How to Define Your Target Audience

It used to be that only television producers and the government cared about the target audience. Now, every role in every organization talks about their target audience.

Think of your target audience as the a person you want to talk to.  With media production, you know that your message is going to reach a wider audience than just one.  But sometimes it’s easier to define a single member of your audience as the target and then add variables and traits from there.

The definition of target audience in the dictionary is: a particular group at which a film, book, advertising campaign, etc., is aimed.  Likely, your podcast, zoom panel, eBook or webinar target audience your target customer. However, we have clients that use media production to reach their own employees or potential channel partners as well. Your target audience is really whoever you want your media to appeal to.

Defining your target audience helps in several ways.

First off, it helps to craft the content and write. Having a particular target audience in mind when planning your media and messaging is helpful to maintain your relevance and context. If you write without understanding your target audience, then it is highly likely that your target audience will not engage with your content. It is important that you content is valuable (useful) to your audience.  Understanding what makes your target audience’s life easier will help you write better content for them.  Secondly, understanding your target audience helps you make decisions about distribution.  For example, where can you reach your target audience.  How should you best get your content in front of them? In advertising, you will need these parameters to order ads and to help make them effective.

Questions to answer when defining your target audience

We have compiled several questions that help navigate the process of research to define your target audience with precision.

• Who are you trying to reach as your target audience?
• What are the interests of your target audience?
• How does your target audience spend free time?
• What platforms and entertainment topics would your audience consume?
• What problem does your audience need to solve in order to make their life better or improve ROI?
• What industry does your target audience work in?
• What job titles do your target audience members hold?
• What age demographic is your target audience?
• Where do they live or work? (Geography)?