One of the most important aspects of running a business is sales and marketing. Every business, no matter what they are selling, has to have customers to remain in business. Therefore, you must identify the target customer and gear all of your marketing towards that target audience for the business to succeed. For example, if you sell diapers and baby products, you would focus your marketing on new parents and not on audiences without babies.
The biggest mistake businesses make when it comes to marketing is that they assume everyone in the world wants their product or services, and they market all over the map. However, if you get real with yourself and realize every business has a target audience and point your marketing to that audience, you will have customers coming out of the woodwork. Here are five tips to help you identify your target market for your business.
Filter Your Focus
When it comes to marketing, you have to narrow your focus and filter out what does not apply to the products or services you offer. You will need to have some level of bias in the respect that you will need to study your market or your business and be realistic if your business mostly or exclusively appeals to a specific people group, age range, or income level.
You have to filter out anyone who does not utilize your service or product to not waste money or your valuable time marketing to those who will never buy your products or hire your services. You can’t afford to feel as though you need to include everyone when targeting your marketing efforts.
Gather Data
You will need to research your business market and gather as much data as possible to pinpoint your target customers. In some cases, the target customer is obvious, but in other cases, it can be a bit more obscure to the naked eye. Therefore, gathering data and ensuring you gather it from every source applicable to your business will ensure that you hit your target audience and make the most of your marketing budget.
Hire a Survey Company
Many businesses never think of hiring a survey company to help them identify their target customer. If you are in a business where the target audience is not as easily identified, you will need to discover this through surveys. The expense to hire a company will have a huge payoff because if you spend a lot of time and money marketing and are not targeting it to your main customer, it will cost you much more. Businesses fail because they don’t have strong enough sales to stay in business. You have to put a lot into your marketing efforts and use marketing dollars for vital tools like surveys. This suggestion is only for businesses that are having difficulty identifying their customer.
Use Existing Data
If you are in a business with other businesses that are the same and in the same locale, you can observe their marketing efforts. These businesses can work for you and help you identify your target customer without paying a penny for surveys or market research. When you choose businesses to research, be sure they are as close to you in product or service, location, and overall business model. The market and target audience can change in different locations, so it is important that if you are going to emulate similar businesses’ marketing efforts, they will be as close to identical to you as possible.
Use Your Network
When you own and operate a business of any size, you have generally built up a network. This network can be made up of your friends and family, other businesses like yours, vendors you use, and other businesses in your community. Many times there are people in the network you have built that can help you identify your target audience. The network you have built is a give and take and serves a great purpose in many aspects of your business, but they can be highly effective in your marketing efforts, so tap into it. That’s what it’s there to do.
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