When it comes to marketing, one of the most common mistakes businesses make is trying to speak to everyone.
But if you’re talking to everyone, you’re connecting with no one.
Your product or service might help all kinds of people. But if you try to appeal to them all at once, your message gets watered down, your marketing becomes generic, and you'll lose your ideal customer. They’ll scroll right past you without a second thought.
That’s why one of the most important steps in your marketing strategy is getting clear on who your target audience really is.
Knowing your audience isn’t just about making your marketing sound better. It impacts everything—what you say, how you say it, where you say it, and how people respond.
When you understand who you’re talking to, your message becomes more relevant, more relatable, and much more effective.
Afterall, successful marketing is about talking to the right people, in the right place, with the right message at the right time.
Doing this saves you time and money. Instead of throwing money into every platform or tactic and hoping something sticks, you can focus your energy where it counts.
Here’s the step-by-step framework we walk clients through at the Marketing Architect. It’s simple, structured, and gets to the heart of who you should be speaking to—and how.
Start with what you already know. Who’s already buying from you?
If you’ve been in business for a while, look at:
You’re looking for patterns. Problems, pain points, what's important to them, age, industry, role, life stage, buying habits - whatever shows up more than once is worth paying attention to.
If you're new in business, think about who you want to work with. Build your audience from aspiration and intent, then test and refine.
Demographics are helpful, but they’re just the beginning. Knowing your audience is 40, female, and owns a business is good. But it’s not enough to make your marketing stand out.
You need to dig into psychographics:
This is where real insight lives. When you can understand your audience on an emotional level, not just logical, you can connect with them in a way that builds trust.
What words do they use to describe their problem?
There’s gold in the way people talk. If your audience says, “I’m just so overwhelmed and don’t know where to start,” don’t repackage that as, “struggling with strategic clarity in the marketing funnel.”
Speak their language.
You can gather this insight from:
Write down the actual phrases you hear. Use them in your copy, your content, and your sales material. It makes people feel seen and understood—and that builds trust.
Buyer personas get a bad rap sometimes, mainly because people overcomplicate them. You don’t need a fake name, a stock photo, and a backstory about their favourite coffee order - that's probably not even relevant to you.
All you need is clarity on the key points:
Most businesses will have 2-3 target audiences. Keeping each one clear and avoiding trying to speak to them all at once is important. Prioritise the one most aligned with your business goals right now and do that well before targeting others.
Once you know your audience, your messaging needs to meet them where they are—not where you are.
Instead of jumping straight into solutions, acknowledge their pain points and emotions first. Show them you understand what they’re going through and where they want to be. Then position your product or service as the thing that can help them get there.
The biggest mistake that's made in marketing is trying to sell a product or service. You're actually selling a feeling or an ideal state. Confidence. Security. Simplicity. Momentum. Aspiration.
Know what they want to feel when they choose you—and build that into your brand.
Knowing your audience also helps you figure out where to show up.
Are they scrolling LinkedIn during work hours? Browsing Instagram in the evening? Looking for answers on Google? Listening to podcasts in the car?
When you know where your audience hangs out, you can stop wasting time on channels that don’t matter.
If you're targeting more than one audience with your marketing, you may be able to use different messaging across the different channels. One target audience might hang out on LinkedIn so you'd use the messaging relevant to them there. Another might hang out on Instagram, so you'd use more imagery and different messaging there.
Whether you’re targeting businesses or consumers, the fundamentals don’t change—because at the end of the day, you’re still marketing to humans. At Marketing Architect, we call it H2H (Human to Human).
In B2B, your audience might be an operations manager, business owner, or procurement team. But those people still have fears, frustrations, and priorities driving their decisions. The more you understand those motivations, the more influence your marketing will have.
Getting clear on your target audience isn’t a “nice to have"—it’s a must-have. It is the starting point of any marketing strategy and done well, can completely revolutionise your marketing. It allows you to tailor your message, stay focused on what will work, and deliver results.
Without it, you’ll end up wasting time, money, and energy talking to the wrong people, in the wrong way, in the wrong places.
At Marketing Architect, we help businesses take the guesswork out of marketing. That starts with building a strong foundation—and audience clarity is the first brick.
If you’re not sure who your ideal customer is (or how to find out), let’s chat. We can help you get clear—and start building marketing that works.
