You wouldn’t plan a journey without knowing the destination. 

You wouldn’t send a party invite without knowing the guest list. 

So why would you start PR activity without knowing your target audience? 

A good place to start is understanding what a target audience is. Put simply, it’s the group of people who are most likely to be interested in and affected by your product, service or message.  

This is often defined by characteristics such as: 

• Demographics (age, gender, occupation etc) 

• Psychographics (interests, values, lifestyle etc) 

• Behavior (purchasing habits, brand loyalty etc)  

• Location (local vs national, urban vs rural etc) 

When it comes to PR, defining your target audience enables you to refine your messaging to ensure it stays relevant, engaging and effective. If you don’t define your target audience from the start, you risk wasting your efforts on people who aren’t interested, won’t act and ultimately won’t generate meaningful Return on Investment (ROI). 

So, what’s the best way to define your target audience? 

1. Understand your current audience 

Your brand’s existing customers and audience are a goldmine of insight into who your target audience are – they’re already engaging with you, after all. 

Take a deep dive into who they are through surveys, feedback forms or interviews. This helps you uncover what they value about your brand, what keeps them coming back and how they best receive updates.  

Go further by analysing their demographics, such as age, role and location, and psychographics, such as values, goals and challenges. Look at behavioral data too, like how they engage with your content and interact across social platforms. 

It’s also just as important to get to grips with their needs and pain points and then decipher how your service/produce/expertise are the solution to this.  

2. Check out your competitors 

Analysing competitor activity is a powerful way to uncover the audience groups that you should be targeting.  

By observing who engages with similar brands, what types of content they interact the most with and what messaging resonated well with them, you can identify opportunities for reaching untapped groups of people or ways to differentiate your PR activity. 

At the same time, competitor analysis helps you spot approaches that aren’t resonating, allowing you to avoid ineffective tactics and focus your resources where your audience is most receptive. 

Dive into multiple channels, from social media and websites to blogs and press coverage, to see how competitors communicate with their audiences. Pay attention to engagement metrics such as likes, shares and comments and sentiment to understand what is truly capturing attention. Be sure to look for gaps where competitors may be missing certain topics or audience groups as these can become valuable opportunities for your brand to stand out. 

3. What’s trending?

To truly pinpoint your audience, you need to immerse yourself fully in your industry.  

Social media has become one of the most powerful tools for understanding audiences in real time.  

Platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, X, Facebook and TikTok, and not forgetting emerging apps like Threads and Bluesky, can show you who’s engaging with your industry, what’s sparking conversation, and what’s gaining traction, providing rich insights into audience behavior and preferences. 

Don’t stop at social media, check out magazines, blogs and forums, anywhere online where those in your sector spend time. Pay attention to who’s reading into key topics, talking about your industry and what’s catching their attention. 

Doing this can provide rich insights into audience behavior, preferences, and interests, helping you identify the groups most likely to engage with your brand. 

4. Create ‘ideal audience’ personas

Based on the insights from your research, craft a detailed profile of your ‘ideal audience’. 

Go beyond the basic demographics of age, gender and location, and look more into psychographics such as what do they value? What are their biggest challenges? What are their preferred media channels?  

Including behavioral insights, such as online habits, engagement patterns, and content preferences, can make your personas even more actionable. 

The personas can become your guide for all PR activities, helping you tailor your messaging, select the most effective platforms for sharing information and strike with a tone that resonates. 

5. Look out for untapped opportunities

Even once you’ve pinpointed your target audience, you may uncover interest groups that you never anticipated. 

The key is to keep researching, testing and learning. By digging into analytics, monitoring social conversations and keeping tabs on industry trends you can spot unexpected audience groups who are engaging with your content or with others in your sector.  

Step out of your comfort zone, stay curious and be ready to adapt your strategy when you find an opportunity worth pursuing. 

Once you identify these untapped audiences, consider tailoring content specifically for them, testing new messaging, or experimenting with different channels. Over time, these efforts can expand your reach, diversify your audience, and strengthen your brand’s position in the market, turning unexpected insights into measurable growth. 

Clearly understanding your target audience is the foundation of any successful PR strategy. By listening to your audience and observing trends you can ensure your messaging resonates and your efforts have real impact.  

If you want to find out more about discovering your target audience, get in touch with us today – our door is always open for a chat about how we can support your brand to connect with your audience, through all communication channels from podcasts to PR.