A target market refers to the group of potential customers that you want to sell your product or service to. It is crucial for any company to clearly identify and define who their target market is, as failure to do so could lead to a great loss in time and money. This is mainly due to:
- Your product or service not lining up with or fulfilling the needs of your audience.
- Ineffective marketing efforts and campaigns not leading to conversions.
- No clear vision on what you are selling, how it should be sold and who you are selling to.
Ensure that your business speaks to the right audience by following these easy steps in defining your target market:
[1] What problems do you solve?
Start by understanding why you started your business in the first place. What needs are your product or service fulfilling? Which customer problems are they solving? If you clearly understand why your product or service exists, you will get a better picture on who they should be sold to.
[2] Explore your wider audience
There will always be a variety of people who end up buying from you and whose needs your product or service fulfill. Create a thorough list of what these different types of customers might look like. Gain as much insight as possible. Are they male or female? Upper- or middle-class? Young or old? Married or single? Fit or unfit? Working or a student? Create a few different groups as you find a few different types of customers that might benefit from your brand.
[3] Narrow it down
Next, identify which exact group out of the few identified will benefit the MOST from your product or service. You can't be everything to everyone. Choose a potential customer group whose needs or problems best align with the needs and problems your product or service fulfill, AND is most likely to convert into sales.
[4] Research competition
Learn more about who your direct competitors are targeting and how they are fulfilling the needs of those customers. How are you different? Is there a service that your competitors might be overlooking? Is there a better or additional product or service you can add to better fulfill the needs of your target market? Something your competitors haven't thought of. An additional need your customer might have? (such as free shipping or tailoring services, eco-friendly packaging etc.).
[5] Personalities
Now that you know who your target market is, learn more about how they are personally. How do they communicate with others? What style of language do they use? What are their hobbies? What do they do for fun? Where do they hang out? Who do they hang out with? What music do they listen to? etc.
This will help you identify the best ways to market your product or service to your target audience as well as how you should interact with them.
[6] Summarize
Summarize your main target market by creating a target market persona, profiling them as if they are a specific person. Include the following information:
- Demographics: such as their name, age, gender, location, status or class etc.
- Career background: are they a student, working class, manager, stay-at-home mom etc. What type of influence or power do they have?
- Day in the life of: write a snippet on how their average day would go. When do they wake up? Do they exercise first? Sit in traffic? Eat breakfast? Go for drinks after work? Do laundry? Use social media? What thoughts do they have? Explore a full detailed day in their lives.
- Main problems: what are the different needs that they have or problems they face throughout the day (that is related to your product or service).
- Media preferences: how do they consume content? Do they watch the news or browse on social media? Do they prefer magazines? How do they themselves communicate to others? What style of language do they use? Do they share content? And if so, where and how?
Using the above 6 steps to identify and define your target market is easy and will assist you to clearly understand who you are selling to. This will ultimately lead to more effective marketing efforts and consequently increase your sales. A great win from one easy process. Start today!
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