Your step-by-step Guide to Identifying Your Target Market

Your step by step guide to identifying your target market for your business

Every business needs a highly specific target market. There, I’ve said it. And if you don’t yet have one, you need to get one!

By identifying your target market, you put yourself in a position of power. It’s this power that provides the following benefits:

  • Product or service adjustment – you can tailor your products or services to meet the specific needs of your ideal customers. By meeting these needs, you’ll most likely sell more.
  • Marketing focus – if you know where your target audience lives and works, their income, what their likes and dislikes are, and what problems they have, you can market specifically to them using the channels they use.
  • Saving money – you won’t be targeting everyone everywhere, but rather specific people via specific channels.
  • Time saving – you will know exactly where and on what to focus your efforts, as everything you do will be aimed at your target audience.

It isn’t enough to simply guess who your audience is though. Guesses can be incorrect and often they are not specific enough. Let’s take a look what to do instead.

Identifying Your Target Market

To find your business’ target audience, here is a series of questions to help you to find the answers to:

  • The problem – what problem does your product or service solve? The person who has this problem is likely to become a customer.
  • Audience characteristics – where do they live? What are their hobbies? Do they work in a specific industry? What types of things are they likely to buy or use? What needs do they have? What is their discretionary income? Do they own a specific type of business?
  • What are they buying – if you have an existing business, who are the people buying from you and following you on social media? If your business is new, take a look at the types of people who are buying similar products or services to the ones you will offer.
  • Your competitor’s behaviour – who are your main competitors? Who are they targeting in their marketing, social media and website? What types of people are engaging with them on social media?

The answers to these questions will help guide you in defining a highly specific target audience. Take this information and write up a detailed bullet point list of your ideal customer. Test it out, using the details to determine your social media and other digital marketing activities. If it works, great and keep going (with regular check-ups to ensure this remains the case). If not, then get tweaking and testing until you’ve nailed it.

For help in connecting with your target audience via social media, we’d love to help! Get in touch today and let’s chat over coffee (even virtually) about how we can raise your business’ profile online.