Secondary Audience vs. Primary Audience: Balancing Your Marketing Strategy

What is a secondary audience?

The secondary audience refers to individuals who do not directly purchase your product or service but have a strong influence on the primary audience who is going to make the purchase. The secondary audience may want the product but aren't able to purchase it because they don't have any buying power.

Consider students who want to fit in by wearing a specific brand of shoe. The parents are the primary audience, as they are the ones making the purchase. The students are the secondary audience because they are going to be asking for the purchase to be made on their behalf. The secondary audience can bring awareness to your brand and influence purchases at the same time.

Examples of secondary audiences

Gift-giving is a great way to explain the difference between a primary vs. secondary audience. Around a special holiday, parents might hint about a gift they would love to receive. The parent in this example is the secondary audience, and they are influencing the purchase by suggesting the present to their family members or friends. The person who actually purchases the gift would be the primary audience because they are spending their money on it.

Another secondary audience example would be a child asking their parent for a toy in a store. The child doesn't have the capacity to make the purchase but knows what the toy is and wants it for themselves, making them the secondary audience.

A secondary audience can also be a person who is searching for a gift for someone else. It is possible to target smarter in this way by figuring out how your product or service makes an excellent gift. Take the time to focus on the identity of your buyer, the recipient of your product or services, and determine which is a primary or secondary audience.

While it may seem frivolous to spend time and money on determining the buyer vs. user of your product or services, this will help determine what marketing strategies you should employ, given your target demographic.

Secondary audience vs. primary audience

The primary audience is the target audience for your particular product or service. These are the people who have buying power and make the final decision on purchases. Primary audiences can include parents buying toys for their children or buyers at a large corporation who are responsible for choosing office supplies. They are the primary one who is responsible for making the purchase.

The secondary audience is the influencers, and they are different from the primary target audience because they don't have buying power.

A secondary audience might be an employee that wants a certain type of expensive office chair, while the primary audience is the individual responsible for approving the purchase. The primary and secondary audiences may be aware of and support your product or services, but it comes down to who can say yes to the final purchase.

When you take the time to market to your secondary audience, you widen the net of potential customers who are going to learn more about your company.

It's important to follow best practices for your audiences to get the most out of your marketing efforts. You need to identify the type of customers you want to reach and figure out ways to build a relationship with each type of customer.

Importance of target audience in your marketing strategy

Figuring out your target audience is essential to creating a successful marketing strategy. If you can't identify who you are trying to reach, your message is going to cast too wide of a net.

Take time to figure out who is going to be most interested in your products or services in order to cater your messages and content to your target audience. If you don't create messaging that appeals to your target audience, you are going to be virtually ignored as a company in your industry.

But when you focus on both the primary and secondary audiences of your marketing efforts, you are going to see growth. It takes time to build relationships with potential customers, and you want to be sure that you are reaching your target audience by creating a balanced marketing strategy.

How to balance primary and secondary audiences in marketing

When it comes to successful marketing strategies for companies, it's all about balance. Both your primary and secondary audiences are important, and you will discover how catering to both audiences benefits your profit margin as you focus your efforts in a more direct way.

Define your target audiences

You can't run a successful marketing campaign without defining your target audience.

Ask yourself who is most likely to purchase your product or services, where they might live, or who they might be purchasing for. Once you are able to figure out your primary and secondary audience groups, it's time to get creative about how you reach these audiences.

Use different channels

Social media is an essential component of any good marketing strategy. You need to figure out what social media channels your target audience uses the most.

Try a variety of social media platforms, email campaigns, and text messaging. Find what works for your target audience so your brand gets out in front of other people. Your ability to use a wide range of channels will directly impact your success in marketing.

Create targeted content

Your content needs to spark interest in your target audience. What makes your brand stand out among your competition? Why should a potential customer purchase from you? Your content needs to speak to your target audience in ways that make you relatable.

For example, consider teenagers as your target audience. Would they respond if you use dry, complex language to get your point across? Probably not. A younger demographic will prefer uplifting, easy-to-read content that they can find on social media platforms.

The content you create will have a direct impact on who supports your business and who decides to go with a different company instead.

Monitor and adjust your strategies

During a marketing campaign, it’s important to monitor all of your platforms, ads, and email campaigns in order to get feedback and adjust your efforts as necessary.

You can't just create a few ads and hope for the best. Marketing is an ongoing project, so it's crucial to continuously monitor your strategies and identify what works and what doesn't in an effort to optimize the content you create.

Achieve a balanced marketing strategy with primary and secondary audiences

It's possible to achieve a balanced marketing strategy when you take the time to identify your primary and secondary audiences. Doing so ensures that you will create content that appeals to both audiences, which increases your chances of a purchase being made.

Mailchimp offers various tools and resources that make it easy for you to stay connected with your customers and build brand awareness through a variety of channels. With products that help you stay organized and build on potential leads, you will be able to grow your company with a methodical approach.

Marketing strategies are fluid, and it's important to pay attention to any new trends in the industry. But Mailchimp can help you get creative with the content you create to appeal to both your target audiences.

Learn the various platforms available to your company, and don't let your marketing strategies become stagnant. Look for ways to optimize your content, brand yourself as a leader in your industry, and cater to both the primary and secondary audience for your goods or services.