure to appeal to a broad market.

And the common issues lies in niching down your potential customers to target groups most likely to benefit from and engage with your product/service. This is where knowledge, research, and creative thinking surface.

The challenge faced by the content AI founder

When I networked with this Minneapolis, Minnesota content blog AI founder, he had a ready-developed SaaS tool but with a common critical issue. That’s defining the right target customers for his tool.

His product was developed to help target users generate in-depth ridiculous good blog posts, and niche content faster.

Without knowing of who would find the most value in it, his marketing efforts were lost, and his brand messaging lacked clarity though his conversion rate was good.

The founder’s challenge was 2 way as below;

1/ He wanted to identify a primary target customers that would benefit from his tool’s capabilities.

2/ He had to identify the sub-groups within the primary target customers that would drive growth for his startup.

Without this clarity, his efforts were akin to targeting wrong people—sometimes hitting the target, but more probably not, missing it entirely.

The repercussion of not finding a solution to this issue were significant. Without a well described target customers, the founder risked wasting his money on ineffective marketing campaigns, and ads, attracting the wrong users and failing to achieve his goals.

This is a common problem for startups, where the pressure to gain traction can lead to hasty, broad targeting that fails the brand’s potential.

My target audience solution to the challenge

From my branding experience, I proposed a strategy that equaled broad appeal with a niche focus.

My goal was to help this founder not only identify his primary target audience but also find out the subgroups that would relate with his AI tool unique value proposition that’s Generate ridiculous good blog posts.

My proposed broader target audience

I proposed him to target three (3) main groups as below;

1/ Content creators and bloggers

Why? This group is always in need of good content to keep their readers engaged. An AI-SaaS tool that simplifies content creation faster would be valuable to them.

2/ Freelance writers

Reason? Writers who work on multiple clients and projects face tight deadlines and high demands for good content.

A SaaS tool helping them create well-researched content faster would be a game-changer hence increasing their daily productivity.

3/ Small and Medium-Sized businesses (SMBs)

Why such businesses? Many SMBs lack money to maintain a full in-housed content team. Some rely on freelancer writers.

A SaaS tool helping them create professional content without the overhead would be attractive to them.

My proposed niche subgroups;

Within these broader groups, I identified subgroups having particular needs aligned with the AI tool capabilities.

I/ Health and wellness

With a growing demand for health-related content, bloggers and freelance writers in this industry would benefit from such a tool that helps them create accurate and engaging articles or posts.

II/ Financial investment and writers

This sub-group requires content that’s not only accurate but well-researched and detailed, making them prime targets for AI-assisted content generation.

III/ Tech reviewers

Given the current technology, tech reviewers need to create timely and well-informed content. A SaaS tool helping them stay ahead of trends would be good for them.

IV/ Edtech and tutors

Educational content demands clarity. Edtech content creators and tutors could use this tool to create materials that are informative, interactive, and accessible.

Discover: The 5 ultimate ways branding can skyrocket your startup funding.

Why did I propose these target audiences?

The proposed target audiences were selected based on their particular needs, the potential for high engagement with the SaaS tool, and the market trends observed through tools like Google Trends and industry reports.

For instance, the health and wellness sector has seen a hype in content demand, making it a lucrative niche for content AI tools like this one.

Again, SMBs are turning to digital solutions to scale their content efforts, making them an ideal target customers for this tool.

Target audience Implementation and results

After presenting my suggestions, the AI founder updated his website’s sub headline to reflect the new target audience, mentioning that tool is “Loved by bloggers, marketing teams, and freelance writers.” Of course, this made my day.

This change not only aligned his brand message with the needs of his target users but offered a unique value proposition for the future target visitors visiting his site.

The Impact of targeting the right audience

Before executing these changes, the AI founder’s website and marketing efforts were generic, appealing to everyone. Of which, you can’t sell to everyone.

The above dilutes your brand messaging and makes it difficult for potential customers to observe the unique value of your offer.

After the changes, the founder will observe an increase in engagement from the right target users.

Traffic from bloggers, freelance writers, and SMBs will increase, and I expect a higher conversion rate from target visitors to start using this tool.

This not only validates the new targeting strategy but also offers a solid brand foundation for future brand growth.

Target audience long-term benefits

Streamlining his brand with the right target customers, the founder set the stage for long-term success. Knowing his target customers, he can create his product development, marketing strategies, and customer service efforts to meet his customer needs.

This will not only help in retaining existing target users but also attract new customers who are a perfect fit for this tool.

Best practices for identifying your target audience

Identifying your target customers is not a one-size-fits-all process. It requires a mix of research, knowledge, and creative thinking. Here are best practices to help you identify and improve your target customers.

1/ Research methods

2/ Adapting to changes

3/ Segmenting your audience

1/ Research methods

With the above, you ask your existing customers about their needs, preferences, and challenges. This firsthand information is good in shaping your target customers.

Monitor conversations on platforms and industry groups to know what your target customers are talking about and what they care about.

You have to look at who your competitors are targeting. How they’re positioning their products/services/offering. This gives you insights into relevant gaps in your market that you can fill.

You can use Google Analytics to get data on your website visitors—demographics, interests, behavior, etc. Google Trends also help you identify trends within your industry that could influence your targeting.

3/ Segmenting your audience

After gathering enough data, you segment your target customers.

Segmentation involves dividing your broader audience into smaller groups based on shared characteristics, behaviors, habits, and interests.

This allows more personalized brand messaging. Here’s how you do it;

1/ Demographics for instance age, gender, income level, education, and occupation influence buying behavior and content preferences.

2/ Knowing your customer lifestyle, values, interests, and attitudes. It’s about getting into the mindset of your customers and knowing what drives them.

3/ Look at how your target customers interact with your brand—what pages are mostly visited, how often they engage with your content, and what products/services/offerings are most interested in.

At times, location plays a role in targeting, if your product/service is regional for example when targeting a section of people from Edmonton, Alberta in Canada.

4/ Adapting to changes

Knowing and targeting your customers doesn’t end when you’ve established a strategy. It’s good to continuously adapt to changes in your market, consumer behavior, and industry trends.

This can involve;

1/ Keeping a close eye on your analytics to spot any changes in your customer’s behavior/demographics.

2/ Use tools like Google Trends to monitor shifts in your industry. This helps you stay ahead and adjust your targeting strategy as needed.

3/ Don’t hesitate to test new strategies/target new segments. A/B testing different brand messaging, target channels, and campaigns can offer insights into what relates most with your target audience.

Target audience wrap-up

Knowing your product target audience is a step in building a successful brand and strategy.

The above case study of a content AI founder shows how knowing your target audience can transform your approach, leading to more branding efforts, higher engagement, conversion, and long-term growth.

Following the above strategies and best practices, you can improve your audience targeting, create more personalized and impactful campaigns, and achieve a solid connection with your target customers.

Additional tips and resources

For you on the look out of your target audience research, here’re additional resources

1/ Books — “Buyer Personas” by Adele Revella. It provides a proper guide to knowing your target customers on a deeper level.

2/ Tools — you can use tools like SEMrush for competitive analysis, HubSpot for marketing automation and segmentation, and SurveyMonkey for gathering customer insights.