Understanding Your Audience


An integral part of communication is to know who you are talking to or intend to talk to, which is why at 13th Revolver, the first step in tackling clients brief is to identify the specific characteristics of the client’s customers, including geographic, demographic, and psychographic variables. The more you know about your audience, the more powerful your digital marketing efforts will become. It will also help you craft the perfect message to cause your readers to take action and will put you on the right track in finding key influencers in your market.

Step One: Conduct Market Research

When you want to know more about the audience you are targeting, you need to conduct good old-fashion market research. The goal is to get as many details as possible about the group you are targeting, which you can later use to build personas. You need to find out information as detailed in the table below.


There are many ways you can go about gathering this information, including the following methods.

Create a Quantitative Survey

You will need to gather more information about your audience than general demographics. The easiest way to go about this research is to use an online questionnaire. The data is then quantified, giving you statistical results about your population. You will be able to see general characteristics about your target audience. It is important to note that this approach won’t give you specific insight into individual experiences. It instead reflects trends and commonalities among your audience.

Research Social Networks

Monitoring the various social networks to discover what is being said about your brand, your competitors, and topics relevant to your business. You can even identify trends in your audience’s interests and problems. You can also determine what social networks they are the most active on.

Conduct Interviews

Interviews give insight into motivations, thoughts, and even opinions. It is a way to get to know your audience on a more personal level, but because it is a time-consuming process, the population you research will be smaller. The interview itself should be treated as a conversation take the time to allow the person to get deep into his or her thoughts that they reveal their personality traits, buying preferences, interests, and motivations.

Step Two: Build Your Personas

A persona is a representation of your ideal customer based on market research and actual data about your existing customer base.

Personas offer a voice from your ideal target customers that tie right back to your digital marketing efforts. Think and refer to your personas as real people instead of an abstract audience. That will help you engage in genuine conversations with your current and potential customers.

Write a Detailed Description of Each Persona, you want to describe, in detail, each one. You would include basic demographic data, but also other pertinent information as seen in the table below: (For a Motherhood Brand)


If you need a little guidance in describing/identifying these personas, 13th Revolver can with this persona building is an integral part of our digital marketing strategy.

Step Three: Identify Influencers of Your Target Audience

Once you have done your market research and defined your personas, it’s time to consider the influencers, as they can help you grow your brand’s visibility. That means you need to identify the people who have a direct influence on your target audience. These are the people who can significantly impact your customer’s purchasing decision.

While influencers can include celebrities, journalists, and even industry analysts, the focus here is on social influencers. These individuals are the ones who have built a substantial social following and engage with their audience on a regular basis.

Social influencers are going to be different in each market. For example, if you are trying to reach young mothers, you might want to find and reach out to a popular mom blogger. If you are unsure who is an influencer in your market, 13th Revolver can identify the best fit influencer for your brand.

When you are looking for one of these influencers, consider the following.

  • Pay attention to engagement: The number of social followers is a metric to view when considering an influencer, but just as important (if not more) is the level of engagement.
  • Make sure the influencer likes your brand: You want the influencer to be a genuine brand advocate. This genuineness will come through in his or her messaging.
  • Know how much the influencer is worth: When you involve an influencer, expect to pay money

You should take the time to get to know the influencer, just like you would take the time to get to know your target customer.

Read or view his or her posts and get a feel for what is important to the influencer, be sure to clearly communicate your brand objectives and deliverables. You should also explain your expectations and agree on monetary commitments

The more you know about your audience, including your target customers and key influencers, the greater success you will achieve through your digital marketing.