Before we jump in and talk about my favorite topic — audience strategy — let’s take a quick step back and talk about brand strategy. 

You’ll probably hear me say this a gagillion times … brand strategy is one of the most important aspects of your marketing — and your business as a whole! Brand strategy is the foundational step that comes before the logo, fonts, the fun visual assets, and all the external marketing.

It’s incredibly important because it sets the tone, who you’re talking to, the core essence of what you’re saying, and why. And there’s one banana inside that whole bunch that is the most important part of all: your audience strategy. Once you know your audience inside and out, it unlocks almost everything else and brings it all into alignment.

You’re probably thinking, “Oh, good Lord, not another target audience avatar exercise.” Well, my friend, you’re in luck because this isn’t that at all! This is so much deeper than magazine preferences and whether they like queso! (Is it even possible to NOT like queso?!) Your audience strategy is the anchor of your whole brand strategy. 

But audience strategy is also more than just learning what makes your audience segments tick. It’s also about going through the exercise of strategically prioritizing that audience segment so you can build a cohesive brand strategy accordingly.

So it’s part deep-dive, part strategic decision-making. And I find that, as business owners, we oftentimes really struggle with prioritizing our audience segments. We feel called to serve different types of people, and we don’t want to “neglect” anyone. So prioritizing them feels like picking a favorite child. And while it can be challenging, it’s an incredibly important exercise for your brand strategy, and there’s a strategic framework that can help make it a bit more manageable. 

Where do you get started? Take a look at these high-level steps to start digging into your audience strategy. They’ll give you a solid framework to build upon. Then you can use this pivotal piece as you grow the rest of your strategy!

Psst: Want a framework to guide you through creating your own target audience so you can build your audience strategy from a really sound foundation? Click here to grab the Audience Cheat Sheet!

Step 1: Consider Who’s in Your Audience

The very first step is to understand the different segments of your audience. You likely have a bunch of ideas of who you like to work with and what they’re all about. (Cue those target audience avatar exercises I know you’ve done before! Don’t worry, they won’t go to waste!) That’s great! Let’s get to know them a bit better.

Grab a blank doc and brain dump absolutely everyone you want to serve — the people you feel called to help, like interacting with, and who can benefit from your product or service. Also write down the kinds of people you hope to serve in the future. Just going through the exercise of thinking through all these different types of people is a helpful way to start because it gets everything out on paper. 

For most business owners, it’s the hardest thing to prioritize the different parts of your audience. We’ll get there eventually. Right now, you’re just looking at who is currently in your audience or who you wish to call around you. When you’re ready, step 2 is how you’ll strategically prioritize them in a way that supports your goals and mission of your brand.

Related Reading: Brand Strategy: 8 Reasons Why It Matters Most to Your Brand

Step 2: Strategically Prioritize Them

Once you know the various audience groups/segments you feel called to serve, think through which segment should be your primary target audience. This is the number 1, the group that’s going to anchor your audience strategy. It’s the audience that most ideally supports your business growth, aligns with your mission, and helps you hit your goals so you can eventually support a secondary audience.

>> Your primary audience should be a segment that finds the most value in what you do/offer, has a need you can fulfill, would benefit from what you have to offer, and can sustain your growth toward your business goals. <<

I know it sounds like that’s a tall order in one audience segment, but it can be done! (I’ve seen it with each client I work with. I promise you, it’s possible to narrow down this most ideal audience so you can talk right to them and their desires.)

Then you can select additional audience segment(s) that can also help you achieve your goals and have a need you can fulfill. Most people will have at least a secondary target audience. The purpose of breaking up and prioritizing your audiences is so you can efficiently and effectively speak to each groups’ needs and desires.

The secondary audience would still be attracted to all of the core things you’ll say to your primary segment, so the groups will most likely be pretty similar, but there will be some nuances between the groups so you can speak directly to them.

Sometimes the secondary target audience actually makes up a decent chunk of the customer base, but it isn’t necessarily the audience group you’d like to target for future growth. For instance, I have a client where 70% of her current audience is VAs, but her primary audience segment in her strategy is Business Owners because that’s where she wants the growth in her business to come from. The language for Business Owners still resonates for VAs, but if she specifically spoke to VAs, she’d alienate Business Owners.

It’s important to note that whatever you’re saying to the primary audience will resonate with the secondary/tertiary/etc audiences, so you won’t alienate anyone else. Also it’s natural for your audience to evolve as your brand evolves. Maybe the secondary will become the primary, but we aren’t there yet.

Now that you’ve defined and prioritized your audiences and understand similarities/differences between them, it’s time for step 3!

Step 3: Dig Deeper

It’s time to go beyond the fluffy personas and get to know your audience better than you ever thought possible! Really taking the time to go deeper into your audience strategy is so important and valuable for your business. Going deeper than surface-level understanding, and really having a detailed picture of your audience segments, is the only way you’ll uncover the subtle nuances to solidify your strategy!

Here, you really get to the root of things like your audience’s pain points, what are they looking for, what language resonates, what words are they using, and so on. Think about things like:

• What does your audience need?
• What do they think they need?
• What problems are you solving for them?

A lot of business owners know this in their brain, but they might have a hard time articulating it in a clear and concise way to their team. And it oftentimes isn’t in a central document everyone can reference. But an audience strategy that’s clearly defined, documented, and shared is so helpful so everyone on your team (even if it’s just you for now) can be on the same track when creating materials that speak to the heart of your audience.

Related Reading: Brand Strategy Glossary: 16 Terms You Need to Know

Once you really dig into your audience, it’ll unlock a lot of ah-ha moments and bring a lot into alignment.

You’ll have clarity in your marketing and messaging strategy. Also, you’ll be able to define your differentiator in a way that makes sense to your primary audience (and of course, communicate that to them)!

And don’t forget to download the Audience Cheat Sheet so you can have this in-depth target audience information at your fingertips while you build your audience strategy, brand strategy, and more!

When I go through a brand strategy session with a client and we begin to define the audience strategy, it’s hands-down the most challenging part. But it’s also by far the most impactful part. My best advice is to set aside an hour or two and see how many details you can solidify. Then if you’re hitting some roadblocks, lean on those around you (your team, a business coach, a planning partner, etc.) to help you brainstorm and figure out the rest of the information. 

By discovering your audience strategy, you can use that information to support your business growth. Knowing this info will help everything align with your mission, help you hit your goals, and grow your business so you can eventually support a secondary audience (and then some)!