Is Your Target Audience ACTUALLY Your Ideal Client?

Oh, the marketing jargon. Does it make your brain want to explode?

I'm in the industry, and sometimes MY brain even wants to explode.

But not because there are so many terms.

But because the terms end up losing their meaning by getting batched into CATEGORIES.

You see, our brains LOVE categories.

So we tend to group things together.

Like Ideal Customer Profiles. And Target Audiences. And Buyer Personas. And Customer Segments. Target Market. Audience Profiles. User Personas. Market Segmentation. Client Archetypes. Consumer Profiles.

The list goes on.

Today, we're going to look at just two (the two in the title), to understand the DIFFERENCE between the two (yes, they AREN'T the same), and how we can use them to actually HELP us in our marketing endeavors.

Let's begin.

Defining a Target

Fun fact, even in defining the word "target", the Google AI comes up with 10 ANSWERS. Super helpful right?

The one that's closest for our use case here would be either, "a mark to shoot at", or "a person or thing that is the focus of attention or interest".

When we get more specific and add the word "audience" to the end, we get, "the group of people a business is directly their marketing toward".

But if we look at JUST "audience" alone, there are some interesting separations that come up:

- A group of people

- A reading, viewing or listening public

- A group of admirers

- An opportunity to be heard

So, is our target audience just a group of people? Hopefully not.

They're hopefully a group of people who are reading, viewing or listening to us. Even better if they are admirers. But can we even get there if we don't start with people who are giving us the opportunity to be heard?

Probably not.

So, who is giving us the opportunity to be heard?

And do WE dictate that?

Or do THEY dictate that?

Here's the interesting thing about one party (US) defining a Target Audience...WE define who we are looking for, and then talk to them. But we DON'T know whether or not they are giving us the opportunity to be heard.

Interesting, right?

We could be doing a whole lot of "shooting at the mark" without hitting the mark.

Without being heard.

Well now...that's not really the point, is it?

Finding Your Ideal

Care for another fun fact? Google AI only has 3 definitions for "ideal". And since one of them is mathematical, that really only leaves us two: 1) a standard of perfection, and 2) person or thing that represents perfection.

So, we all get that there is no such thing as PERFECT right? So let's assume we're looking for someone that represents ideal (definition 2).

So, what does your ideal client look like?

Oh, but wait...

How much does what they LOOK like matter?

And how much more does their Way of Being matter?

You see, for years, humans have tried to put other humans into categories (here those things come again). Gender. Age. Household Income. Locations. Generations. Psychographics. Human Design. The Hogwarts Sorting Hat.

All based on things that are easy to identify and measure.

But Ways of Being AREN'T by nature easy to quantify. Especially from a digital perspective.

But Ways of Being ARE easy to EXPERIENCE.

So really what we're looking at here is what does it feel like for us to be in an experience with our ideal customers. Or, what is the experience we wish to create for our ideal people?

Shooting Targets vs. BEING WITH Ideal Clients

People aren't a thing to be SHOT. Or targeted. At least, I think most people would agree...at least those of us who aren't snipers or serial killers.

Your clients are people who are critical to making your business function.

If we treat them like something to be SHOT AT or CAPTURED, that's not the mindset that creates a CONNECTION.

But if we treat them as a valued member of the family, there's a different energy there.

Let's skip back to the list of different terms for describing our people:

Ideal Customer Profiles. Target Audiences. Buyer Personas. Customer Segments. Target Market. Audience Profiles. User Personas. Market Segmentation. Client Archetypes. Consumer Profiles.

Each of these will likely bring with it a different energy as you read them.

Some of them will create a CONNECTED energy.

Some of them will create a disconnected energy.

So, pay attention.

Use the language YOU feel connected to.

And then harness that energy to define how YOU plan to connect with YOUR people.

Sure, you can look at the demographics if you want.

But your competitors are doing that too.

And only YOU can bring YOUR energy to the relationship with YOUR people.

And you can DO that...IF that's your intention ??

If YOU'RE ready to get more intentional about your Marketing, let's chat!