How to Target Your Market
The number of people who buy products and services is nearly infinite. But the number of people who want and need your product or service is definitely finite.
Trying to market to everyone is a waste of money. So how do you leverage your marketing budget to filter out all the non-buyers and reach your prospects and customers?
You need to target your marketing efforts to those people most likely to buy what you offer. Identifying your target market makes creating, pricing, distributing, promoting, positioning, and continually improving your product or service easier, more successful, and ultimately more cost-effective. Anything else is a waste of time and money.
Target marketing is one of the corporate world’s most effective business strategies. Simply defined, a target market is the majority of people your business attracts, either by design (yours) or by accident.
If you don’t already know, figure out who buys your product or and service–and why. Develop a picture of your ideal buyer: their demographics and the problems they’re trying to solve. (For more about solving your customer’s problem, see my article, “Solve Your Customer’s Problem.”) Then use this information to create a marketing strategy that will attract those ideal customers to you.
The five major demographic breakdowns are as follows:
Gender–women currently make the vast majority of buying decisions, a trend that is not expected to reverse.
Age–younger people increasingly have money to spend, and the proliferation of online sales sites has made it easier for them to do so.
Family composition–size, age of its members, etc.–a larger and more varied family has more, and more varied, needs. Whether pets are included is also a factor.
Income level–people with more money buy more expensive things and are less affected by fluctuations in the economy, yet they are a smaller segment of the population.
Geographic location–regional habits and tastes, climate, and other natural features affect buying patterns.
Finally, don’t ignore your most valuable target market–your existing customers.
So, what are you currently doing to promote your product or service? What kinds of results are you getting? How can a marketing expert help you get better results?
Lisa J. Lehr is a freelance copywriter specializing in direct response and marketing collateral, with a special interest in the health, pets, specialty foods, and inspirational/motivational/self-help niches. She has a degree in biology, has worked in a variety of fields including pharmaceuticals and teaching, and has volunteered for many causes including special-needs kids and literacy. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading, art, music, outdoor exercise, and all things Celtic and Renaissance.
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