By Patti Waterbury
Identifying your target market and why they buy the products or services you sell is the first step in understanding the unique benefits and opportunities you offer customers. Your target market has specific needs and expectations. Meeting and exceeding both will allow you to compete, build your client base, and grow your business.
Who Is Your Market?
You know the type of person you want as a customer-their visions and the qualities they possess. But have you identified the market they’re in? Are they consumers or business people? Do they fall into a certain demographic by age, gender, or income?
It’s important to be specific when you identify your target market. You’ll be marketing your products to these customers and will need to know who they really are, their needs and desires, to ensure your messages are heard and acted upon. Identifying the people you’re passionate about serving ensures your efforts will benefit both you and them. You can then target specific campaigns to their lifestyles and needs.
Identifying your market also helps determine where you’ll find those who are searching for your solutions. As you gather more specific information about your market, you can develop compelling offers to meet their needs and expectations.
Advantages Of Targeting A Particular Market
When first starting or even when growing your business, it’s not wise try to be everything to everyone. Your offers, services, and products will be diluted and vague if you try to satisfy everyone.
Narrow your viewpoint to a specific demographic market so you can provide exceptional service and focused products to those who are searching for them. Your product will be more valuable, offering the greatest benefits to customers.
By choosing a particular market and developing targeted products and services, you’ll become the expert; people within that market will turn to you when they need help. Then, when you’ve established your reputation in that market, you can branch out to related markets. Eventually, you’ll have a broad client base, all of whom look to you for expert advice and service.
Build Off Your Natural Talents & Passions
If you don’t already have a target market or if you’re unable to break into the one you’ve chosen, consider your talents. What are you very good at doing? What do you enjoy doing or are passionate about? Is there something you do that feels like play rather than work? What are you knowledgeable about?
Determining your target market by beginning with your own talents and interests allows you to hone in on the people you’d love to serve. Think about areas in which you’re very knowledgeable. Now, how do you feel when you use that knowledge and the skills you’ve developed to help others? No doubt, you feel good-both about yourself and about what you can offer.
If you’ve already got clients but not enough, look at your customer list and determine some common elements among them. Are they all in the same industry? The same age group, gender, or profession? If your customers all share particular elements, then you know you’re drawn to that specific market. Perhaps you haven’t yet targeted your messages to meet the needs of that market. Once you do, your client base will grow.
Intuitively Determining Your Target Market
Identifying your natural talents or passions and what areas or industries they serve is the first step in using your intuition to determine your target market.
Begin with the broad view of your market. Think about the different people who use the products or services you provide.
Next, determine if there are certain groups of those customers that you’re excited to work with. You may have knowledge that some groups are searching for more than other groups. Determine what natural talents, knowledge, strengths and passion you can offer customers. Which groups most intrigue and excite you? By intuitively narrowing down possible customer groups, you can determine who you are meant to serve.
Maintaining your passion and enthusiasm for your work requires targeting specific markets. If the market is not interesting to work with, your passion will turn into drudgery and neither you nor your clients will benefit. Be specific about your process in determining the customer group you enjoy working with and you’ll find the market you were meant to serve.
Meeting The Urgent Needs & Compelling Desires Of Your Market
Identifying the motivations of customers when they search for your services and products will help you focus your marketing messages to meet their needs. What are your customers’ urgent needs and compelling desires? What drives them to you or to your competition?
Urgent needs are things your clients want to avoid. They may feel some pain that needs to be alleviated-monetary, emotional, physical. For instance, they might be in physical pain with back problems and are seeking the help of a naturopath. Or maybe their current investments aren’t yielding the interest rate they need to make their mortgage payments and they’re searching for new investment opportunities.
Compelling desires are things your clients want to attract. This could be as simple as a product that makes their lives easier. Or it could be more complicated, such as wanting to learn more about marketing to increase their business so they can take an extra vacation each year.
Find out just what your target market’s urgent needs and compelling desires are and you can then design your products, services, and marketing campaigns to serve your customers. By combining those with the passion you feel toward serving you market and the knowledge you bring, your messages will resonate deeply with them. Trust and credibility are built through that connection, making it easier for you to serve your customers and provide solutions to your market.