Traditional resources on target marketing often use complex terms like “demographics” and “psychographics.” While these are certainly effective classifications, I’m going to simplify them by breaking down target market traits into two primary groups.
Aspects About Your Prospective Customer
This encompasses factors such as the customer’s gender, age, income, profession, basic beliefs, and so on. These details are crucial for marketing any product or service, and I’ll guide you on how to leverage this information.
Aspects Related to Both Your Prospective Customer and Your Product
Many teachings on target markets overlook this category, failing to forge a link between the prospective customer and the actual product on sale. This is, however, the most critical aspect. Details like your potential customer’s age, faith, and gender are insignificant unless you comprehend how they connect with your product. By piecing together this puzzle, you’ll surge ahead of your competitors.
Now, let’s dive deeper…
Key Information about Your Prospective Customer
Your first task is to familiarize yourself with your customer and begin understanding their basic traits and motivations. While it may be challenging to categorize everyone into distinct groups, it’s advantageous to have a clear image of your target market. The more detailed your market definition is, the simpler it becomes to offer them the content, services, or products they want.
Keep in mind that your business might cater to a primary niche, but your product could appeal to a variety of groups. Recognizing the diverse segments of your audience can assist you in crafting tailored content for different audiences and creating specific landing pages to reach these markets if you are using a website. It will also assist you in offline marketing material as well. As a bonus, if you sell face to face or have a sales staff it will help you develop a sales presentation relevant to your niche that gets results.
Place of Residence
The level of precision required here depends on your business and product nature. If you operate locally, you might need to identify specific cities or neighborhoods that epitomize your target market. Alternatively, if your clientele is global and online, understanding their geographical distribution can be beneficial. Being aware of your customer’s location can help you relate to your audience by comprehending their local news, societal issues, cultural norms, etc.
Occupation
What kind of work does your ideal customer do? Are they professionals, manual laborers, homemakers, or service providers? By knowing their occupation, you can gain more insight into their daily routine, aspirations, and challenges.
Family Status
Are they married or single? Do they have children, and if so, how many and what age? Understanding their family status can help you identify specific needs and factors that might influence their purchasing decisions. For instance, the needs of parents with newborns differ significantly from those whose children have left the nest.
Gender
This used to be straightforward, now things are a little confusing, but I’m going to stick with the largest percentage of the population. Are your target customers male or female? While you might choose to market to both genders, focusing on one can allow you to further refine your target market and foster a deeper connection through your content and marketing approach.
Age
What is the age range of your typical customer? Are they below 30 or between 35-50? Understanding your customer’s age can help you better comprehend their generational context, experiences, and current life concerns.
Family Income
What is the typical income level of your customer’s family? Do they have significant disposable income, or are they more concerned about value and cost? Your marketing strategies should intuitively consider income levels.
Education
What is the level of education your typical customer has attained? Are they high school graduates, college students, or perhaps subject matter experts in your niche? This knowledge can be invaluable in tailoring your content and marketing strategies to resonate with them effectively.
Understanding the education level of your target market is crucial as it influences the language and technical terms you utilize. The way you portray the advantages of your product can also be impacted by the education level of your audience. For instance, the features you emphasize when marketing a laptop bag to a university student might differ from those promoted to a working professional.
Moreover, core beliefs such as religion, political stance, and viewpoints on critical issues, although not directly discussed, could be crucial in understanding your target market. If your target audience leans toward conservative political views, you can tailor your conversations and highlight product benefits that cater to such a demographic.
Knowing your target market’s hobbies and interests can sometimes directly, other times indirectly, relate to your product. For example, if your business involves teaching people how to earn money from home, understanding their plans for their newfound freedom could be a vital aspect of your marketing strategy.
In addition, the level of tech-savviness of your audience is key. The online audience today is considerably more advanced than it was five years ago, which is a favorable trend for online businesses. However, it’s crucial to understand your audience’s familiarity with technology to effectively explain various tech terminologies, provide download instructions, and guide them through the process of ordering your product.
Analyzing these characteristics of your target market can significantly impact the products you market and the strategy you employ. By consciously considering this while creating content, you can notice a shift in audience response.
Understanding your audience in relation to the products you offer.
The following five characteristics are essential in determining the type of content to create and how to showcase and sell your products. Remember that content can be anything you use in your business that comes into contact with the customer that is intended to produce a desired result.
What is your target customer aiming to achieve with your product?
Your marketing materials must focus on the specific benefits your customer wants. It can be one of a number of goals, however, they should all be related to the same product or service you are selling.
