Knowing your target audience is fundamental to successful marketing. It will help you create ads that are relevant to your customer’s needs, interests, and preferences. And when your marketing is relevant, it's more likely to resonate with your audience and capture their attention.
Understanding your audience better than competitors will also give you a competitive advantage. If you can deliver ads with better messaging than your competitors, you’re more likely to win customers and sales.
If you haven’t already, it’s time to create customer segments. Customer segments are subsets of your target audience that share similar characteristics, behaviors, or preferences. They are created by grouping individuals within your broader target audience into smaller, more homogeneous categories.
The purpose of audience segmentation is to tailor your marketing efforts to specific groups within your target audience, allowing for more personalized and effective communication.
Here’s an example 👇🏼
Let’s say you’re selling silk pillowcases. Here’s an example of what your customer segments could look like:
| Customer Segment 1: | Young women between the ages 18 - 25 who struggle with bad skin. |
|---|---|
| Customer Segment 2: | Women between the ages 18 - 55 who struggle with damaged/frizzy hair. |
Even though the demographics are almost completely similar, these two segments would need completely different messaging.
When you create your segments, it’s important to back them with real data. In this example, we’ve used data to find the average age of women who suffer from bad skin. Research showed us that bad skin was most common between the ages of 16 and 25, and we therefore know exactly who we should target in our ads - and who we should not- to save time and money.
After you’ve created your customer segments, the next step is to create personas based on each segment. A persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer. It is a detailed and comprehensive profile that describes each customer segment of your target audience.