As digital marketers, we may be a bit impulsive when it comes to marketing our messages. That is, we may try to reach as many people as possible with our message through breathtaking infographics, viral videos, and daring marketing stunts. Of course, while these marketing efforts are important, focusing on a specific segment of our market can help us find our core audience. 

Identifying Your Core Audience 

You may wonder, who is your core audience? These are the people who purchase your products and aid in the promotion of your brand. For example, look at the well-known athletic footwear and apparel company Nike. If we dissect Nike’s core audience marketing efforts, we can see that this audience primarily includes athletes and sports enthusiasts. As we know, they have more recently expanded their core audience to also include runners, younger athletes, and women. 

Why is My Core Audience So Important? 

This may seem obvious, but your core audience is the group that plays a key role in your organization’s profitability, and we know without profits, the ship will sink. Consider the habits of your core audience, which include: 

• Buying your product/service
• Approving the purchase of your product/service
• Advocating for/Legitimizing your organization

The article Core Audiences – What is a Core Audience on Facebook? suggests that leveraging your core audience makes it so that your ads are shown to the most relevant groups of people who are more inclined to engage and convert.

How to Reach Your Core Audience?

Reaching your core audience has a Yin and a Yang. The Yin? Trial and error through posting content. The Yang? You’ll have the chance to observe what content your core audience genuinely enjoys from you. One great way to see what your core audience values is to be direct and ask them to share their ideas with you. The plus here is that their buy-in increases as they now have an opportunity to have their voice heard with the content shared by your organization. 

Here are five additional strategies to consider in reaching your core audience: 

1. Engage with your followers
2. Use story mapping tools
3. Implement analytics
4. Post consistently
5. Research your competition 

By experimenting with trial and error and implementing these five strategies, you are sure to be on your way to reaching your core audience. 

How Do You Grow Your Core Audience? 

To grow your audience, understanding your audience’s preferences for engaging with your content is vital. By doing so, you will have content that is both appealing and effective for them. For example, you have found that your audience enjoys learning about new social media strategies. Providing them with a way to share their recent experiences with a specific hashtag you’ve created or by having them tag your company can be a great way to increase engagement and build up your core audience. 

Another way to grow your core audience is through what Amy Jauman calls, the “share effect.” In her article that highlights growing your audience through sharable content, she provides us with these three insightful questions:

1. Who’s Recommending You? 
2. What’s Your Audience Potential?
3. What About Your Existing, Active Followers? 

These questions allow us to analyze the larger picture and act as a guide in growing our core audience through shareable social media content.

How Do I Know if My Core Audience Is Changing or Not?

To know whether your core audience has changed, ask yourself the following questions from the Marketing and Communications section in NISM’s Comprehensive Field Guide for Social Media Strategists: 

1. Have we launched any new products or engaged in any new initiatives that might attract a new core audience? 
2. Have we made any changes that might alienate some or all of the core audience we have currently identified? 
3. When reviewing platform analytics, are there any changes in our engagement demographics? If so, do we know why and if the change is likely temporary or permanent?
4. Have our competitors, strategic partners, or complementary businesses begun to target new audiences? If so, does it make sense for us to do the same? 

Did I miss any important details for achieving your core audience? Let me know in the comments!

 

Author: Sam Cuellar

Digital Marketing graduate from DePaul University, Social Media Strategist Intern at the National Institute for Social Media, and professional bass player with a passion for both social media marketing and music.