Audience profile

From CEOpedia | Management online

Audience Profile is defined as a group of particular clients the most likely to react positively to company's products, services and promotion. Any company can not market successfully without sufficient knowledge of customers. Audience profile is a way of defining exactly target customers by controlling their buying behaviours across multiple platforms. It allows to build strong and long-lasting relationship beetwen marketers and their prospectors.

Formal audience profile requires research of both demographic and psychographic characteristics. First characteristics include general information such as (Shelly B. G., Napier H. A., Rivers O. N. 2008):

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Race
  • Educational level
  • Location
  • Income

Psychographic characteristics include:

  • Lifestyle
  • Interests
  • Purchasing preferences
  • Political affiliations
  • Employment Status
  • Material status
  • If they have a children or not

Demographic and psychographic characteristics allow to have a knowledge of what can influence target customers to buy specific product/service.

Main principles of audience profiling

Process of audience profiling include four main principles (Williamson W. 2017):

  1. Segmentation - First of all company should collect general information like age, gender and location, but it is not enough in understanding customer's behaviour. To separate data it can take also crucial factors such as interests, attitudes, behaviour, lifestyle and education. It is also good to know what a potential customer's day looks like. This whole knowledge can be used by marketers to create detailed personal description of consumers.
  2. Messaging - next step after creating a picture of target customer is to build good marketing strategy, which will contain marketing campaigns. Messages addressed to customers have to be personalised and extraordinary.
  3. Engagement - it means understanding completely time and place where message should be promoted to get the greatest impact on the customer. This applies to areas such as social media presence, content consumption, event attendance and type of device used.
  4. Measurement - monitoring the level of achievement of the campaign's objectives and analysing the success of a marketing strategy.

Why audience profiling is that much important?

Any marketing campaign can't be finished successfully without good profiling and separating target customer groups. It is very important for a few reasons. First and foremost, when firms are selling some product they need to have goals in their mind. Target consumer profile is necessary to determine to whom the product should be offer to sell. The whole process of audience profiling should be finished by product development to confirm that it will fit a certain audience (Audience Profile: Definition & Examples 2019). After all you know deeper who your audience is, you can target them more effectively and with more profits. Your advertisement will be addressed to the particular client. What is more, you will understand more your target customers, their interests and desires (Morrison A. 2017).

Examples of Audience profile

  • High School students: High school students are typically aged between 14 and 18 years old and are typically in the 9th through 12th grade of their schooling. They are beginning to explore their interests and may be considering college or other choices for their future. High school students are typically interested in topics related to their age group such as dating, fashion, music, and technology.
  • College Students: College students are typically aged between 18-22 years old and are enrolled in post-secondary education. They are beginning to explore their career paths and are interested in topics such as internships, career advice, and college life.
  • Young Professionals: Young professionals are typically aged between 22-35 years old and are typically employed in a professional capacity. Young professionals are interested in topics related to their career such as job searching, networking, and career development. They may also be interested in topics related to personal finance, home ownership, and investing.
  • Senior Citizens: Senior citizens are typically aged 65 years and older. They are interested in topics related to retirement, living arrangements, health and wellness, and financial security. They may also be interested in hobbies and activities such as gardening, travel, and volunteering.

Advantages of Audience profile

Audience profile is a tool that provides insights into a target audience's characteristics, interests, and behavior. It helps marketers to better understand and segment their target market, and craft tailored messages that resonate with their customers. Here are some advantages of audience profile:

  • It allows for more targeted and effective communications. With an audience profile, marketers can create segmented groups based on demographic, lifestyle, and buying patterns, and tailor messaging to suit each group’s needs.
  • It enables marketers to personalize their content. By understanding the interests, needs and preferences of their target audience, marketers can create more personalized and relevant content that resonates with their customers.
  • It helps marketers better understand their target market. An audience profile provides detailed insights into the characteristics, interests and behavior of a target audience, which can be used to create more effective marketing campaigns.
  • It helps marketers to track and measure the success of their campaigns. By analyzing the performance of their campaigns, marketers can make changes and adjust their strategy to increase ROI.

Limitations of Audience profile

An audience profile is a summary of the characteristics of the people who are likely to be interested in a product, service, or piece of content. However, there are several limitations to consider when creating an audience profile, including:

  • The availability of data on target audiences: Without reliable data on the demographics, interests, and behaviors of the target audience, it can be difficult to create an accurate audience profile.
  • The scope of the audience: An audience profile is only as comprehensive as the scope of the audience. If the scope is too narrow, the audience profile may be incomplete or inaccurate.
  • The accuracy of the data: If the data used to create the audience profile is not accurate or up-to-date, the profile may not be useful.
  • The limits of profiling: Audience profiling can only go so far. It cannot predict the future behavior of a target audience or anticipate their needs.

Other approaches related to Audience profile

A comprehensive audience profile requires not only an analysis of demographics, but also an understanding of other characteristics that may influence how the audience perceives and interacts with a product, service, or message. Other approaches to audience profile include:

  • Psychographic profiling, which looks at the personal interests, values, and lifestyle of a target audience, allowing for more personalized marketing activities.
  • Behavioral profiling, which studies the habits and preferences of an audience, such as their purchase history, media consumption, and internet search patterns.
  • Geographic profiling, which looks at the regional, cultural, and physical characteristics of a target audience, including their location and language.
  • Socio-economic profiling, which considers an audience’s income level, educational attainment, occupation, and other factors.

In sum, a comprehensive audience profile requires an analysis of more than just an audience's demographic information; it also requires an understanding of psychographic, behavioral, geographic, and socio-economic factors.


Audience profile — recommended articles
Groups of consumers — Precision targeter — Consumer buying behaviour — Segment of the market — Analysis of customer — In store marketing — Customer profile — Innovative marketing — Areas of marketing

References

Author: Agata Drabik

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