Identifying your target market is the basis and roots of all of your business. How you develop your product, your brand name, where you sell and how you sell all depends on the audience. Keeping in mind though, your market is not everyone. The more you can narrow down the market the better, as it allows you to directly reach the people you want. Below are our 5 most important tips for identifying your target market before you start your business.
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Market research is by far the most time consuming step in the process. You will need to conduct your own surveys, look at existing data and analyse your competitors customers. This allows you to understand what your customers want and need, which means you can better cater to them. If you are doing this correctly then you will see a successful business.
This information is also great to know how much your customers are willing to pay for your product or service. There’s no point trying to market something that is so expensive that nobody will purchase. There’s also equally no point in selling at a price so low that you won’t be able to make profits.
2. Segment your market
Ideally, you’ll have a large enough target market to actually start segmenting into different groups. Depending on what the nature of your business is, your segments will be different to another business.
It is important that you are able to understand these differences between your audience so you can adjust marketing strategies if needed. You may need to develop separate strategies for each segment to better grab their attention.
For example, a standard shoe retailer would have segments of gender and the type of sport they play which will require a different shoe. So you will have segments of tennis players, soccer players, rugby players and so on. Each segment will be after something different in their product as well, so you will need to understand that too.
3. Define your market
Defining your target market will help you figure out who is most likely to buy from you. A little bit different different from segmenting your customers, this will require you to determine WHO they are.
- Are your customers male or female?
- How old are they?
- Where do they live?
- Martial status?
- Do they have children? If so, how many?
- Education level?
- Their jobs?
- What do they earn?
In addition, you’ll need to define their buying habits and hobbies.
- What motivates them to buy?
- How often do they buy?
- Do they online shop or prefer going to a physical store?
- How long does it take them to make the decision to buy?
- What platform do they get their information from?
- How far are they willing to travel for the product?
- What else do they buy?
If you know the answers to all these questions, you can create a very detailed, targeted and successful marketing plan for your customers.
4. Create a target market statement
Having a target market statement is incredibly useful for you, but also great to flourish your website. This creates a direct relation to the customer so they are able to feel catered for as they browse your website. Use it in email campaigns, social media posts, and almost anything else that can be seen by your potential customers.
5. Test your target market
If you haven’t already, set up a website with a simple landing page. Many website templates can provide you with what you need depending on your type of business, you just need to find the right one. With this landing page, you can have a simple email sign up feature to start with.
Once you’ve set this up, start creating some preliminary social ads with the new target market information you have found. Use Google Ads, Facebook ads, or anything else you can think of. By directing them to your new landing page, and seeing how many email sign ups you receive you can gauge how successful your research has been.
If you are seeing no attention, try to re-evaluate and do another test ad. Keep trying until you get the results you are after. This may mean changing your target market slightly every time, but once you get it right it will serve you so well.
Conclusion
There is a lot of work behind the scenes of any successful business. This all starts from the research stage and from there becomes the basis of your entire business. Ultimately, all of this research should be tested before you officially launch. Testing nowadays can be quite easy on social media, so there’s no reason you shouldn’t give that a go. If all else fails, get back to the drawing board and try again until you see the success you want.
