As a Los Angeles food and product photographer, my services fall under the B2B category. I partner with businesses to help them elevate and personify their brand through branded imagery. I often find that I can relate to my clients on so many levels: We all have businesses or services we’re trying to promote; we strive to make ourselves stand out as quality, reliable brands in this often flaky digital world; and ultimately, we’re all trying to connect with our ideal clients.

You know, the people you’ve centered your brand and products around. The people who truly appreciate and value what you have to offer. The people who are likely to become loyal customers for life. Those are the ones we want to not only attract but connect with on a deeper level.

As you grow your business, it’s tempting to throw all your marketing efforts and budget at reaching anyone and everyone. After all, a small portion of those thousands of people will surely pan out as loyal customers, right?

But what if your efforts come back empty? You’ve put money in social media and Google Ads; you’ve crafted your marketing content to sound reasonably broad so that you don’t exclude anyone; you keep your audience settings open so as not to miss out. Only to somehow still miss out. And the few leads never seem to convert.

Crazy enough, an easy fix is to define your potential client and significantly limit your targeting. It sounds contradictory, and I get it: you’re afraid to lose work by cutting out options. But I encourage you to home in on your ideal client. The truth is that defining and narrowing down your ideal client will help you attract and connect with the right people and improve your success rate for ads and other marketing tactics. Plus, you’ll enjoy working with those people more, too!

4 Reasons to Define & Narrow Your Target Audience for Marketing

1. Find Your People

Go after those who are likely to become enthusiasts. You don’t want someone who clicks on an ad to glance at your product and say, “Oh, that’s not for me.” They’ll bounce away immediately. So instead, draw in potential customers right off the bat. Define who sees your ads. Those are the people who will take time to peruse your website, try your product or service, and feel represented by your brand.

2. Save Money through Your Target Audience

Clicks cost money, so save them for people who are genuinely interested. For instance, if you have a vegan protein powder, you might set your audience settings to those who live in states and cities with younger, trendier, and health-conscious populations. Then, set some lifestyle parameters. For example, perhaps your people are interested in yoga, Pilates, running, and CrossFit. Then, select your keywords, such as “vegan,” “clean eating,” “plant-based,” and “natural.”

If you sell a gender-specific product, don’t forget to define that as well. Men might click your women’s supplement accidentally or out of sheer curiosity, but they probably won’t buy or become loyal customers. So don’t waste your budget there.

3. Achieve Marketing Success

We all want to achieve higher click-through rates, meet KPIs, and get that return on investment from our marketing efforts. Although it may take a bit more time and planning upfront, defining your target audience and focusing your efforts on a limited group will garner improved metrics because your audience will be genuinely interested and likely to convert.

4. Convey Your Mission & Values

When you’re speaking to the right audience, you can speak their language and use their lingo. Make it feel personal, and help them buy into your brand by clearly conveying your mission and values that they share as well.

Attract Your Target Audience with Photos by Lindsay K

Need help reaching your target audience? I’d love to help! Get in touch with me today to start planning your branding photo session.

Lindsay is a Los Angeles-based food, product, and commercial photographer. She specializes in Still Product & Food Photography, Lifestyle & Portrait Photography, Stop Motion, and Food Styling. Connect with her HERE for product marketing!