Whether you want to increase your leads or promote a new product range, expanding your brand to a new target market can be tricky. When you have been selling to a specific audience for so long, it can be hard to shift marketing tactics without pushing away your current, loyal customers.
Although it can be challenging to start catering to new audiences, this is the opportunity to gain new customers and a whole new market.
So how can we reach new audiences? And how can we be sure our desired audience is right?
Learn about your customers through analytics
To fully understand what you want in your new audiences, it is important to know the specifics of your current audience. Whether you take a deeper look into your Google Analytics or explore your social media insights, you can unlock new information about your existing audience.
Is it mostly women who follow your brand on Instagram? Are the majority of your website users in the UK? Learn as much as you can about your current audience, and how far you need to go to reach your desired customers. If it’s in your budget, invest in analytic tools that can help you know even more than the basics.
Once you have a better understanding of your audience, you can see which customers you need to reach more. Look for gaps in your analytics, and investigate where is the best avenue to reach them.
Follow trends
If we look at McDonald’s, the brand does not have one specific target audience. The fast food chain successfully markets to children, office workers, low-income families, and vegetarians and vegans.
One of the ways McDonald’s has managed to sustain its international, diverse market is by keeping up with consumer needs. In 2004, the documentary Super Size Me put a spotlight on the consequences of fast food. Reacting to this healthy-eating campaign, McDonald’s amended their strategy and released healthier options.
What can we learn from this? Keep up with recent news stories and consumer trends in order to hone in on what your target market needs. Your customers’ desires may differ year on year and it is important to be as clued in as possible with your chosen demographic.
Research your ideal audiences
Once you have decided on your desired target audience, you need to research.
Don’t forget your target audience can be segmented even further – if you want to market to families, narrow down your search to the type of family, location, or income.
Another good strategy is working out the problems of your target market, and how you can solve them. What can make their lives easier? Similarly, what are their desires and ambitions, and how can your business fulfil these?
By having a better understanding of these demographics, you can create personalised messaging that will be more attractive to your target customer. You may already have an idea of how your ideal audience can benefit from your brand, so all you need to do is work out how to sell it to them.
Focus on the channels for your target audience
Now you know your ideal audience, and the right messaging, let’s look at where you can target.
Social media may be an obvious marketing tool, but it is for a reason. With only a few exceptions, there is a high chance your demographic is on social media. Find which channels your audience uses, and create the ultimate strategy for targeting. Different channels require different tones of voice – on Facebook, the more long-form, text-based post may be best. On Tik Tok, you’ll need to stay on trend with music and filters to reach Gen Z.
This same strategy goes for your website. This may involve creating new landing pages or creating new content. You may need to dedicate a lot of time and resources to this strategy, however, unlocking a whole new audience will make it worth it.
In summary
To learn how to market to your new, desired audience, ensure you know as much as you can about your current audience. Make use of your social and website analytics, and spot where your audience needs to grow. Next, carefully define your dream audience and thoroughly research so you can conduct the right messaging – and look forward to gaining brand awareness and new leads.
For more marketing advice, read another of our helpful articles on the It Works Media blog. Alternatively, contact us today to find out how we can help you with your next marketing strategy.