The key to your success
So, we know exactly what we offer and how we compare to our competition. We can now start to look at identifying our target market.
Sometimes we get so excited about what we do – how much bigger, brighter, faster we are compared to the competition – that we forget to really think about the most important part of marketing: our target market.
We have spoken to lots of business owners who speak about their target market in broad generalities.
This is a real issue because knowing exactly who you’re targeting with your marketing is the key to successfully reaching, connecting with and convincing them to buy what you’re selling.
How can you zoom in on your target market and use what you know about that market to create target marketing campaigns that can sell?
Who am I targeting?
Even if you sell products with horizontal appeal, this question is still important. Specifics sell and the more specifics you know about the market you are targeting, the more effective your marketing will be.
With that in mind it is important to attempt to understand more about your target market. The first thing to establish is whether you are selling Business to Business (B2B) or Business to Consumer (B2C). Knowing this will help you adapt the tone and approach of your marketing.
If it’s B2C then you need to get to know the individuals who make up your target market; start to build personality profiles of them.
For example: what gender are they, what age bracket do they fall into, where do they live, what’s their income level, where do they shop, how do they shop, how do they get their information, what papers do they read (if any), how often are they online.
If your product or service is aimed more for the B2B market then it’s a case of working out the target market by geography, sector type, size of business, position of decision maker.
These indicators may need further clarification. When you look at sector type for example, you could consider which category in the Yellow Pages (remember them) they would put themselves under or which trade body or association they would automatically want to belong to. When it comes to business size are you looking to use employee size or turnover as the marker.
By doing this exercise you can start to establish the potential size of your market, which will inform your planning and spend as well as what’s important to your potential clients when they buy what you are selling.
Which leads us onto Step 5.