Finding and understanding your target market is critical for success
Most entrepreneurs start out wanting to take on the world but knowing somewhere in the back of their mind that they are likely to make some mistakes. One common mistake entrepreneurs make is to try and market their business to everyone.
You will hear entrepreneurs say that “anyone” can benefit from their product or service. In a broad way that may be so but when it comes to your marketing strategy narrowing your focus to target a specific audience is the smart way to go.
Simply put, a target market is a narrow group of people you want to target your marketing efforts toward. This target may be the group best suited for your product or service or it may be a group with which your brand best resonates.
Some of the factors in finding your target market include:
- Age
- Ethnic background
- Income level
- Education
- Psychographics
- Business or organization type
Take for example, the sale of personal music players. Your target audience may be 18 to 35 year olds because your research – and you should do research before you begin marketing—indicates that this age group is the largest demographic that buys your type of product. In this case, all of your marketing efforts should address this demographic specifically.
Perhaps you sell a service within a certain price point. In that case income level may come into play. If you sell premium or luxury goods you may want your target market to have a certain level of disposal income. Even though everyone may want your luxury items, and surely some people can save for it, more likely your buyer is someone with the income to purchase that item right now.
As you can see, targeting everyone that could possibly want—and may buy—from you is different than targeting everyone that can—and is most likely to—buy from you. By narrowing your marketing focus you are saving energy that will get spread across a large audience—most of which that energy is wasted upon–and funneling it toward engaging a smaller group that will in the end bring a greater return on your marketing efforts.
It’s smart marketing that will bring you amazing results with less effort. And in the end isn’t that what we all want?
With lots of creativity and success,
Nicole Orozco
I agree Nicole, do the work upfront, so you aren’t spinning your wheels later on. I spent a lot of time targeting who might purchase my product. There is the obvious, and the not so obvious and targeting those “not so obvious” has really paid off since they are so “targeted”.
I talk about this ALL the time! You sell a lot more in less time when you know who your target audience is. These tips are great and more people need to know this! Thanks for sharing!
There is so much more to marketing than most people realize. It involves psychology, science, statistics, economics, history, and a lot of creative ingenuity. Most importantly though, it involves building relationships. Ted Rubin in fact has written a lot on this very subject. He calls it ‘Return on Relationships’ as opposed to the ‘Return on Income’ that most companies focus on.
If someone has a small marketing budget, it most certainly is critical to utilize target marketing. You & I both have similar target audiences so its imperative to build upon those relationships as well. Good points Nicole!
I agree, Tonia. Building and focusing on relationships is critical in business. Great tip!
My point exactly, Stephanie.
Great point, Stacy! There is a lot to learn when starting a business for the first time. If you do your research and plan ahead you can definitely save your self from a lot of headaches.