With an overload of media in today’s digital world, cutting through the clutter is crucial to reaching your target audience. But do you know your audience well enough to know how to do that? The first step towards creating a successful marketing strategy is to properly define your audience.

Who is your audience?

The very first step in defining your audience is asking yourself, “Who are they?”. When you think about the typical person who purchases your product or service, where do they live? How old are they? What gender is your audience? These are basic questions to begin understanding the demographics, but depending on your business, you may need to dive deeper. It also could be important to know your audience’s marital status or their household income.

Where is your audience?

Another important step in defining your audience is determining where your audience is, particularly in the marketing landscape. Does your audience use social media and if so, what platforms are they on? Do the search the internet often? Do they use a computer or smartphone more? Are they often exposed to billboards? Do they read newspapers or magazines? Do they listen to the radio? Having the answers to questions like these can help you to understand your audience’s behavior and, in return, determine what marketing strategies are needed to reach your audience where they’re at.

Why does your audience need your product or service?

Lastly, why do people need your business? This question may be the hardest to answer but is arguably the most important in the steps towards having a successful marketing strategy. Understanding why people need  your product or service helps your business articulate its value propositions. As for marketing purposes, this will ultimately help to craft relevant content that your audience will actually engage with. That’s where your business can start to cut through the clutter.

Having the answers to these three questions is crucial in crafting a seamless marketing strategy. You may think you know the most effective marketing for your business, but have you asked your audience? Without truly understanding your audience and the extent of their behavior, your business may just be shooting in the dark.

As an extra tip, don’t forget to check in on your audience because you may need to do some redefining every so often. Is your audience still behaving this way? Maybe something in the digital world has changed  that is affecting your audience? Or is your business shifting and needs to target  a entirely new audience? Continuing to understand the relationship between your business and your audience is key to a successful marketing strategy.