Why I Use a Different Word for Target Audience – & Why It Matters

Target Audience implies we are targeting our audience, even throwing things at them, or worse, shooting at them.
Here at Humane Marketing, we pay attention to the words we use. So we prefer to use a different word for target audience: ideal client.

Target Audience Synonym = Ideal Clients

The words we use have a big impact on how we think and feel and how we make our clients feel. When we change the way we think about the people we serve from “target audience” to “ideal clients,” it changes how we relate to them. We don’t see them as just walking wallets that we’re targeting with our adverts, but ideal partners and people we can serve.

Humane Marketing: focus on the positive, instead of the negative!

Here at Humane Marketing we work with entrepreneurs and Changemakers, people who truly care about their clients! They are intrigued by Humane Marketing because they want to share their work, often their life’s work, but they’re very put off by the traditional marketing lingo and tactics, that are supposedly based on human psychology, but used in a very disempowering way. “I want to share my offerings and get more clients… but not by shaming people and making them feel bad. I want to do marketing in a way that’s humane and aligned with my values.”

The word ‘target audience’ is very commonly used in marketing talk. But you’re here, because this word ‘target audience’ just doesn’t resonate with you. And we don’t like it either!

So how do you reach and resonate with your ideal clients, or your people?

Step 1: Find Yourself First

Reflect on your values, beliefs, and passions
Define your personal success and understand your unique perspective
Use tools like personality assessments and self-reflection

Step 2: Bring More of You to Your Marketing

Share authentic stories that reflect your experiences and worldview
Use vulnerability and transparency to connect on a human level
Blur the lines between personal and professional, embracing your whole self

Step 3: Make Your Worldview Your Niche

Define your niche beyond just demographics
Incorporate your values and beliefs into your business focus
Attract clients who share your worldview and care about similar issues

Step 4: Be Selective About Your Ecosystem

Choose collaborations and platforms that align with your values
Focus on quality connections rather than growing a massive audience
Engage with people and opportunities that resonate with your mission

Step 5: Join Aligned Communities

Seek out groups (online or in-person) where like-minded people gather
Participate actively in communities that share your values
Build genuine relationships and collaborations within these networks

By following these steps, you can create a business that authentically represents you and attracts the right people who resonate with your message and values. >> Read the full blog post Find Your People in Business

I’ve been on this journey of reinventing marketing, turning it on its head really and starting from within, for many years now. And there is so much to say about all these pushy and manipulative techniques that I’ve written a book about it and called it Marketing Like We’re Human.

Build Trust in Marketing: From Target Audience to Ideal Clients

One key success factor with your marketing, is to build trust with your potential clients. The way to build trust is by being consistent, transparent, and reliable in all aspects of your marketing efforts. And by seeing your clients as ideal clients, not a target.

Some aspects where you can build and create trust in your marketing:

Design elements.
Messaging.
Tone – your emails reflect you, not some stiff professional.
Pictures of you, your real authentic self.

By being consistent, your people start to trust that they will have a similar experience regardless of which platform they engage in.
You reflect your values in all your interactions with integrity. Trust is built on transparency. Be open and honest about your intentions and truthful in all your communications.

For example,

When you share an affiliate link and will receive a commission, point it out. The books mentioned in this blog post are affiliate links.
Share when you mess up.
Don’t overpromise results you can’t guarantee.

Trust is built on reliability.

Be dependable in all aspects of your business, including,

The quality of services or products.
Meeting deadlines.
Responses to client inquiries promptly and kindly.
Offering quality content even before people buy.

Reliability builds customer trust and shows you can be relied upon to deliver your promises. And that you value your client’s time.

Position yourself as an authority in your field. Be consistent, transparent, and reliable; you’ll create a strong sense of trust with your people and establish extended relationships.

Other Humane Synonyms for Common Marketing Terms similar to Target Audience

🚩 If you’re new to Humane Marketing you will really appreciate our Humane Marketing Words Glossary. It includes a series of words we love, and also many reframes for the pushy marketing language such as pain points.

Sales Funnel or Sales Pipeline Becomes Gentle Sales Path

We don’t like the idea of shoving our potential clients through a funnel. It feels inhumane.

But we still need a name for the way we get to know prospects.

How about the ‘gentle sales path’ instead?

Can you feel the energy is different?

A gentle sales path is different for every client, and it’s not forceful like a funnel. A gentle sales path guides the client on a journey, empowering them to make their own buying decision.

Read this blog post on Customer-Centric Selling.

Tripwire Becomes ‘Impact Offer’

Wow, congratulations to the marketer who came up with this term!

Let’s replace this low frequency with a much more high frequency term like ‘Impact Offer’.

Instead of creating a very low value offer and trying to lure clients in so that you can then push them down your Sales Funnel to your high-end ticket offer, create an ‘Impact Offer’.

And impact offer is a stand alone offer at a lower rate that has so much impact on your clients, that they WANT to go deeper and to the next step to get closer to you.

Leads Become Humans or Ideal Clients

We’re in the human-to-human business, not the leads business. Therefore, we don’t talk about lead generation.

Humane marketers connect with people and understand their wants and needs; by crafting marketing messages that speak to them directly.

