Business leaders all want to know what people are saying about their brand, however it’s also important that they know who is saying it. Luckily, there are a number of tools that can be used for brands to know what consumers are saying about them.

Any marketing choice you make starts with understanding your buying personas. This involves performing an audience analysis to provide a clear and thorough understanding of your target user base. This detail is used to inform decisions around strategy and brand.

What is audience analysis?

An audience analysis involves identifying and understanding the interests, demographics and other details around a certain group. It involves identifying your target audience and tweaking your marketing to align with their needs and wants. The objective is to deepen your understanding of this group to better target your marketing efforts.

Why is it important?

The more you know your audience the better you can cater to their unique needs. By being customer-centric, brands are able to more effectively communicate with their customers with more relevant messaging. There are various types of audience analysis that brands can pursue depending on their needs.

What are the types of audience analysis?

It’s important to understand that an audience analysis is never going to be perfect and mistakes will be made along the way. There is no magic formula or rulebook to follow that will make everything run smoothly. There is a limit to the things you’ll know about your customers and this means your marketing messages will be limited to a degree. However, by understanding how to get the information you need through an audience analysis, you’ll get the insights required to make smarter business decisions.

1. Demographic analysis: A demographic analysis can include anything from gender, age ethnicity and race. It is a popular form of audience analysis as it enables marketers to group users by specific characteristics that are generally consistent.

2. Psychographic analysis: from values, beliefs and even attitudes – a psychographic analysis is a powerful method that is popular with many marketers. That being said, it can be slightly more difficult when compared to a demographic analysis, as the information is never as clear. For example, two different individuals who claim that they don’t like to purchase expensive things, may have different standards when it comes to defining what ‘expensive’ is. This type of analysis can help unearth pre-existing notions that limit a groups frame of reference.

3. Behavioural analysis: A Behavioural analysis involves looking at a groups behavioural patterns. This will enable you to understand why certain individuals purchase your products and why others will not. It can unearth opportunities and also highlight problem areas to address. Many social media platforms utilise behavioural analysis through targeted ads that target a specific need of their audience.

Examples of audience analysis

1. Location: location is a basic yet effective insight to gain about your user group. It helps you understand where people are talking about your brand, products and services. With this type of analysis you can filter by specific locations to better understand the needs of people in a specific location.

2. Interests: To really understand what makes someone tick, you need to know what they’re interested in. If you know what someone cares about, you’re better placed to be able to cater to their needs. This will help you to be more specific with your messaging and marketing efforts.

3. Locating new audiences: Once you understand your audience, you can then look for new opportunities and possible expansion. If your audience consists of a particular demographic, you can then look at commonalities in other groups that you may be able to target.

4. Segmentation: there are multiple ways to segment your audience to improve your targeting. For example you can look for tiny segments within a bigger audience that may require a slightly different marketing message.

5. Influencers: it’s important that you know who is influencing your audience. Knowing the influencers can go a long way in developing an effective engagement strategy to get better cut-through with your audience.

Final Thoughts

Audience analysis is a crucial step in understanding who is talking about your brand. It enables you to better understand your audience and then tweak your marketing efforts accordingly. If you feel you need deeper insights on your target audience, it may be time for some audience analysis.