Defining your audience is vital for effective marketing

Now more than ever before, knowledge around who you're talking to is paramount to business success. We live in a connection economy - this makes it imperative that the what, when, where and how of your messaging is less about you and more about the person you want listening to it.

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South Africa has a population of around 54 million people. You cannot have a meaningful impact on everyone. By defining your audience, you can craft a well-directed message that speaks to them, not at them, because it's especially for them.

Your audience influences your messaging

Most marketers have it the wrong way around. Your current message is not influencing your audience. If it was, you wouldn't need the message in the first place.

Your audience must influence every step in the creation of your message. Consider them in terms of:

• Design
• Functionality
• Tone
• Medium
• Language
• Aesthetics
• Context
• Content

Why defining your audience aids success

When you know exactly who you are talking to, you're informed. This puts you in a position to communicate in a way that ensures your audience will be receptive and understand your cause.

It also carries an element of respect. Knowing the nuances of your market affords you the opportunity to communicate as someone from their clan and not an annoying imposter.

Better yet, if you're sensitive enough to a well-defined market's cues, you procure the privilege of making meaningful connections too. Connections that turn one-time customers into life-long patrons, and receivers of your message into backers and disperses of what you have to say.

Valuing who you're talking to allows for you to market in a way that is welcomed by your audience because it is relevant to them. They never feel interrupted or harassed.

Rather, you'll have their attention, with permission.

In both a digital and real-world hurricane of promotion bombardment, a company or brand that's human, respectful and personally engaging gets noticed and wins people over because they get to choose to be won.

The final nudge

Take the time to learn about the people you're trying to talk to. If you do, an audience base that's meaningful will weave itself into a network of clients and users who support your product or service by using it in the way you've intended it for use.

"At the beginning, the market is a voting machine but in the long run the market is a weighing machine. It's a scale of how much impact you have." Define your audience because it allows for meaningful marketing that will last in the long haul.