The key is to BE your targeted audience. Engage with them. Learn to respect them. Once you can understand things from their perspective, you'll know exactly what to sell, how to do it, and what to say.
Zoomer is right--the best way to know your target audience is to be a part of it yourself. Beyond that, getting inside the mind of your target audience takes some time and research. You will need to "walk among them" to get a real idea of who they are, what they want and why they want it. It isn't unlike anthropology Good luck!
yes, get in the mind set of your target audience. For example, if you're selling shoes, do some market research about shoes, there is even market research available online for this sort of thing (find the optimum age range, gender type and price rage). Then think about what they want, what sort of advice they need, could they benefit from any networking you can provide, can you think of any new tools they would desire?
Imagine your the buyer and what you'd want if it was the other way around, also find out from potential customers and past customers what they did and didn't like.
Keeping in mind all the details about your product imagine you are in need of this product. Try to be the targeted audience on your own.
I hear their needs. I'm in the programming world, so when developers complain about something (like CSS styling), you try to leverage your market and then to execute the right product. I think Stylizer [Not My Product] is the right solution for that. CSS styling is the primary headache for desginers and Stylizer just solved this problem. How'd you know? You should be first a developer yourself, and also be active in the community (this will help you estimate your market size).
Go to 'adlab - online commercial intention' click on 'query' below the search bar and type in your keywords. It gives you a percentage of peoples intent when they type those words into a browser ie are they buyers or smoochers.
put yourself in place of your visitors... what are you looking for? why would your site be better then others?