The whole foundation for your business begins with market segmentation and truly understanding your target market. If you don’t understand your target market, then you can’t create a solid niche marketing strategy, and all of your marketing efforts will be wasted. Learn why market segmentation is so important, how to identify your target market and what to do with this information.
Market Segmentation is Your Foundation for Success
The key to a successful business is talking to the right audience — the people who are interested in what you have to say, and what you have to sell. In other words, you have to reach your target market.
What Your Target Market Can Tell You
Understanding your target market allows you to:
- Sharpen your marketing efforts — The more you specialize, the more your target market will see the value of your services because you speak directly to them.
- Differentiate yourself — The best way to differentiate yourself is to market your business with a distinct group of people in mind.
- Cater your services to their needs — By understanding your customer, you can better serve them, and in doing so, generate more sales.
- Shorten your sales cycle and increase profits — The beauty of target marketing is that it provides a focus to all of your marketing activities, making your business more efficient.
Market Segmentation — How to Identify Your Target Market
Here are five things you should know about your target market:
- What are their demographics? What is their gender, age, income level, background, profession, etc. It really helps if you can personally relate to your target market, so you can connect with them in a genuine way.
- What are their concerns, worries, fears, problems, challenges and painful circumstances? The goal of any business is to provide a solution that fulfills a need. In order to provide a tailored solution, you have to first understand their needs and concerns.
- What are the reasons they are having these worries or concerns? Go one layer deeper and get inside their hearts and minds. This will give you the insights you need to fully relate to your target market.
- What are their dreams, aspirations, wishes, goals, wants, likes and needs? What are the things that motivate them most deeply? What would they like their lives to look like? Wants are even more powerful than needs when it comes to buying decisions.
- What is stopping them or holding them back from achieving their dreams and goals? What self-limiting beliefs are holding them back from accomplishing their dreams and desires? What situation or person (perhaps themselves) is stopping them from realizing their goals?
You might not have all the answers but do your best. That’s why its so important to pick a target market you can relate to. And what you don’t know, find out.
Target Market Research
You can research your target market in two ways.
- Personal Information – Speak with members of your target market, including existing customers. Look at the requests people make, the questions they ask, and their complaints.
- Public Information – Visit online groups, blogs and forums that are geared to your target market. People tend to tell total strangers things that they wouldn’t otherwise say. Keyword research is also important for understanding what kind of information your target market is searching for online. This is my absolute favorite keyword search tool.
Learn How to Find and Attract Your Target Market
Don’t waste your time with non-targeted marketing. It is a waste of your time and money. Get a copy of my free report, “Ten Steps to Identify and Attract Your Ideal Niche”.
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