How To Identify the Audience for Your Videos

Let’s get straight to the point. As video creators, two of the biggest challenges for you today are: 

1. Knowing how to identify your video audience, and 
2. Understanding why your audience should care about what you have to say. 

And let’s go ahead and state the obvious: Your target audience is not your family (or your best friends) so don’t take it personally if your biggest fans in life are not the biggest fans of your video content – it just means your audience is yet to be discovered. Identifying your target audience requires you to understand what motivates your viewers, and getting familiar with their pain points. It goes beyond just knowing who might watch your videos. 

Here’s the beautiful thing: When you’re confident about the why behind the content you’re producing, you'll start to understand who your fellow video marketing community is, and how to connect with them. 

You must also remember the content creator’s universal goal: to engage with their community. Understanding the importance of this connection is essential for producing the videos that will resonate with your followers and drive engagement in a very saturated market of video content. 

Quick pep talk: Your voice is unique. Conveying the essence of who you are will help you deliver content that resonates with your viewers. What you say may have been said before, but the way you deliver your message is how you’ll stand out and capture the attention of your audience. 

Now, in an ideal world, everyone would jump on our content bandwagon because our conviction is so captivating they want to be a part of it! However, we know that it takes a bit more than that to drive up engagement. So, here are some practical steps to help you connect your aspirational why to the practical how through logistics and analytics. 

Define your goals

You need to get specific. What do you want to obtain in the end? Do you want more followers, or do you desire to just create the content and let it loose in the wild? What comes first, the quality of your content or the quantity of your content? Do you hope to collaborate in the future or desire to keep working solo? There are no wrong answers. These are your goals to define. 

Conduct market research

Gathering data on potential viewers through your social media platform is a great avenue to gain insight. You can also take it a step further and use third-party tools like Google Trends to better understand the type of content that engages your audience. Here you can find trending topics, analyze search volume, and see what other type of content similar audiences are looking for. 

Once you start to put the effort into your market research, you’ll start gaining a better understanding of viewer preference. The better you understand the demographics of who is relating to your content, the more equipped you are to then create content specific to their interests, while staying true to your unique voice. This type of behind-the-scenes work will pay off in the end when you begin to see a community fostered around your voice and your brand.

Analyze your competitors

Listen, we’re not telling you to go and copy what your competitors are doing, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a bit of competitor analysis to better understand your market and what the community is engaging with. This is where tools like YouTube Audience Insights can be really helpful. Here, you can use the "Popular channels" report to see what other channels your viewers are checking out and take note of what’s working for them. For example, you can see how often they’re posting, where they’re getting the most engagement, and what types of topics they’re exploring. This can provide clues about the type of person who is likely to engage with similar content, helping you refine your own target audience.

Embrace social media

Social media platforms are invaluable tools for identifying your video audience, regardless of how tired of them we might be. Engaging with your followers on Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Discord, and TikTok will gain traction. Connecting with them will also gain insights into their preferences. 

Invite your audience into a Q&A session on what feedback they have and what else they want to see. Sometimes it’s just as simple as ask and you shall receive. However, if we are not asking, we will not be receiving. Direct interactions can provide real-time feedback on what your audience wants, and it invites them into the bigger picture of what you’re creating. 

Test it out

Nothing is more frustrating than posting one video and getting several likes and/or comments and then posting another one—that maybe you think is even better—and getting nearly no engagement. Don’t fret! This happens to the best of us. This could be related to that pesky reality of an ever-changing algorithm, or, it could also be a reflection of your audience's tastes and interests evolving over time. Either way, stay consistent and don’t hesitate to pivot your strategy if you are noticing certain video marketing trends or topics perform better than others. There’s nothing wrong with leaning into trends as long as you stay consistent to your voice and perspective. 

Wrapping up: Start getting curious.

In the end, knowing how to identify your video audience is a crucial skill for new creators and marketers alike. Building community in video production is a dynamic process; it can be both rewarding and frustrating at the same time. Be willing to adapt and evolve your strategy as you go. This commitment to understanding and connecting with your viewers will set you on a positive trajectory to building a meaningful community. By discovering your why, and following the steps outlined above—defining goals, conducting market research, analyzing competitors, testing and refining content, and utilizing social media—you will create content that not only resonates with your intended audience, but you’ll end up inspiring them, too.

And lastly, we value community too—which is why we share helpful articles like this on a regular basis. If you like what you read, drop your email in the box below to subscribe to our blog. If you’re looking for an innovative video platform to help you reach and engage with that audience, try Switcher free for 14 days.