Have you seen the latest UberEats campaign? It stars Magda Szubanski, who plays the iconic TV character, Sharon, in Australian sitcom Kath and Kim, alongside Kim Kardashian. It’s bloody hilarious, unexpected and generates seriously positive feelings when you see it. Noice.
What’s this got to do with your trade business? Fair point. Let us explain. People do not ‘buy’ a product or service. They ‘buy’ a concept. Which is exactly the point of the unlikely pairing of ‘Sharon’ and Kim. It speaks to the food-delivery app’s target audience: 25-35 year old professionals.
The only way marketing is going to hit the mark, in any business, is if you understand your target audience. Do you know your ‘who’?
Who is your target audience?
Your target audience, or customer avatar, is a group of customers at which your trade services are aimed. By understanding the thoughts, feelings, wants, desires, frustrations and priorities of this market, you can be more powerful and persuasive in your marketing.
If you don’t know what makes your target audience tick, how can you craft and deliver a compelling message that encourages them to take action? If you don’t know who your customer is, you can’t shine your marketing might and budget on communicating your business’s value.
How to define your target audience
Who is most likely to buy your trade services?
Once you get clarity on who your target customer is in general terms, you’re ready to define the specifics. The process of identifying the customers you want to serve starts with creating a customer avatar – a fictional character that represents your ideal customer.
Here’s how to define your customer avatar:
Name your avatar
Give your ideal customer a name. You can even grab a photo online to humanise the profile. You may have more than one target customer. Your marketing is only influential if it’s relevant and relatable.
Segment your target audience
Your target audience can be split by demographic, geographic and behavioural factors. These factors include:
- Age
- Gender
- Occupation
- Marital status
- Income
- Location
- Behaviour
- Lifestyle
- Values
- Interests
When you market and connect on a deeper level with your customers, by speaking in their language, this will give you strong positioning.
Write a story about your ideal customer
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Record everything that comes into your mind about how they discovered and used your products and services. This will help you refine your market position.
In our own Sydney-based trade business, DR DRiP Plumbing, we primarily do maintenance-style work across the metropolitan area. This area covers lots of people! That’s why our marketing efforts focus on:
1. Location: Over time, we’ve established rapport with more customers in specific suburbs. Our search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy targets these suburbs to drive repeat business (and higher average-dollar sales).
2. 42-year old women: Houseproud with two kids, this busy target customer is the decision-maker when it comes to calling in a trade business. We mainly engage with this market through social media.
Your target audience is the foundation of your marketing. It gives you the ability to pinpoint pain for your customers – and solve their problems. When you have a scattergun approach to marketing, you’re far less likely to nail it. Are you reaching the most valuable leads?
Ready to get started? In the words of our mate, Sharon:
“This calls for Barbecue Shapes and a bottle of Bailey’s!”
Alternatively, to save yourself a trip to the grocery store, click here to download our free guide to winning more customers without a massive marketing budget.
