How to Reach Your Target Market Online in 5 Simple Steps

If you don’t know how to reach your target market, your business will be in a lot of trouble. I can speak from experience. The first business I started was a complete flop. I needed to reach the decision maker for medical practices in order to pitch my medical billing services to them. Connecting with them was very difficult and I ultimately decided I didn’t care for medical billing.

Over the years, I learned more about marketing and how to engage with people in a way that will convert them to sales. I discovered ways to reach a target market online that are very effective and efficient.

Step 1: Define Your Target Market

If you have a gadget that you feel everyone needs, your ads and marketing will fail. The first thing that you need to know before creating your marketing content is “Who will this benefit?”

Let’s face it, everyone needs to eat a healthy diet, but the majority of college kids are going to gravitate towards beer and pizza. Targeting them with ads for kale salads will be a flop. On the other hand, women in their forties who are trying to lose weight would be the ideal customer for a kale salad advertisement. They may have even convinced themselves that they like kale salad with the right dressing.

Get very specific on the age, location, interests, and gender when you define your target market. This will increase your likelihood of converting your readers. If you are writing for a company, make sure you do your due diligence and read up on their target market.

You’ll want to understand how the product meets their needs and what the common complaints and pain points are for the target audience.

Step 2: Research Their Hangouts

Know where most of your audience spends their time online. If you are targeting B2B business owners, you are going to do better on LinkedIn than on Facebook. It is geared more towards professionalism and lead generation. If your audience is a Gen X ers, they are going to be on Facebook for social media as opposed to Tik Toc or Twitter.

If you are trying to reach a specific interest group, such as Appalachain trail hikers, you may have more success in Facebook groups or online forums, such as Quora or Reddit. These platforms allow people to discuss questions and concerns about their hobby.

Step 3: Create Content that Appeals To Your Audience

Before you create that next blog post, think about what does well with your audience. Do they like sensationalism? Do statistics appeal to them? Are they trying to maximize their budget?

Create content with headlines that will appeal to the target market. A good example is the Youtuber Frugal Fit Mom, a mother of four, created a video on Youtube that was 126 meals for $30 Emergency Extreme Budget Haul. The video was a hit with her audience because they are moms who are trying to save money. This video appealed to other moms who enjoyed learning how to save money and feed their family. It got over a million views in a month.

The video also had a sensationalistic title. The 126 meals were individual meals. It was a week’s worth of meals for her family of six. By using the large number of 126 meals instead of a week’s worth of groceries, it triggered the viewers curiosity.

Step 4: Engage with Audience

It is tempting to slap up an advertisement and hope that it creates sales. It rarely does. Audiences now have become a bit immune to advertisements. They know that marketing can be overblown. People are now looking for a connection with brands. They want to feel like the brand is in alignment with their values. They want to trust the brand.

To create a connection and engage with your audience, write in a conversational style. This can help people to feel like they are having a conversation and really relate to you. Share a story or experience in your content. For example, I started this blog post out with one of my most embarrassing business failures. I also used common speaking phrases, such as “let’s face it.”

Only write in the first person if that is the brand voice that the company wants you to use. For some industries, it is better to use a more formal tone.

Another great way to engage with your audience is to interact with them on social media and through forums. Ask whether they enjoyed your product or how they would improve it. You could also ask how and when they use your product.

Step 5: Stay Consistent

Customers are seeking consistency and stability. In the online world, it is easy to set up a medical billing business one day and realize you aren’t cut out for it a few months later like I did. Demonstrating consistency in your brand story over time builds trust and reliability.

Channel consistency will help to build your brand’s message. It will improve your SEO rankings and customers will feel that they can count on you more when you stay consistent with your message.

A consistent message includes having the same brand story on all of your social media platforms and website. Your logo and colors should be consistent. You should have a consistent voice on all of your platforms. If you are engaging with a conversational tone, it should be the same on Facebook as it is on Twitter. If you have a formal tone on LinkedIn, it should remain formal on Twitter.

Writers must master the art of connecting and engaging with an audience. To do this, you need to really get to know the problems that plague your target market and how the product you are promoting will uniquely help them. Much of this can come from practice, but it also comes from spending time learning about the daily challenges that your target market faces. The more you know about your audience, the better you will be able to reach them.