Know Your Target Audience – The Challenges We All Face (Pt 2)

Today we continue our series on how well you know your target audience, using data and metrics from the HubSpot Marketing Surveyfor 2022.

In Part 1 of this series, we shared some depressing data about trends among marketers who lack solid information on the make-up and lives of their potential clients. This is data that is necessary for creating an ideal client profile of your perfect prospect, which would be used to direct all of your content creation.

As the article articulates, “The biggest challenges marketers face in understanding their target boil down to two main issues:

• New Data Privacy Measures: Data privacy regulations are reducing marketers’ access to the consumer data they need. At the same time, consumers are less trusting in sharing their personal data.

This results in marketers missing out on critical data on their target audience, from their shopping and media consumption habits to their basic demographic information.

• Evolving Audience Targets: Consumers’ lives have changed drastically over the past few years, and with a looming recession, their habits, attitudes, and preferences are likely to continue shifting quickly.

The two challenges above are difficult to overcome because they're actively developing as data privacy regulations tighten and unprecedented events that change consumer behavior continue.”

Overcoming These New Marketing Challenges

All is not lost, however. The HubSpot author, Maxwell Iskiev, provides us with a few steps we can take to moderate the negative influences of these outside sources.

Here are the answers to his question: “How Can Marketers Improve Their Data Strategy?

• Gather First-Party Data: A great solution to increased data privacy regulations like Google’s planned phase-out of third-party cookies is gathering your own first-party data.

Since first-party data comes directly from your customers, it offers high-quality insights about your audience and allows you to create a personalized experience for them.

• Use a Single Source of Truth for Marketing Data: Only 27% of marketers say their marketing data is fully integrated with their systems and tools, and as we saw earlier, data not integrating well is a top challenge for marketers trying to understand their target audience.

Disconnected marketing data is problematic because you don’t have the full context needed to make data-driven decisions. On the other hand, a single source of truth offers a holistic view of your target audience by connecting all the data points you have.

A single source of truth also improves efficiency by making marketing data more easily accessible for marketers and their collaborators.

• Keep Your Data Fresh: We talked about how consumers’ lives are changing rapidly, and marketers need up-to-date data to keep up.

The interests, habits, and attitudes of your target audience probably changed several times over the course of the pandemic. And with a recession looming, your audience will likely change again – so whatever data tracking method you use, make sure your data is regularly updated to keep a pulse on your customers in real-time.

Plus, you need up-to-date information on your target audience so you can pivot your marketing strategy and message in response to the changes your customers are experiencing.”

Stay tuned for our next post in this series, in which we will share tips from the article on how to adapt and enhance your marketing strategy in response to these challenges.

Statistical analyses of data are fine as far as it goes. However, if you continue struggling with ways to get to know your target audience, Ted is available for business and marketing consultation. With more than 25 years of experience in the trade and an exceptionally empathetic approach, he is sure to find ways to help.

Just click here to… Get in touch with TD Fall today.