Our Guide for Finding Your Audience
Starting a business is exciting. Finding the people who actually need what you’re building? That’s the part that tends to make people freeze.
The good news is that most businesses already have more audience information than they realize. The challenge usually isn’t access to data. It’s knowing where to look and understanding what matters.
The approach is a little different depending on whether you’re a net-new business or one with a year or more of customer data. One requires a bit more instinct and experimentation. The other requires pattern recognition and refinement.
Both matter.
If You’re a Net New Business
If you haven’t launched yet, or you’re just starting to make your first few sales, your audience research will look less like hard data and more like informed observation.
At this stage, your goal is not perfection. Its direction.
Some founders think they need 1-3 polished customer personas before they can post online, build a website, or run ads. In reality, your first audience profile will probably be partially wrong. That’s normal. You refine it through interaction. The direction is not final, but it does allow you to iterate towards something that is.
Start by asking yourself a few foundational questions:
Who intrinsically understands this product or service the fastest?
Who experiences the problem most often?
Who is already spending money on similar solutions?
What communities, creators, or brands do they already pay attention to?
From there, begin collecting signals.
TikTok comments are signals. Reddit threads are signals. YouTube comments are signals. And last but not least, conversations with friends, clients, or peers are signals. And if you need your peers to present more unbiased info, we recommend building an anonymous poll.
You’re looking for repeated language, repeated frustrations, and repeated desires.
Pay attention to:
Age range
Gender
Household income
Location or ZIP code
Interests and hobbies
Career field
Lifestyle patterns
Language they naturally use
The wording matters more than people think. If your audience constantly says they feel “overwhelmed,” but your website talks about “workflow optimization,” there’s a disconnect. You want both, though. They will type “workflow optimization” in the search bar, but in your content or even with your sales team, you’ll want to connect with the feelings of overwhelming or share that your solution or service “will not add any feelings of overwhelming, and instead is integrated, intuitive, and helpful.
Your audience will usually tell you exactly what they care about. You just have to listen closely enough to hear it. The audience agestage is also where storytelling matters most.
There are over a billion websites online. The businesses people remember are rarely the ones with the most polished copy. They’re usually the ones that sound and look human.
People connect with clarity, confidence, and specificity. Especially early on.
If you’re net new, we’ll help you find your first audience.
If You Have One Year or More of Data
Once your business has some traction, your audience research becomes significantly more powerful because you can stop guessing and start identifying patterns. This is where your platforms become incredibly valuable.
Most businesses already have access to audience data through:
Google Analytics
Google Search Console
Klaviyo
Squarespace
Shopify
Meta Ads
TikTok Analytics
YouTube Studio
Email platforms
CRM systems
Intake forms
If you have two platforms of the few listed above, we can identify attributes of your most engaged customers, highest value customers, customers with the most units per transaction, sales customers versus regular customers, and new versus returning. We can build and reach a lot of ideal groups. The problem is that many businesses never pause long enough to study the information and thats what a great marketing partner can do for you.
We know you’re currently focused on output. You need output and the direction so the output isnt in vain. More posts, ads, emails, and products do not necessarily yield more revenue.
However, the answers are often sitting quietly inside the data that you already have.
We start by identifying:
Your highest-converting traffic sources
Your best-performing content
Your highest average order value customers
Your most engaged email subscribers
Geographic trends
Time-of-day engagement patterns
Repeat customer behavior
The language customers use in reviews or inquiries
One of the simplest but most effective exercises is comparing who you thought your audience was against who is actually buying.
Sometimes they match.
Sometimes they absolutely do not.
You may discover your audience is older than expected. More local than expected. Higher income than expected. More niche than expected. That’s valuable.
The businesses that grow sustainably are usually the ones willing to adapt to what the market is telling them, rather than forcing an identity that no longer fits.
And while analytics are important, they should never completely replace human feedback.
Talk to your customers.
Read support tickets.
Pay attention to FAQs.
Notice objections.
Watch where people hesitate.
Data explains behavior and conversations explain motivation. You need both as a business with one or more years of experience.
Your Audience Will Continue to Evolve
One of the biggest misconceptions in marketing is the idea that audience research is something you complete once. It’s actually ongoing.
As your business evolves, so does your audience. Your messaging gets sharper. Your positioning gets clearer, and your confidence improves. You will start to feel like your products have a home and that your customers look forward to what you bring to the marketplace.
And every once in a while, your website should evolve with that insight too.
That’s the beauty of building online. Nothing is permanent. You can refine, adjust, test, and improve as you learn more about the people you’re trying to reach. The goal is not to make your brand feel perfect forever. The goal is to make it feel honest and aligned with where you are right now and what you know of your customer.
Later will take care of itself. It always does.
