How to market your business as a lifestyle to appeal to your target audience
It is 2022 and promising a specific service or result is just the bare minimum of building a business.
Since the rise of social media, consumers have been aligning themselves with brands that fulfill so much more than a promise. Customers are getting smarter and more intentional with their choice of who to do business with. And more likely than not, they’ll pick a brand that not only provides exceptional service but goes further and connects with them emotionally.
This is why your business needs to market a lifestyle that appeals to your target audience. And if you’re wondering how you can do that, then this post is for you. Keep on reading as we show you how to incorporate those lifestyle elements into your marketing so you can appeal to your target audience in a way that builds brand loyalty, word-of-mouth marketing, and long-term, unshakeable support.
Photo credit: @hermosaeyes
How to market your business as a lifestyle to appeal to your target audience
Spend some time scrolling through social media and you’ll start to notice something. Everyone, from businesswomen, men, students, celebrities, and influencers has posted content shouting out a brand they love.
Sure, you could argue that some of these posts were sponsored by the brand itself. But remove those paid promotions from the pool and you’ll still see several posts from everyday people using Le Labo or Diptyque candles, styling a Chanel handbag with every outfit, or even exclusively staying at a Rosewood hotel whenever they travel.
That is because having a lifestyle element that appeals to your target audience will help them see how your product or service fits within their daily lives.
When your brand is able to connect and evoke a strong emotional response from your target audience, your brand becomes a stitch in the fabric of how they (your audience) define themself.
With a focus on creating these lifestyle elements in your business’s overall branding and marketing, you’ll be able to build a brand that garners the attention, loyalty, and devotion of your target audience.
And here are 3 tips to help you sell the lifestyle of your business so that it speaks directly to your target audience.
1. Get Absolutely Clear About Your Target Audience
As much as we’d like to believe that our services and products can benefit everyone, trying to actually do so can weaken your brand’s identity. In order to create a brand that deeply resonates with your ideal customers, you need to get clear about who they are and what they’re like.
On top of knowing your target audience’s demographics, you can dig a little deeper by asking yourself questions like…
Who is this (your product or service) for?
Who can afford it?
What do they value?
What do they like/dislike?
Getting to know your audience on a personal level will not only help you create the vision of how your brand fits nicely within their lives, but it will also ensure that you are aligning your brand’s values, identity, and design accordingly.
Let’s take a look at two different brands to highlight an example of this. Both Soulcycle and Peloton are fitness brands that essentially provide the same service.
However, both brands appeal to different types of audiences. That’s because each brand has a very different target audience who respond to different values with different lifestyles to match.
Peloton, for instance, is a brand that resonates with people who might have busy schedules or work from home. It caters to the busy individual who wants the convenience and flexibility of fitting a workout in. They also might be more private people who prefer to work out on their own, in the comfort of their own home.
Whereas Soulcycle caters to those who prefer the accountability and community of working out in a group setting. On paper, they both sell the same product, but the lifestyles around these brands (and their customers) are very different, and that makes for a totally different tone of voice, brand positioning, and brand engagement. Something that drives their entire approach to business and its marketing.
2. Your Content is NOT About You!
Another reason why getting absolutely clear on who your target audience is is because you want to create content that resonates with them. Many brands and businesses make the mistake of creating content that shines the spotlight on them, their services, or their products (repeatedly).
But if you want your brand to build a loyal audience, you need to shift your content and shine the spotlight on your audience instead. At the end of the day, your customers care about how your product or service will help them. So if you want your content to capture their attention, you need to focus your copy and media assets on their interests and lives.
Tell them a story of why they need your service or product by relating to their pain points and desires.
For example, Faithfull the Brand speaks to customers who crave travel, particularly in the summer to lust-worthy destinations like the Mediterannean. They create content that paints this picture of a lifestyle where their ideal customer can envision their ideal vacation or their next getaway. And they also leverage influencers to affirm this brand lifestyle {Read our tips on influencer marketing here}
3. Create and Consistently Build Your Online Presence
It is 2022 and everyone has an online presence. This doesn’t mean that every single person is actively posting on social media, but we tend to turn to the internet when it comes to making buying decisions.
To give you an idea, 72% of Instagram’s users make purchasing decisions based on something they saw on the app. This is why creating a consistent content calendar that establishes your online presence will work greatly in your favor.
The key to building your online presence is to choose the platform that you know your target audience is spending the most time on. This highlights the importance of the first step - getting to know your audience.
Once you are clear on the core social platforms that you’ll be building your online presence on, you’ll want to establish content themes that you know will resonate with your audience.
If you need an in-depth look into building your content calendar and social strategy, this post will walk you through 5 essential tips so that you can create consistent results.
Creating Culture and Lifestyle for Your Business
Adding these lifestyle elements to your marketing doesn’t mean redoing your business from scratch. All it is is simply digging deeper and finding out how you can immerse your brand into the lives of your target audience.
Having these lifestyle elements not only creates loyalty within your customer base, but it also creates culture at every touchpoint that your audience comes across.
Selling the lifestyle of your brand as a part of your overall brand and marketing strategy will create many identifiable opportunities for your audience to relate to, align with, and support endlessly.
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