Read our post about humanizing leads – and a synonym for the word ‘leads’.

Lead Magnets Become Signposts

Like with the Sales Funnel, we don’t like the idea of ‘sucking’ in leads with a magnet.

Instead, we create signposts on our Gentle Sales Path where ideal clients can sit, rest and appreciate the information we share.

A signpost might be a blog post, a podcast episode or a newsletter. They gently direct our audience to our available products in a fun and friendly manner.

Read our post about humanizing leads – and a synonym for the word ‘lead magnets’.

Implementing Humane Marketing in Your Business

Traditional marketing brainwashed us with this idea of our target audience.

The client is king, they told us. Know thy client. Every marketing course I ever took went on and on about how important it was to know your target audience, your client’s avatar or customer personas.

I suggest we reverse the model and selfishly start with ourselves. In Humane Marketing, we understand ourselves to understand who our clients are. This understanding helps us to truly resonate with them. Because, after all, we want to experience ease and joy in our business, don’t we?

Ready to market without pain points? Get the 1-Page Humane Marketing Plan Today!

We have a three-step process to help you marketing to ideal clients, not a target audience.

Phase 1 – Rumble

Forget your client’s avatar. Start with yourself. In the Marketing Like We’re Human book, I call this stage ‘RUMBLE’. We’re rumbling with our story, with our values, with our worldview. In the process, we’ll help our ideal client in a way that’s better for them. Figure out who YOU are and what YOU want so you attract ideal clients who are a good fit for YOU.

How do you figure out who you are? Here are a few ideas:

Find out your personality type by taking the MBTI test.
Research your Human Design.
Learn more about your astrological sign.
Find your Character Strengths with the VIA Survey.
Discover your Sparketype.

Only if we truly know who we are can we have real Human-to-Human interactions. This is also true for companies.

Phase 2 – Rise

Stop conforming. Be different and rise.
The second phase is your permission slip to stop conforming. You’re different, and it’s time to rise above the noise and the “shoulds”. The rising phase of human marketing is about using your unique (and quirky) superpowers in your marketing, giving yourself permission to be different.

It’s about marketing your way—aligned with your worldview and values—while feeling good and having fun.

And remember, you’re not alone: rising is more fun together with like-minded partners who have the same intention of using business for good and making this world a better place. Check out our Humane Marketing Circle to find out more.

Phase 3 – Resonate

Stop chasing after your target audience. Instead, attract those in harmony with your beliefs and guiding principles.
In traditional marketing, we started with a solution and chased after a problem. We treated our clients as if they were problems. In Humane Marketing, we create a solution that we’re passionate about and know solves a specific problem. Then we communicate.

Marketing = Connection.
Connection = Communication.

In this third phase, we finally get curious about our clients. It’s not only about who they are and where they live; we want to get into their brains and find out what they think and feel. Going deep helps us really understand them and then apply empathy in our communication. Once we know who our clients are and what they’re struggling with, we’re ready to communicate. Not only do we understand their problem, but we also have the same value system and a similar worldview. We think alike, read the same books and listen to the same podcasts.

Human Marketing helps us to “get” our clients; we just happen to also have a solution to their problem.
Resonating is about attracting, not chasing (and no need for pain points), and attracting starts with ourselves.

Bring More of Yourself to Your Humane Marketing

To attract like-minded people, we need to give customer-centric marketing a rest and bring more of ourselves to our marketing. Not more of our product—more of our stories, our values, and our worldview. It’s everything we discovered about ourselves in RUMBLE.

Rumble, Rise, Resonate.

These are the three stages I suggest we work through to truly unlock the power of Human Marketing.
They’re not a quick fix since Humane Marketing is not about pushing products and selling quick fixes.
Instead, Humane Marketing helps you create long term sustainable relationships with clients who will become your biggest fans.

Ready to market without Pain Points? Get the 1-Page Humane Marketing Plan Today!

The 7Ps of Humane Marketing to Market Without a ‘Target Audience’

The 7Ps of Humane Marketing and its 1-Page Humane Marketing Plan is a roadmap for Changemakers who want to market to ideal clients, not target audiences.
Rooted in reflection, they start with the P of Passion to think about our bigger WHY and then continue to help us figure our very own Personal Power: what’s our story?, how are we wired?, what are our values and our worldview? Picture this journey as an exploration of our vision, mission, values and the unique strengths we bring to the table. By intertwining Passion, Personal Power, People and Partnership with traditional elements like Product, Price, and Promotion, the 7Ps of Humane Marketing carve a path that not only resonates with our ideal clients but also amplifies the impact of our business.

It’s a holistic approach, where every marketing decision reflects the depth of our commitment, echoing the principles of a truly humane and conscious business.

>> Read more about the 7Ps of Humane Marketing.
>> Read more about Marketing for Changemakers

Recap: From ‘Target Audience’ to ‘Ideal Clients’

By shifting how we think about the people we want to serve, and use a different word for target audience, we change our heart-& mindset and become ready to market from within. We bring more of ourselves to our marketing so the right clients resonate with our work.

This new approach also builds trust and loyalty. By recognizing our clients’ challenges without blaming anyone, we create a safe space for honest conversations. This leads to a deeper connection—one built on understanding, being real, and sharing goals.