It’s not your imagination—we spend a lot of time talking about the audience in this industry. Brand audience strategy is a whole discipline in itself, and there are obvious reasons why. When push finally comes to shove, the audience for your brand or message really holds all the power. If what we do doesn’t resonate with that group, our efforts and resources are simply wasted.
So yeah, it’s an element of our work that we really want to be great at. And even though we all know that is a big part of the ball game, we’ve still sat across plenty of tables with clients who simply don’t know who they are trying to reach.
So, Who Are You Trying to Reach?
If you don’t know the answer to that yourself, don’t panic. One of the things we do best is help clients define the specific groups of people they want to reach as well as the groups they should be reaching. And honestly, it tends to be one of those issues where you might just be too close to the problem to accurately assess it.
We also recognize that it can be a scary question to answer. After all, once you define an audience, part of what you’re doing is defining who isn’t going to be your customer. That can be a tough thing to declare.
A common response to that is: “Why limit ourselves? What if we miss a potential sale because we weren’t inclusive enough in our communications?” I understand that argument, and let me tell you—I’ve heard it a lot.
When we ask new clients about how they define their audience, the most common thing I hear goes something like:
“Well, the nature of our business demands that we talk to everyone,” or “We are targeting people between the ages of 25 and 65 with incomes between $85,000 and $250,000…but we also want to expand to a slightly younger audience….and maybe we can capture a few more retirees…”
I’m not here to beat you up over those kinds of answers. Maybe those are even answers you feel to be true in your heart. But there are certain realities we face in marketing and one of them is the fact that if you honestly try to talk to everyone, it’s going to be impossible to say something very meaningful to any of them.
Keeping It Real. Getting Results.
Yeah, we talk a lot about “audience,” but possibly the next most invoked topic is “authenticity.” It’s probably the watchword of our time. As our world becomes increasingly digital, we have to recognize society’s desire to be spoken to in ways that feel personal and real. There is a huge power in doing that effectively because audiences are largely so starved for it.
When we talk about “authenticity” as an agency partner, those are the forces we’re trying to leverage for you. This is why we’re pressing you so hard to come up with a real answer on defining your target audience. Because sitting on one side of the communication spectrum is “talking to a small well-defined group authentically,” and on the other side is “frantically shouting to literally everyone as they walk past you on the street.”
One of these methods is definitely superior.
And yet, I know there are some who will still insist on talking to the widest group of people possible. The reality is that, as you try to capture that wide audience, the effort to capture the people standing just outside the edge of your circle will be the biggest drain on your resources.
Let’s take a look at a counterintuitive mechanism to audience targeting that we can help you take advantage of.
Specificity Lifts Results
To better illustrate my point, imagine that the wide audience you have (or are aiming to attract) is standing on the surface of a huge trampoline. If we spend our time targeting them all, we’ll just depress the entire surface of the trampoline. Maybe this will keep some people from stepping off the surface. Maybe some sensitive people will feel the change and be attuned to it. But overall, they likely won’t experience much of an impact because the force of focus is so evenly spread across all members.
But, what if all of our attention becomes focused in the middle? If we find that smaller group at the center of the trampoline and we heap our efforts there instead, now we have a deep cone. The center group experiences a dramatic change, and those on the periphery now feel a gravitational force to want to join them in the center.
That’s how the best brands really capture people.
They drive their message more deeply into a smaller group and let gravity do its thing. Nike targets hardcore athletes while still joyfully selling plenty of shoes to mall-walking retirees. Apple targets creative and artistic people while still selling to almost everyone.
The trick isn’t to just create an aspirational message hoping to interest that wider group. Those brands are having authentic conversations with their smaller core groups—and that presence of real authenticity is the true magnet for their wider consumer base.
Building a Brand Audience Strategy That Attracts
In the end, no, it’s still not a crime to think about a huge audience for your brand. But when it comes to your marketing strategy, the importance of audience targeting can’t be understated. In fact, there is so much to be gained from the process of defining your target audience—that special group of people who will feel so seen by your brand that they become de facto brand ambassadors—that it’s basically a non-negotiable for anyone wanting true brand growth.
The warmth of making that strong of a connection will attract a lot of attention, and the way it gets communicated will feel more organic and tangible to all of the viewers outside of target groups.
By identifying the few that fit our brand the best, we can better ensure that our efforts will be effective and will maximize the impact of our resources. Sure, it gives us a simpler job to do in some ways—but it also lets us harness something as basic and powerful as gravity itself.
