If you have made it this far and come up with a good app idea then you have already accomplished what many consider to be the most important part of the process.
Determining your target audience sounds like a pretty obvious step…
However so many app owners spray bullets with their marketing and advertising money and spend a fortune communicating with everyone, rather than concentrating on targeting prospects within their niche cost effectively.
It is too easy to waste boatloads of money on untargeted marketing and there needs to be a synergy across all aspects of your app design, app store description and your marketing messages otherwise you are just hoping you will come across some potential customers along the way.
You need to think about what type of people are most likely to want to use your app:
Are you chasing just men or women, and do they fall into a particular age group or socio-economic demographic?
Does your audience predominately comprise of working class people or are they consumers who would more likely be driving a Mercedes?
These are the sorts of questions that you need to answer before you embark on any marketing campaign.
The best way to go about determining your target audience is to apply the 80/20 rule to your business (80% of your sales normally come from 20% of your customers).
Then it is just a matter of determining who your most profitable customers are and what they look like – and then go looking for more people who look like them!
If you were developing an app for a night club, your target would be Gen Xs and Gen Ys, if you have developed an app for a child care center or a children’s game, your target audience would be parents with toddlers.
Don’t try to target everyone. Instead, focus on one customer that would most likely purchase your app. Narrowing your audience doesn’t mean that you have to exclude everyone else. Instead, it simply allows you to focus your marketing dollars on a specific group that’s more likely to buy your app. It’s a much more efficient, affordable and effective method for reaching potential customers and enables you to develop a marketing message that clearly resonates with your intended audience.
Understanding everything you can about the customer whom you intend to pursue takes a bit of time and effort but the work you put in now will pay off down the road. And once you have a clearer understanding of your customer, you’ll be able to build a more structured and well-defined marketing plan based on these facts.