Knowing who is in your target market can be one of the most difficult concepts for a business owner to wrap their head around. It is easy to get this confused with who you think your target market is. They are not always the same group.
If you run an online business, one way to discover the market that you are actually reaching is to use your website’s analytics. By looking at this information, you can see where your visitors are coming from, their age group, and what keywords they are using to find your site. A high bounce rate indicates a mismatch between whatever is bringing visitors to your site and what those visitors find (or don’t find) at your site. Look at how much time visitors spend on your site and what they’re seeing. Are they going away as soon as they arrive, or are they taking an action while they’re there?
Knowing your target market makes it much easier for you to tailor your offers to them. Find out where they are, what places they like to visit, where they live, and what their likes, needs, and problems are.
If you don’t take the time to research your target market, your advertising campaigns are just throwing money down the drain. You are blindly trying to attract the right group of people to what you have to offer.
Marketing to a defined segment is much easier than marketing to a much larger, general one.
- By narrowing down your target market you can position yourself as the expert. This in return will get you more media exposure, more clients, and customers and allow you to increase your prices.
- After researching, you will know how to reach your audience. This allows you to get in front of them with a clear message that will hold meaning for them. When you present your offer to the right people, your profits will increase.
- Researching allows you to understand your market. You will learn what their problems are and be able to present them with a solution.
A first step to actually define your target market is to research demographics, first. This will give you an insight into their age, gender, and location. Next, you want to gain insight into their lifestyle choices along with knowing what their profession is. Maybe your target market is defined not so much by demographics as by psychographics – they think a certain way or share a set of beliefs and values.
Put all of this information together and you will have a specific gender of the person, along with their age group, their problems, and wants. Once you have a specific problem or need identified, you can work on how you will present them with a solution or answer to it. This adds up to you getting in front of the right people at the right time.
Now that you know your target market and the problem you help solve, you can describe your business in one sentence. And that, my friend, will go a long way toward helping you market your business effectively.
