UPDATED: A Step-by-Step Guide to finding your Target Audience

May 26

*Original Post Date: March 3, 2023 | Post Updated May 2026*

Finding your target audience is crucial to the success of your business.

If you haven’t worked with me before, one of the early questions I will ask you in our discovery call is: Who do you see in your target audience? I probably will already have a pretty good idea, but hearing it in your words is always enlightening.

If you are working diligently to build your brand, but haven’t given your target audience much thought—please block off some time in your calendar. It’s foundational brand knowledge that you can pass down to team members as you grow. By having a better understanding of your target audience, you can tailor your marketing and product offerings to meet their needs, which in turn will increase customer satisfaction and drive growth.

Here are some steps you can follow to find your target audience:

Define your ideal customer:

Start by creating a profile of your ideal customer. Consider factors such as age, gender, location, income, interests, and buying behavior. Need help? Think about recent projects or experiences that brought you joy, flowed easily, or just made sense. You want more of those, right? This is your ideal customer, or something very close.

Conduct market research:

Use surveys, focus groups, and other research methods to gather information about your target audience. Look for patterns and trends in the data you collect. This can be as formal as hiring a company to conduct a focus group on your behalf, or as easy as running your own A/B tests on your social media posts.

Analyze your current customer base:

Examine your current customers—are there any common characteristics that they share? This will give you a better understanding of who your target audience is. Consider the ideal customers you want more of and ways you can engage with them directly. Reaching out to those previous successful partnerships can be a great way of gaining a better understanding of why they chose you, what you can do to better serve them and others next time, and

Use social media and other online tools:

Utilize social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram to connect with potential customers and gather information about their interests and behavior. There’s a wealth of knowledge to be found in the insights that these platforms provide. I know when my target audience is most active and schedule my posts accordingly. The data allows me to work smarter, not harder.

Monitor your competition:

Smart marketers are always eyeing the competition. See whom they are targeting and what tactics they are using to reach their target audience. Just don’t get stuck! There’s a difference between analyzing the competition and comparing yourself and your offerings.

Find balance by looking back to yourself a year ago or five years ago—that’s the real competition and point for comparison.