6 Ways To Define Your Target Audience For Your E-Commerce Store

It is essential to define your target market to optimise your marketing budget and ensure that your efforts are targeting the right customers that will lead to product purchases. Not everyone will require your product or would want to purchase it. Within every niche, there are specific customers that will be interested in the product. Ensuring that you accurately define your target market will allow you to create and implement strategies based on the target audience that will lead to efficiencies within your business. Here are 6 ways to define your target audience to grow your online business.

1. Acquire secondary data

You firstly need to seek extra information from quality external sources to develop an in-depth understanding of the current customer base. Use comprehensive data sets such as the range offered by Pitney Bowes, to develop detailed and accurate insights for your business. You will be able to define your existing customer market and determine which segments you will like to tap into. Once you have defined your target, this is also an effective way of fully understanding your target audience extensively. It is essential to access data that will put you one step in front of your competitors and develop the right campaigns for your e-commerce store.

2. Undertake primary research

Not only do you need to collect secondary data, but you will also need to undertake research to collect first-hand data gathered by your business. The data can be acquired through customer feedback and surveys which can be implemented through pop-up surveys on your website or subscription newsletter. You can also attain data from your own business analytics. You can measure and analyse data through Google analytics and social media analytics such as Twitter Insights and Facebook Business Manager which allows you to review data that is collected from your interactions on your posts and business page.

3. Analyse your competitors

Determine who your competitors are and what distinct markets that they are tapping into. Are you sharing the same targets? Is their approach broad or specific? Ensure that you are doing something that is different to them to distinguish yourself from your competitors. Take an inverse strategy and target the complete opposite segments as your competitors, or otherwise find a different niche target within their broad customer base. It is beneficial to focus on a customer segment that has not yet been tapped into by industry rivals, as it will be more difficult to attract potential customers in a saturated market.

4. Identify the current target market

Your current target market may not be your ideal target market, but you will have to identify this segment to understand why they are the customers you are currently attracting. What is the reason for this clientele to be purchasing your product? You may locate a niche from your current target audience and may decide to hone into this customer segment.

5. Develop an ideal target market

Define your target market based on how it aligns with your products and brand. Through the primary and secondary research that you have gathered, you will have developed a key segment that you would like to target. This specific target audience is one that you know will be most likely to purchase your product and one that your competitors are not currently investing their efforts into targeting.

6. Create a customer profile

To envision your target segment in more detail, create a customer profile that you can use to communicate to your team and to base your strategy and campaign on. Your customer profile should be the typical standard customer that will be purchasing your product and the customer you should be focusing your marketing efforts on. For every reason, purpose or need of purchase, there will be a different type of customer. Focus on a key customer category which holds a unique need that is met by your products. Be specific when picturing your customer profile through specifying their demographics and psychographics. Demographics include factors such as age, gender, income, occupation and geographic location. Psychographics include lifestyle, behaviour, attitudes and can involve purchasing behaviours that can influence the marketing tactics to approach your ideal target market.

Whether you're looking to redefine your established target audience or only just initiating your online business, determining your e-commerce target market is the first step to maximising your business efforts. With a solid target market, you will be able to better understand and engage with your potential customers to result in greater purchases for your online store. What tips will you use to define your target audience?

Jade is a Journalist who specialises within the Shipping & Logistics sector in the Asia Pacific Region.