Hit the Target

No one has the corner on the market for all customers. No business has one product that appeals to everyone. Instead, businesses cater to a particular segment of the market with what they sell called a target market. They reach one particular age group, gender, or interest group and satisfy their needs with their product. As a business owner, you have to identify who your customers are and understand what their needs are before you can start advertising to the world what you have to sell. Figuring out who you are selling to and what their needs and wants are does not have to be an expensive venture, but in order for your marketing campaign to be successful, it has to be a thorough venture. You want to find out everything there is to know about your target market so you can figure out the best way to represent your product so it will sell better than your competition.

Begin with demographics. If you are a small business owner, you are probably only selling to a specific region to begin with. Find out what the make-up of the population of that region is in terms of age, gender, income level, occupation, education, and family circumstances such as married, divorced, single, retired, etc. All of this information will help you determine where the best place for your store will be, who is most likely to come to your store, and who is most likely to purchase from you. All of these are important things to predict so you can focus your marketing campaign around these factors.

The next part of your research will involve the geographic and lifestyle factors or your target market. What is the makeup of the area you are targeting? Is there a lot of foot-traffic or do most people drive? Will the weather drive people in or out of doors? Are people in the area considered conservative with their money or are they loose spenders? The answer to these questions will help you determine what part of the population you should target your product to, how you should sell it, and at what price.

Once you've figured out who you are selling to and what their habits are, it is time to address their needs and wants. It is time to start talking to people. People are your primary information source. You've already done all the data collection you need outside of them, so it is time to get inside their heads and find out how and what makes them tick. This is important to be able to focus your marketing efforts so they are not wasted.

Primary information is gathered directly from your potential customers. This can be done through chatting with them, surveys, focus groups, or any number of other ways where you are interacting directly with your target market to find out what they want. Ask your customers what they need, how your product fills their needs, where it falls short, how they respond to your brand as a whole, and how you could improve your offering. Get down and dirty with the people you are selling to. Figure out what they really want and how you uniquely fill those needs and wants. How you fill their needs uniquely is what you want to focus your marketing campaign around. Your customers will tell you how they want to be advertised to.