Copywriting and the Target Audience Part 1: Who Are You Talking to Again?
June 12th, 2007 Dina at Wordfeeder.comHere’s a phrase that’s often bandied about the world of copywriting, advertising and marketing: target audience. Variations on this term include: target customer, ideal customer, target market. (And then you have the cleverly spun “tarket” by Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero, which is a combo of target and market.)
When we hear a term like this used over and over, our brains tend to want to ignore it after a while. However, that doesn’t mean it’s any less important to do a full analysis of the target audience and their needs before plowing ahead with your marketing plan.
To the uninitiated, a study of your target audience involves more than just jotting down a few ideas. And although it feels tedious, and you want to get to the fun part, which is creating - it’s really the key to whether your product and/or service will flop or fly. Your copywriting effort won’t be half as good as it could be if you have no idea who you’re talking to.
Two critical pieces of the target audience development pie:
1. demographics
2. psychographics
Demographics refer to the cold hard facts about your key customer. Relevant aspects of their profile may or may not include:
Gender (can be both in some situations)
Age group
Income bracket
Location (city, suburbs, rural)
Psychographics probe a little deeper. You determine what these are by examining the customer prototype that you just developed with the demographic profile. Questions to ask (which may or may not be important, depending on other factors):
What are their core values and beliefs?
What is their religion?
Buying habits?
Political preference?
Sexual orientation?
What do they fear most?
What are the things in life that they feel they can’t live without?
These questions are key in determining whether or not your product holds value for the people whom you plan to market it to. You might find out that your target customer can *afford* your product, and yet because of their beliefs, they have no use for it.
Poorly aimed targets:
• A massive computer store in the heart of Amish country
• Selling iPods to the Senior Crowd (although it’s time to redefine the role of technology among seniors - many have become quite computer-savvy)
• A revolutionary “house call” doctor who isn’t covered by the most popular insurance companies
The above examples seem obvious, as though all the analysis is superfluous - but doesn’t always play out that way. Sometimes you think you have an amazing new idea for a product that will work, and then only after you do some target audience development do you realize it’s not going to happen.
The purpose of target audience development is to obtain facts about the group whom you plan to market to, analyze their buying habits, and then design your product and selling strategy around that. You don’t want to guess what they might be into. You want to know. The key to knowing is to ask. This is where a marketing survey comes in handy.
Stay tuned to “Copy on the Fly” to find out what key questions you should include in your marketing survey.
Copyright 2007 Dina Giolitto, Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing. All rights reserved.
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