How to find your target audience and goal

Why is knowing your target audience important?

Knowing your target audience means understanding who you are speaking to. This helps you create content that resonates with them. When you understand their needs, likes and behaviours, you can connect better. For example, if your audience is young professionals interested in fitness, posting workout tips or health hacks will engage them. It also prevents wasting time on content that misses the mark.

What defines your target audience?

Your target audience is the group of people most likely to buy your product or service. But how can you describe them clearly? Usually, you look at demographics like age, gender, income, and location. Alongside these, behavioural traits matter too. What are their hobbies? What social media do they prefer? Do they watch long videos or prefer quick snippets?

For example, if you sell eco-friendly home products, your audience might be adults aged 25-40, environmentally conscious, living in urban areas, and active on Instagram and Pinterest. They may enjoy DIY videos and articles on sustainable living. The more precise you are, the easier it is to create content that appeals and converts.

Here are some questions to identify your audience:

• What topics interest them? (e.g. stock market, fashion, travel)
• What type of content do they consume most? (videos, blogs, podcasts)
• Which platforms do they prefer? (LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook)
• When are they active online? (morning, lunch break, evening)

Example target audience: Women, aged 20-30, living in London, with a bachelor’s degree, earning £3,500-£5,000 monthly, interested in social media trends and home decor.

How can you research your target audience?

Research is key to knowing your audience well. Start by looking at your existing followers using tools like Google Analytics or Facebook Insights. These give basic demographic info and behaviour patterns. But don’t stop there.

Find out what makes them unique. For example, do they prefer eco-friendly products? What problems do they face that your product solves? Conduct surveys using free tools like Google Forms and ask directly. What content do they want? Which features matter most?

Also, study your competitors’ audiences. Check their comments, reviews, and social media posts. What engages their followers? This might spark ideas.

Remember to identify who is not your target. For example, if you sell luxury goods, your audience probably won’t include bargain shoppers. Knowing this helps you avoid wasting efforts.

What is your goal on social media?

Why are you on social media? What do you want to achieve? Your goal guides your content and strategy. Without a clear goal, it’s easy to get distracted by trends or try to please everyone.

Common goals include:

• Promote brand awareness
• Get leads or sales
• Drive website traffic
• Attract new employees
• Build an engaged community or audience

For example, a local coffee shop might focus on promoting their brand and building local followers. A software company might want to generate leads and attract talent.

It’s better to pick one main goal, especially for small businesses. Trying to do everything can dilute your efforts.

How do you measure your goals?

Each goal has key performance indicators (KPIs) to check success. Here are some examples:

• Brand promotion: number of mentions, impressions, and shares
• Getting leads: number of qualified enquiries or sign-ups
• Driving traffic: clicks from social media to your website
• Attracting employees: quality and quantity of job applications
• Building audience: follower growth and engagement rates (likes, comments)

For instance, if your goal is website traffic, track new visitors from your social posts monthly. If engagement is your aim, monitor likes and comments closely.

In short, think of your target audience as the traveller and your goal as their destination.

How to set up your goals using SMART

Once you know your big goal, break it down into SMART objectives. What does SMART mean?

• Specific: Be clear on what you want to achieve. Avoid vague goals like “grow followers”. Say “increase followers by 20%”.
• Measurable: You need figures to track progress. Use metrics like follower count or website clicks.
• Achievable: Set goals you can realistically reach. Don’t aim to double sales in a week if it’s impossible.
• Realistic: Your goals should match your resources—time, staff and budget.
• Time-sensitive: Set deadlines. For example, “Grow engagement by 10% in 3 months.”

Example SMART goal: Increase Instagram followers by 20%, raise engagement by 10%, and reach 1,000 people per post—all within 4 months.

Additional tips and examples

Would you like to attract freelance writers on LinkedIn? Then your audience is likely professionals aged 25-45, interested in marketing and content creation. Your goal could be building a community of 500 engaged followers in six months.

If you want to promote a fitness app on TikTok, your audience might be 18-30-year-olds who watch short, energetic workout clips. Your goal could be getting 1,000 app downloads from your social content in 2 months.

Whichever your path, always revisit your target audience and goals regularly. Social trends and audience preferences change. Adapt your strategy to keep reaching your destination.