A marketing strategy needs to be targeted towards a specific audience in order for it to work. For example, if you are a fashion label selling vintage dresses, you might have more success if you focus on a small, specific market rather than trying to market to the masses.
“In marketing, if you’re trying to talk to everybody, you’re not reaching anybody.” – Meredith Hill
Your target market, therefore, becomes the group of people most likely to buy your product or service.
The tricky part is identifying exactly who those people are.
Identifying Your Target Audience
The first step in identifying your target market is to look closely at who your current customers are. Some of the details you want to consider are:
- Age
- Location
- Average spend
- Interests
- Life stage (retirees, new parents etc)
Once you have gathered these data points, you can track trends and averages and build a picture of groups that fit the same profile.
Another option is to ask your existing customers what they like about your product or service, but be careful not to annoy them with too many follow up emails or questions during the ordering process.
Use Social Media
Social media is extremely useful for checking out what your competition is doing and harnessing the power of analytics.
On Facebook and Instagram, you can easily see the markets your competitors are going for and how they are positioning themselves. Perhaps they are targeting markets you hadn’t considered.
Social Media Analytics is a simple and effective way of understanding more about who is interacting with your social accounts, and if you are running campaigns, how they are performing.
Next Steps
Understanding your target market will save you time, money and effort. Knowing who is most likely to buy your products or engage your services means you can adapt your strategies to cater to this market. From the tone of your campaigns to prioritising your advertising channels, identifying your target market will enable you to speak directly to your customers. More importantly, you will be able to monitor shifting attitudes within this group and adapt your strategy to suit. Long term, this means more customers and more revenue.
Need help identifying your target market? The search engine marketing specialists at Nowra Web Design will work with you to find out more about your customers and the most effective ways to speak to them.
