How to identify the target audience of a B2B SaaS company

Identifying ‘who the brand is for’ is an essential part of positioning your brand to resonate on a deeper level. When you define an audience persona you can gather important insight in ways to keep customers interested in the brand and find/attract more of them.

More importantly, when you have this insight you can learn the emotions involved with the pain points that your brand solves, which will help to connect on a much deeper level, leading to a much better opportunity to buy.

Here are 6 steps to identifying your target audience:

#1 - Start with a title for the audience or market segment

Give the persona a name to help you and your team connect with it on a human level. Once something has a name it then starts to become more alive in our minds and it will help to relate to the persona as if it were a real person.

#2 - Uncover their circumstances

Think about the demographics of the market segment – like age, gender, income, occupation & family status.

#3 - Understand their behaviours

Next we look at psychographics and behaviours which include things like personal values, political opinions, what they like to eat, what they like to read, what hobbies do they have. Both the demographics and psychographics information can be extracted using customer analysis tools or social media.

#4 - Identify their goals

Uncovering what their goals and aspirations are will give you insight into the psyche of the persona. Think about life goals and also what their goals are on a day to day that you are going to help them achieve.

#5 - Discover their obstacles

What is standing in the way of their goals? What do they need help with?

#6 - Reveal their emotions

There will be emotions attached to the goal they want to achieve and also emotions attached to what is standing in the way. Identifying these sets of emotions attached to the goals and challenges is a really important step of this process, because it’s what will help your brand to connect and resonate with your audience.

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About the Author

Gemma Johnson is a Brand Strategist & Designer and founder of Emotion Brands, bringing strategic thinking and purposeful design together so brands don't just look good, they mean something. With 24 years in creative roles, and brand strategy woven in over the last six, she works primarily with B2B SaaS companies to improve brand performance.

Through PersonaPro™, her brand strategy and identity system, and Brantegra®, the intelligent brand audit platform, she helps SaaS brands get clear on where they stand and build from solid foundations.

Connect with Gemma on LinkedIn or get in touch.

To explore case studies, visit emotionbrands.co.uk/brand-stories