These days, it’s not enough to just send an email to everyone in your constituent relationship management system (CRM) inviting them to your next event or informing them of your latest business initiatives. People want personalized marketing messages that pique their interest, address their pain points, and satisfy their needs.

It’s important to think about who your target audience is, what their needs are, and how you can best reach them. That way, you’ll run more targeted marketing campaigns that individuals are likely to respond to. We’ll review five tips for analyzing your target audience so you can ensure you reach the right people with your communications.

1. Define your intended target audience

Start by sitting down with your team to define your target audience. Each campaign you run likely has a different group you’re trying to reach, so you need to make sure everyone’s on the same page.

Your intended target audience will depend on your overarching campaign and business goals. For example, your target audience will look different if your goal is to grow your client base, increase revenue, or expand into a new market.

Once you’ve nailed down the intent behind your campaign, you can begin to loosely define who your target audience is. Let’s say you’re an association leader running a networking event to increase membership among young professionals. To provide specificity and direction to your campaign, ask your team questions such as:

• How old is “young?” Be specific about the age range of your ideal event attendee. Some associations may classify young professionals as aged 22-40 while others may narrow that range and aim for ages 22-29. The age range you choose will determine the marketing messages and platforms you use to promote your event.
• Where do these young professionals live? If you’re hosting an in-person event, define the geographic radius of your audience. For instance, you may choose to target young professionals within a five-mile radius of your association headquarters with a direct mail campaign that encourages them to attend your event.
• What industries do they work in? Are you looking to reach young professionals in general or increase membership for certain industries? Narrowing in on these details ensures you know exactly who to reach out to and can highlight industry-specific opportunities at your event.

These questions can help you specify who you’re trying to reach and allow you to start brainstorming ways you can personalize your marketing campaigns to your intended audience.

2. Segment your audience

Chances are, your CRM or database is loaded with a variety of customer or constituent records. While this information is useful for getting to know who your customers or members are, not all of these records will align with your target audience for each campaign.

To ensure you can easily find the information you need to launch your campaign, segment your broader audience within your database. Group records for people in your target audience together for easy access.

You may create several segments at once depending on how many campaigns you’re running or notice trends in your customer data as you go that inspire new segments. For instance, you may find that you have a significant number of customers in the Philadelphia area. Consider creating a segment of these customers and targeting them with content about local events and opportunities from your organization, such as a sale on your product at a regional store.

3. Conduct a data append

Once you’ve determined who your target audience is and created a segment for them in your database, you may notice you’re missing some key information that would help you better reach them.

For example, you may want to run an email marketing campaign, but upon surveying your database, you notice that you only have email addresses for 60% of your target audience segment.

In this case, conduct a data append. Work with a data provider to supplement your database with information from third-party sources so you can access email addresses for as many of your target audience members as possible.

Other types of contact information you can append include:

• Names
• Phone numbers
• Home addresses

You may even append lifestyle information that allows you to dive deeper into your target audience’s interests and needs so you can better personalize your content to them. For instance, some data providers can tell you which charitable causes your customers donate to, allowing you to secure event sponsors that align with your customers’ values.

4. Activate a custom marketing audience

In all of the above cases and examples, we’ve discussed your target audience as a sliver of your broader audience. You already have existing data and relationships with them.

However, what if your target audience isn’t represented within your CRM? What if they aren’t yet your customers?

In this situation, your organization should build and activate a custom marketing audience. A data provider can give you access to highly relevant datasets so you can reach your target audience.

For example, let’s say you run an event management software company. You typically sell your product to corporations and associations, but you’d like to start marketing to healthcare organizations.

The right data provider can help you build an audience that includes likely-to-convert prospects in the healthcare industry. Then, you can activate this audience across channels and break into an entirely new market for your product.

5. Solicit feedback

The process of effectively reaching your target audience doesn’t end when your campaign does. Involve audience members by soliciting their feedback about your marketing communications through surveys, polls, and in-person interactions. Ask them questions such as:

• What were your initial impressions of our communications for this campaign?
• How well did our marketing messages address your pain points?
• Did you feel our outreach spoke to you as an individual? Why or why not?
• Is there anything we could improve on to make our communications more useful or effective?

For quantitative measures of how your target audience responds to your campaigns, analyze metrics such as click-through rate, email open rate, and engagement with your social media posts. Combining these metrics with your audience’s feedback will allow you to determine what worked and what didn’t, enabling you to incorporate these insights into future campaigns.

Focusing your marketing efforts on your target audience allows you to personalize your outreach and focus your resources on the people most likely to respond to your campaigns. When you effectively define, analyze, and activate your target audience, you can build a loyal customer base that feels seen by your individualized content.