You've learned when to cut costs and push forward because you've built your company from the ground up. You've figured out when something is a waste of money and when it can help you make a lot of cash. And putting together a solid marketing strategy can help you do just that.
It's crucial to define your target market before you start running ads and offering discounts. Your target market isn't "everyone," as you might think. In fact, it's unlikely that it's even the majority of people.
On the other hand, your target market is a specific group of people who are most likely to buy your product or service.
So, who are these individuals?
Don't worry; we’ll break everything down for you in this article. You'll first learn how to conduct audience research to identify your target market segment. We'll walk you through the steps and tools you'll need to get to know your ideal customer, so you can create an effective and profitable marketing campaign. First and foremost, let's establish what our target markets are.
What is a Target Market?
First and foremost, "target market" is a phrase you'll hear in the business world almost every day. But what exactly does it imply?
On the other hand, your target market is the group of people who will purchase your goods or services. By identifying your target market early on, you can tailor your products to meet their needs and ensure that your limited advertising budget is spent only on people who will benefit from what you're selling.
Three factors are commonly used to define target markets:
- Demographics: Information about your buyers' age, gender, income, marital status, ethnicity, and employment status.
- Geography: Where do your customers live? (This can range from entire continents to a single neighborhood or street.)
- Psychographics: How do you know what motivates your customers? What are their top and bottom choices? What issues do they have to deal with in their daily lives?
You'll be in a better position to market your products if you figure out who your customers are. You could even use this data to ensure that you're always providing a valuable benefit during upgrades.
How Do You Identify Your Target Market?
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It can be challenging to know where to begin when defining your target market. But, if you break it down, it doesn’t have to be difficult to determine the right market segment to advertise to. Remember that marketing to a specific demographic allows you to focus on nailing the language, tone of voice, and content. This clarifies your message and increases the likelihood of your audience purchasing your product or service. Additionally, having a clearly defined target customer allows you to start a more genuine and compelling conversation with that group of people. You'll be more likely to benefit from loyal customers and word-of-mouth recommendations once you've established a genuine relationship.
Consider the following as a starting point for defining your target customers:
1. Identify Your Company's Main Advantages
Once you've determined your company's critical benefits, you'll likely notice that your target market emerges quickly. According to marketer Philip Kotler, "authentic marketing is not the art of selling what you make, but the art of knowing what to make."It's the art of recognizing and comprehending customer needs to develop solutions..." Theodore Levitt elaborates, "People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill." They're looking to purchase a quarter-inch hole."
As Kotler and Levitt point out, it’s not the features of your product or service that will sell. It's the advantages that these provide. For example, if you sell exercise equipment, the benefits might include bettering customers' self-esteem, physical health, mental well-being, confidence, and empowerment. Most target customers will find these benefits more appealing than a list of specifications. Ask yourself the following questions to identify the key benefits of your product or service:
- What problem(s) do you help people with?
- What requirement(s) do you fulfill?
- What desire(s) are you trying to fulfill?
2. Determine Who Will be the Most Benefited by the Above
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You can start thinking about who would benefit the most from these features and who would be most likely to buy once you've identified the key benefits of your product or service. This will help you narrow down your target market's demographics. Middle-aged, overweight men who don't have time to go to the gym or young women who don't feel comfortable in a traditional gym, for example, will benefit the most if you sell at-home exercise equipment. Consider who your product or service most benefits from, and then start narrowing it down. Make a note of the age, location, gender, income, and other important demographics of the market segment you've identified.
3. Identify and Define Your Target Market
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It's time to further define your target market by creating user personas for your customers once you've established the key demographics of the group of consumers who are most likely to benefit from your products or services. These personas will include the demographics you defined in step 2 (age range, location, etc.) as well as psychographics.
More personal information about your market segment is included in psychographics. These will include items such as:
- Likes and dislikes of the customer
- Hobbies and interests
- Daily routines
- Values
- Lifestyle
- Pain-points
This information can be collected in different ways. If you already have a customer base, soliciting feedback can benefit your business. Otherwise, surveys, social media polls, or any other type of market research will help you figure out who you're selling to.
4. Maintain Your Focus
It may come as a surprise to learn that this is the most difficult step in defining your target market and audience. It is, however, one of the most important. When researching potential customers, stay objective and avoid making assumptions, especially when matching your product's key benefits to a specific demographic. According to CBInsights, approximately 35% of start-up businesses fail due to a lack of market demand. Even if you think your product is fantastic, you’re likely to fail if you don't accurately identify and address a need, want, or desire.
5. Assess the Segments
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It's important to remember that just because someone says they'd buy your product or service doesn't mean they will. By asking the following questions, you can make sure the market segment you've identified is a viable customer group:
• Is this group big enough to keep the business going?
• Is the market segment's income sufficient to support the offered products and services?
• Will these customers make multiple purchases, or will you have to constantly seek out new customers?
• Are there any other brands aiming for the same market segment as you? Why do you think that is?
• How does your brand differ from similar businesses, products, and services?
• Is the target market you've identified easily accessible?
It's critical to create real-life tests to directly engage with your potential market after researching this evaluation.
6. Determine Who has a Say in the Purchasing Decision
Now that you’ve defined your target market, it’s time to focus on your target audience. Keep in mind that your target market is the group of people who might be interested in purchasing your product. The people who will make or influence the purchase decision are referred to as your target audience. The most obvious example is how products for children must be marketed to parents or guardians because children lack purchasing power. However, because purchase decisions are rarely made in a vacuum, this can include a much larger group of people.
Consider your target customers' friends and family. Would a positive or negative word from a sibling influence a potential customer's decision to buy? Would your customer want to check with their spouse or partner first if it's a big-ticket item? How do you persuade these "influencers" that your goods and services are worthwhile?
This can be even more complicated if you're selling products and services to businesses, as purchases may need to be approved by multiple people before they can go through.
7. Examine Your Rivals
You should have completed a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) of your company as part of your marketing strategy. Determine what target audience your competitors are focusing on using social media, Google, and customer research and whether those individuals align with your business. If you're targeting the same demographic as your competitors, figure out what they like and dislike about them and use that information to guide your own marketing efforts.
Introducing Strikingly
The next step is to create a website that caters to the needs of your target audience once you've identified your target market. Setting up a website with Strikingly does not require a technical background in web development. It makes creating a website easier by allowing you to create a webpage without writing a single line of code.
The best part is that you can do it for nothing. This is ideal for newbies and small businesses who may not have the financial means to hire a professional web designer. Over 3 million startups, small businesses, creatives, and students from all over the world rely on our free web design software. Our web design templates make it easier for beginners to create websites, allowing them to compete with larger brands in their niche. You can now get to work on creating a website that will appeal to your target audience, armed with a powerful set of tools and the best free web design software.
Conclusion
After you have gone through our guide to target market and their identification, you now know where to look for target markets, how to tell the difference between a target audience and a target market, and how to write a target market strategy using real-life examples. You should be well on your way to attracting and keeping a loyal and engaged clientele. However, it’s important to remember that identifying your ideal customers is only the first step. After you've determined your target market sample’s age, location, gender, interests, pain points, and other characteristics, it's critical to concentrate on the communication channels that these segments can use.
Google Analytics is one of the best tools for determining where your target market/audience hangs out online. You can use this data to streamline your marketing efforts across relevant social media platforms, email campaigns, and even traditional advertising.
To retain the best customers and keep them coming back for more, make sure to focus on getting the tone of voice and language just right in any messaging, as well as having high-quality landing pages that reflect your audience's interests.
