Targeting your market is simply defining who your primary customer will be. The market should be measurable, sufficiently large and reachable!
LET GO OF YOUR FEAR!
Target marketing cannot work and offer the sales results you need until you let go of your fear. “EVERYONE” is not a target market. The fear factor is one of the key reasons people fail at selling or marketing their product. Most business owners have never worked for other companies as a “straight commission” sales person so they are not familiar with going after the “A” client and optimizing their sales day so that it results in closing key revenue accounts. They have not learned through time and aggravation and small paychecks that you can work just as hard with a small sale as you can a bigger client and that your closing ratio improves when you zero in on a potential market that is more likely to buy the product.
“Sales is a numbers game”. This is something my sales manager loved to say to me when I used to sell TV advertising campaigns and he was right. If I have an average of 8 hours of selling time in a day, who should I spend that time going after? What will be my strategy and who do I “Focus” my time on so that I make the most money and have long-term relationship accounts?
FOCUS…FOCUS…FOCUS!!!
There are only so many hours in a day and so much of an advertising, marketing and sales budget… remaining focused on what you wish to accomplish is the first step to determining your target market.
- WHAT IS YOUR GOAL?
- WHAT DOES YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER LOOK LIKE?
*Who are they? *Where are they located? How will you reach them?
- WHO DO YOU FOCUS ON AS A POTENTIAL OR “LIKELY” CLIENT & WHERE WILL YOU FIND THEM?
BUY TWO CUPS OF COFFEE & INTERVIEW YOUR CLIENTS!
You would be amazed at how helpful people can be when you just ask them for their help. For most of us we cannot afford to pay a big marketing company to do an in-depth analysis of who are “target market” is so what does a small business do? Buy 2 cups of coffee and ask your clients for 20 to 30 minutes of their time for an informal interview about them.
What you need to find out [if possible] from the interview:
- Age or Age Group?
- Male or Female?
- Socio-Economic or Ethnic Group?
- Education level?
- Marital Status?
- Do they have kids?
- Psychographics??? [Their beliefs, likes, dislikes, personality, why they bought your product, etc]
- Income Level? What do they regularly spend money on?
- Profession?
- Location?
NOTE: before the internet and on-line social networking the location was pretty straight forward to where do they live, work and buy goods and services, but today you need to know if they are tech savy, belong to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc and if they prefer to shop on-line or at the store directly or both.
- Do they read the newspaper [which one and is this on-line or in print]? What radio station do they listen to and what TV shows do they watch? Are they a member of any local business groups or read any business publications?
- Finally, this is a KEY question to ask them: WHAT SERVICES COULD YOU PROVIDE THAT WOULD MAKE LIFE EASIER FOR THEM???
GO TO A QUIET PLACE & ANALYZE YOUR DATA
Try to survey as many customers as possible either in person or on the phone and then go to a quiet room or place so that you can analyze ALL your data and look for patterns or similarities. Maybe you notice that most of your clients are females ages 35-55 who have a college degree, hold professional positions, have an income of over $125,000 per year and prefer to save time by shopping on-line. Or, the majority of your clients might have children and so they are looking for family oriented activities that are geared for saving money and are good for the environment or their health.
DO YOU LIKE THE GROUP THAT STANDS OUT & ARE YOU MAKING $$$?
Hopefully, the data you get from your current base of clients that help you determine the target market is in-line with your goals for your business. For instance, if you find that you have attracted many customers who are difficult to service because their needs are so unique and you do not feel you are making a profit with the time invested, you may need to discard that group as your target market, but use what you have learned to help determine what you could do either in your marketing material or sales process to reach a more ideal target market and increase your profits!
*CREATE MARKETING MATERIAL, ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS & YOUR SALES APPROACH AROUND THE GROUP YOU NOW KNOW AS YOUR TARGET MARKET!
AIM, FOCUS & SHOOT at the TARGET!!!
LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES & SEE THEM AS AN INVESTMENT!
Target Marketing saves companies both time and money by helping them to know who the best prospect is for their business and how to appeal to them as a consumer. Even the biggest companies have made mistakes in marketing that cost them money and valuable time, but knowing what didn’t work and why, can be as important as what does work!
All my best to your success!
~Charlene