The motivation behind these goals can often be more critical than the goals themselves. Understanding what drives your prospect can give you insights into their behavior. For instance, if your business revolves around homeschooling, it’s essential to understand why your target audience opts for or is considering homeschooling. Are they trying to steer clear of the perceived unsafe public school system or promote traditional values that they believe aren’t taught in schools today? Understanding the ‘why’ can often be the key to engaging content and successful product endorsement.
Consider what tics them off. Frustrations can range from difficulties in achieving their goals to dissatisfaction with competitor products. By identifying these frustrations, you can highlight how your products can help alleviate these issues.
Consider the case of the weight loss sector, for instance. It’s no secret that individuals seeking to lose weight face numerous challenges, ranging from irresistible cravings, reliance on fast food due to their busy schedules, to the constant assault of unrealistic beauty standards. Understanding these issues can help you empathize with your customers and offer genuinely beneficial products.
Similarly, understanding the pain points people have with rival businesses can provide you a competitive edge. Consider the mobile phone market where binding contracts and usage restrictions are common sources of annoyance. Companies that market themselves as having unrestricted, contract-free plans have a unique selling proposition. How might you apply this to your sector?
Then, consider why your customers chose to do business with you. It’s quite a compliment, isn’t it? It’s crucial to comprehend the reasons behind this loyalty, as it will allow you to better serve your existing audience and appeal to similar prospective customers. If you’re unsure, simply ask them.
Finally, it’s crucial to understand what prevents prospects from making a purchase. Preempting your prospect’s objections is a critical aspect of selling. If you are selling online you’re not physically present with your customers, they can’t directly express their doubts or concerns and may simply leave your site. Therefore, it’s important to know what might dissuade your target market from purchasing your product. However, if you are face to face or on the phone with a customer ask those questions.
There could be several reasons why your customers are hesitant to spend money on your products. They might consider it too costly, in which case you should emphasize the long-term cost-effectiveness of your product and how it can help them achieve their personal goals. Alternatively, they may think your product is too cheap, suggesting a lack of quality or luxury. It’s crucial to set your product pricing in line with your customers’ expectations.
They might also worry about not getting what they expected from the product. If this is the case, you need to provide them with reassurance, such as money-back guarantees or display of security and association seals.
Lastly, they might be unsure if your product is the best on the market. As you understand your customer’s needs and your competitors’ offerings, do the legwork for them. Compare your product with others, showing how it suits their needs and helps them achieve their objectives. Comprehensive product comparisons and detailed reviews are highly valuable to your audience.
Understanding your target audience is a continuous process. As both you and your audience evolve, improving your understanding of them can certainly lead to growth in your revenues.
Running any business you need data, this is not all you need, but a few thoughts.
Customer Data: You must have a customer database. If you do it right it is a treasure trove of information. Even with basic data, you can determine their location, buying patterns, gender, etc. Every time you have customer contact always collect more information about that customer.
Web Analytics: Today any business without a website is robbing themselves. Your website’s statistics reveal a lot about your visitors. Their geographic location, preferred browsers, favorite pages, the keywords they use to find you, and more can be gleaned.
Click-through and Conversion Data: If you haven’t started collecting this data, now’s the time. Understand what content and products engage your readers and what triggers purchases. With this data, you gain crucial insights into strengthening your relationship with your target market.
Surveys: I generally don’t recommend surveys attempting to predict what products customers will buy or how much they’re willing to pay as their stated intentions often differ from their actions. However, surveys aimed at understanding your audience better are valuable. Questions about why they like your brand, their goals, motivations, and frustrations can be enlightening. Make sure your surveys are brief and straightforward, and offer a small incentive for completion.
Blog Comments: Conversations with your readers can provide great insights. Pay attention to their goals, frustrations, and why they have them.
Comments on Other Blogs: If your blog doesn’t have active discussions, don’t worry. Check out blogs with a similar audience to your ideal target market for insights.
Social Media & Forums: Use search features and join relevant groups to better understand your market. Be careful not to spend too much time here, but do ask questions and observe.
User Reviews: Sites like Amazon.com offer user reviews that can provide insights into product perceptions. While you may not have much information on the reviewer, trends can be identified, and ways to enhance the customer experience can be inferred.
What’s The Next Step?
Once you have gathered enough information start putting all your marketing material together. This can be as simple as content on a website or a face-to-face sales presentation.
Once that’s done you have to test it and keep changing parts of it until you get prospects taking action. Then keep refining more and more until your results flatten out.
Then move on to your next marketing idea and repeat the process.
Don’t fret if you’re still in the early stages of growth. It’s a process, and you’ll eventually reach your goal. Start by building deeper relationships with your existing customers. Engage and interact with them as much as possible through your website, blog, email, snail mail, or even phone conversations that work for your business.
A little engagement each day goes a long way. Make it a point to apply what you learn about your audience to your promotional activities.