With so many terms and colloquialisms used in digital marketing, it can be hard to determine exactly what is meant by phrases that sound similar, like “customer persona” and “ideal customer profile”.
Another common example of terms that are often confused with each other is “target market” vs ‘target audience”.
Both mean different things and have different applications in your marketing and advertising strategies. When you don’t understand the difference, it can be difficult to create well-rounded plans that bring value to your brand.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the differences between a target market vs target audience and explain why each one is important for a digital marketing strategy.
Target Market vs. Target Customer: What’s the Difference?
Understanding target markets and target customers is crucial for effectively marketing your business. But what exactly is the difference between a target market and a target customer?
While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, they refer to related but distinct concepts. In this guide, we’ll explain how target markets and target customers differ, why both matter, and how to define each accurately.
Defining Target Market vs. Target Customer
First. let’s distinguish the key terminology
Target market – A specific group of consumers that a company aims to sell its products or services to, determined based on demographics, interests needs and behaviors.
Target customer – The ideal hypothetical customer that a business directs its marketing efforts toward, represented by a detailed fictional persona.
The target market is a broad segment of potential customers fitting certain qualifications. The target customer represents a singular portrayal of your ideal buyer
Here are some key ways target markets and target customers differ:
Scope
Target Market: Broad segment of potential buyers.
Target Customer: Specific fictional representation of ideal buyer.
Basis
Target Market: Based on data about consumer groups.
Target Customer: Based on archetypes and insights about best customers.
Description
Target Market: Defined demographically and statistically.
Target Customer: Detailed, personalized narrative persona.
Usage
Target Market: Helps segment broader consumers.
Target Customer: Humanizes an individual in your market.
Why Target Markets and Target Customers Both Matter
Targeting a specific market allows you to:
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Tailor your messaging, offerings and channels to resonate with that group.
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Focus your marketing budget on reaching your most likely buyers.
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Identify opportunities not being met for a particular demographic.
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Research trends and forecast demand among segments.
Defining target customer personas allows you to:
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Visualize and empathize with your ideal customers’ needs.
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Craft messaging that speaks directly to their unique desires.
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Identify goals, challenges, and objections to address.
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Guide sales, support, product design, and strategy based on their perspective.
Together, both concepts help you hone your marketing strategy and outreach. You need the high-level market segmentation as well as the humanized personification of an ideal buyer.
How to Define Your Target Market
Follow these steps to profile your target market accurately:
Step 1: Identify Your Buyer Personas
First, determine the main buyer personas you serve. Common attributes to define them include:
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Demographics like age, gender, income level, education, family status
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Geographic factors such as location, climate, urban/suburban/rural
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Behaviors like hobbies, shopping habits, tech savviness, lifestyle
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Values including priorities, beliefs, causes, affiliations
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Psychographics like personality traits, attitudes, communication style
Step 2: Research Market Size and Trends
Next, dig into data on market size and growth trends for those buyer groups:
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Use survey data, census figures, industry research to quantify potential reach.
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Study growth patterns and future projections.
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Identify where needs are being underserved.
This will reveal which segments to prioritize based on viability and untapped potential.
Step 3: Analyze Your Current Customers
Look at existing customer data to identify commonalities:
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What customer profiles buy most often? Which generate the most revenue?
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What needs or values do your best customers share?
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Which market segments are you already reaching successfully?
This will help determine where you have traction versus areas to double down on.
Step 4: Choose Targets Strategically
Finally, evaluate all the data to select target markets purposefully.
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Choose segments where your solution aligns well with consumer needs and interests.
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Consider your positioning versus competitors. Can you differentiate in a particular market?
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Weigh your ability to reach a segment through available channels.
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Be specific. Mass consumer markets are often too broad to penetrate effectively.
Regularly re-evaluating your target markets allows you to refine based on new opportunities.
How to Define Your Target Customers
A target customer persona brings your ideal buyer to life as an archetypal character. Follow these steps:
Step 1: Identify Behavior Patterns
Look for trends in current customer behaviors:
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What challenges lead customers to seek out your product?
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How do they describe their problems and goals?
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What steps do they take to purchase from you?
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How do they use and interact with your product?
Step 2: Build Out Details
Flesh out personal and demographic details to visualize the persona:
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Name, age, family, where they live.
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Occupation, education, income range.
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Hobbies, values, personality quirks.
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A photo or imaginary celebrity depiction can help personify.
Step 3: Map the Journey
Outline the persona’s full journey with your brand:
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How do they discover your product? What need prompts their search?
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Where do they encounter sales messaging and reviews?
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What questions and objections arise? How are they reassured?
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What delights them in the purchase and unboxing?
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How does your product fit into their lifestyle?
Step 4: Identify Marketing Insights
Analyze the persona’s perspective to derive insights:
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What messaging and content angle will resonate most?
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What are their preferred platforms and channels?
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How can you tailor sales approaches to their concerns?
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What language and style feels authentic?
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Where are opportunities to insert your brand into their journey?
Fully immersing in one archetypal buyer helps apply their mindset.
Key Takeaways on Target Market vs. Target Customer
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Your target market refers to specific consumer segments you aim to reach. Your target customer is a fictional but realistic persona of your ideal buyer.
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Defining your target market relies on demographic, psychographic and behavioral data. Building your target customer involves crafting a detailed narrative persona.
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Your target market helps segment the overall population. Your target customer humanizes an individual in your market to visualize.
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Know your target markets to strategically focus your efforts on viable consumer segments. Develop target customer personas to empathize with your buyers’ perspectives.
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Continually evaluate target markets for changes and growth opportunities. Evolve your target customer profiles as you gather more insights over time.
Both concepts are important for honing your strategic marketing. Target markets inform decisions through data. Target customers guide tactics through empathy. Together, they help you speak to buyers in meaningful ways that move them along the path to purchase.
Why Should You Identify Your Target Market?
Identifying your target market is a key step in the foundational development of your digital marketing strategies. After all, you need to know who to market to.
For example, if you sell mustache trimmers and beard oil, you probably aren’t marketing to women and don’t need to include them in your broad marketing strategies. Your target market is probably closer to men who are in the 30 to 60 age range.
The target market influences all the decisions your brand makes in marketing and even in business.
It helps you understand how your products and services benefit those who will use them and what type of approach will work best.
It helps to shape the steps involved in your sales and marketing efforts and what type of growth your brand should have.
See What Your Competition is Doing
Your competitors can be a rich source of information.
Take a look at your top competitors and see who they are marketing to and what their markets are. You can use that information to determine if your market is the same, or try to find a gap in the market that you can focus on.
Target Market vs Target Audience
What is the difference between target market and target customer?
One of the biggest differences between a target market and a target customer is that they comprise different segment sizes of the population that marketers want to reach. Target markets comprise an entire group of people that a company wants to reach with its advertising efforts.
What is a target customer?
A target customer is a more specific person or group of people within a market. Slightly different from the general target market, the target customer is the individual or group that might purchase the product. Rather than ranges, target customers may be more specific profiles, like boys age 8 instead of boys age 8-12.
What are target markets & customers?
Both target markets and customers comprise important demographics for a company’s marketing strategy, involving the groups it hopes to entice into buying its products. Defining these two groups can help companies determine where they spend their advertising campaign budgets.
What is the difference between a target market and a brand?
While marketing activities directed at a target market might influence if customers engage with a brand or buy products, target customers might work as an extension of the brand. This means target customers could be more likely to spread awareness of your brand and influence others to purchase your product.
