You could spend all the time and money you have in creating great TV commercials with the best production value, but they won't get the results you want unless you know how to connect with your specific audience. To make sure your commercials are successful and speak to their needs and wants, fully understanding your target audience is necessary.
Before creating a commercial for your customer, there are several questions you should ask to understand better the audience you want to target.
1. Who are They?
The first step to take before you can begin is to understand who your audience is. It's important to learn as much as you can about them. Some elements you can identify to narrow down your ideal consumer include:
- Age
- Gender
- Demographic
- Where they live
- Occupation
- Education
From there, you can begin developing buyer personas that represent different audience segments. For example, one segment you might target with one ad campaign could include single parents trying to balance parenting with work. Another segment may include younger women just starting out in the workforce, who are particularly career-oriented. Different audiences will have different interests and connect with different messaging, tones, and other aspects of commercials.
2. What are Their Pain Points?
With an audience in mind, you need to identify specific pain points that they're experiencing, which will enable you to address them in your ads. Empathizing with your audience by demonstrating an understanding of their pains can go a long way in establishing a connection. From there, you can advertise your business as the provider of the solutions to those pain points.
You can start by surveying your existing customers: What bothers them the most that they want a company like yours to solve? You can also look at competitors to see what problems they're addressing, or which issues they neglect to address entirely.
3. What Channels Do They Watch?
Once you understand who your audiences are and the issues they're facing, you need to find out where to reach them. Based on their interests and their daily schedule, try to determine which shows attract those viewers. You might find that one audience enjoys morning talk shows, while another prefers sitcoms, with two primary channels that cater to both segments. The channels and the shows that your audiences watch will also help dictate the appropriate tone to use in your commercials that will make them a good fit for that network.
4. When are They Watching TV?
In addition to where your audience is watching, you need to identify when. Let’s use the example of the group that prefers morning talk shows vs. the one that watches sitcoms. The former may spend time watching those shows on the weekends, while the sitcom viewers watch those shows in the evenings throughout the week after work. Knowing precisely when and where your audiences are watching will help ensure you reach them at the right place and time to maximize your ads' visibility. Which, in return, can increase the overall ROI of your campaign.
5. What Grabs Their Attention?
To make sure your commercials don't just simply appear in front of your audiences, you need to figure out what will grab and hold their attention. Many businesses may consider spending a lot of money and effort on production value and other visual elements that turn heads, but this isn't often the best approach.
Instead, focus on catering to your audience's passions—what is it that they value and care about, and how can you appeal to that? Video viewers reported that commercials relating to their wants and needs were three times more important. Viewers also stated that relating to their passions is 1.6 times more important than top-quality production. Connecting with your audiences and the problems they're facing more directly—even through the use of implied celebrity endorsements—will often be far more effective at engaging them than flashy visuals and famous faces.
6. What are They in the Market for?
To complement the pain points to address in your commercials, you also need to know what kinds of products and services your audience seeks to solve those problems. What is it that people are looking for in your offerings specifically? How can you speak to those needs and wants in your ads? What unique features does your audience look for that you can highlight?
For example, one audience may look primarily for affordability, which you can speak to in some of your ads more directly. In contrast, another audience may want functionality above all, which you can showcase in other commercials. Other audiences may have a particular problem that a specific feature can solve, which you can address along with other differentiating features.
7. What Will Help Them Make a Purchase?
Even if you know what your audience is looking for in their ideal products or services, consider what will truly move them toward a purchase. Think about different offers or discounts that will drive sales and ensure that people move through the sales funnel more efficiently when creating campaigns. Knowing which incentives will sweeten the deal and encourage sales can maximize conversions for your ads.
Know Your Audience to Create the Perfect Commercial
Understanding your target audience and what they want from your brand will inform every aspect of your commercials, from concept to execution. As a result, you can establish a strong connection with consumers and convert them into loyal customers more effectively. Ensure you take the time to research your audiences and learn as much about them as you can. In the process, you'll be able to create commercials, digital marketing strategies, and other campaigns that drive home your brand message and offers.
