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Discover Your Target Market!

Sunday 7th February 2010

Why You Need To Discover Your Target Market:

It’s easy to think that everyone who passes through your doors or visits your website is a potential customer.  But this is not true.  Whatever product or service you offer will have a specific target market that you need to be aware of.  If you advertise too broadly you will not only miss the mark and therefore lesson sales potential, you will also waste your hard earned money for little return.

By focusing on a specific target group – or niche market – you will enhance your chances of increasing sales because you are selling to a group that actually wants your product or service.

So What Is A Target Market?

A target market is the commercial segment to which a particular product is aimed.

Individuals in this group will all have the same needs or specialised interests.  As such they will have a strong desire for your product or service.  This means that you can give them a compelling reason to buy whatever it is that you have on offer.

Here’s Why It’s So Important To Find Your Target Market

When you define who you’re selling to you can cater to their specific needs or interests.  This lets you direct all your marketing copy to them – such as brochures, direct mail marketing letters and your website.

For example, you may sell garden supplies.  But to think that you are selling to every person who has a garden is wrong.  Why?  Garden owners can be broken down into some of the following:

• Home owners who use a gardening service to mow the lawn.

• New home owners with no money to spare for professional landscaping but who want to start a garden.  And who will have to do all the work themselves.

• People with no interest in gardening – lovely to look at but no desire to get dirty.

• Those who love gardening.

To name a few!

By advertising to this entire group you have to be very general.  Unfortunately, people don’t respond to general talk.  They want to feel that the message is being spoken directly to them.  In fact, unless they feel that you can satisfy their particular need they just won’t listen.

The solution to this is to isolate your target market.  Only then will you succeed in getting your message across.

Here’s How To Discover Your Target Market.

Firstly, you can evaluate your existing customers.  Is there a particular group that always purchase the same item?  What have they in common?

You can also work backwards from the benefits that your product or service has to offer:

Simply start by listing all the benefits.  Then list who would be most likely to have their situation improved by them.  For instance, the garden supplier may decide to put together an affordable ‘starter kit’ for new home owners.  This would allow them to focus their marketing directly at anyone building a new house.  The benefits can be that the new home owner has everything they need to start a garden and get rid of that unsightly muddy or dusty yard – and all at a price they can afford.  By accentuating the benefit to this particular niche group the garden supplier can appeal directly to them.

So What Is The Big Advantage Of Discovering Your Target Market?

By concentrating your marketing to a niche group you can provide exactly what they want and need.  The result will be sales!  What’s more, depending on what products or services you have to offer you can find many target markets who will want to buy your different items.  Put simply, by appealing directly to your target market you are helping your bottom line!