The Strategy Fix: Audience
This is my updated version of The Strategy Fix, a 5 week “course” where I’ll send you weekly information and tasks to help you get closer to your ideal brand through critical thinking and strategy.
Welcome to Week 2 of The Strategy Fix! This week we'll go over your audience’s demographics and psychographics and how to use that knowledge to refine your messaging and offerings.
Understanding Demographics (The Basics)
The basics (also known to most as demographics) are usually where people start their target audience research - and unfortunately end it as well. Honestly, this is just the beginning when it comes to understanding your audience. The Basics are the statistical facts that will help segment your audience based on basic traits. This is where you’ll determine the “who” behind your audience.
To quickly dive into your audience’s basics you’ll need to know their:
Age. A range of 10 years is usually a good place to start. This will help you navigate the communication style to use. Gen Z speak and understand content differently than millennials and Boomers will.
Income. What do they make annually? This will help you price your services and create a strategy behind that pricing structure.
Location. Where are they? Does this dictate if they will be able to buy your service? If not, does location matter for your business?
Family Status. Is having or not having a family important to their buying decisions?
Cultural/Ethnic Background. Understanding cultural nuances ensures your content is culturally relevant and avoids missteps in messaging that could alienate certain groups.
Now that you know who your audience is at a surface level, let’s dive deeper into what motivates their decisions.
Exploring Psychographics (The Details)
The details (also known as psychographics) are mostly overlooked when people start doing audience research. These details focus on the psychological characteristics of your audience, such as their values, interests, and hobbies. The details is where a lot of your brand strategy actually will stem from as well. This will help provide a deeper understanding of the “why” behind your audience’s behavior and decisions.
To dive into the details you'll need to know:
Core Values & Beliefs. When most people think about values they only look at it from the brand’s perspective but your target audience have values too. Do they match the companies? Are there overlapping themes between the two that you can utilize to create your messaging?
Lifestyle Choices (health conscious, luxury, eco friendly, etc.). This will help you determine the type of experiences and products your audience gravitate towards and if you can integrate your product into their daily life or align it with their aspirations.
Hobbies/Interests. Helps you understand what excites them and will allow you to create content and messaging that taps into their passions.
Challenges/Pain Points. When you know their problems you’ll be able to position your product or service as the solution. This will be important when you get into positioning as well.
Brands/Influencers They Follow. This will help you understand their preferences, interests, and the type of brands they resonate with.
Objections/Fears. Knowing what holds them back from purchasing will allow you to address these issues head on in your messaging.
Understanding the details will help you understand what’s important to your audience not just who they are or how much they can spend.
Audience Persona
In order to see the bigger picture, I like to take all of that information and create an audience persona for each ideal client I’m working on. Here are some examples of what that could look like, some marketing tactics, and an example company for each audience: