When it comes to marketing and advertising, Small Businesses are faced with seeming overwhelming tasks to attract customers. This is especially true of businesses where competition is fierce. The result of a poorly planned marketing and advertising campaign can be a lot of wasted dollars. This article is a part of a series of articles aimed at helping small business owners to build better marketing and advertising campaigns to attract the most customers (more bang for your buck).
The very first step all businesses (not just small businesses) have to do is to identify their target market. Identifying the target market can allow the small business to customize the campaign for the business' real customers. It is infinitely more profitable to reach out directly to ones customers than to try and take a shot in the dark by targeting a much larger number of potential customers.
When trying to identify the target market there are a few things to keep in mind:
1) What is the product or service you are selling?
Write down (or discuss) the product or service your business offers. While this step might seem redundant, it helps to visualize the product (or service) and the potential customer that would use it.
2) What industry is the business in?
It is good to start the process at a higher level. People are always surprised at the many niches within the parent industry they find. This helps to open up new segements of the population for your product or service.
3) What makes the product or service so special?
Why should someone use your product or service? What makes you stand out from other competitors? This step might seem something that comes after the target market is identified (in preparing the marketing campaign) but it is also very helpful in certain industries where the product or service meets a need that there are not many choices for. A good example of this would be a BMW car dealership (not many choices within that city and only a certain type of person would purchase a high end car).
4) To Whom do you want to sell your product or service to?
Arguably, the most important step. In fact many businesses go straight to this step. However, it is important to understand that the above steps would provide valuable insights in order to get the most out of this step. In this step you want to visualize the customer of your product/ service. With the information you have gained from the above steps you should have a pretty good profile of your target customer. Things like age, sex, wealth, height, weight, etc are all now clearer to you. The end result will not exactly be one value for each of these identifiers but a range. For example, you sell high end fitness equipment. Your target market would include both males and females, would be more affluent, and possibly younger than 60 (unless your products are meant for older people).
Using this information you can fine-tune your marketing and advertising efforts to focus on your target market.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking your products or services can be used by everyone. While we would all like to believe that, it is something that rarely happens.
The very first step all businesses (not just small businesses) have to do is to identify their target market. Identifying the target market can allow the small business to customize the campaign for the business' real customers. It is infinitely more profitable to reach out directly to ones customers than to try and take a shot in the dark by targeting a much larger number of potential customers.
When trying to identify the target market there are a few things to keep in mind:
1) What is the product or service you are selling?
Write down (or discuss) the product or service your business offers. While this step might seem redundant, it helps to visualize the product (or service) and the potential customer that would use it.
2) What industry is the business in?
It is good to start the process at a higher level. People are always surprised at the many niches within the parent industry they find. This helps to open up new segements of the population for your product or service.
3) What makes the product or service so special?
Why should someone use your product or service? What makes you stand out from other competitors? This step might seem something that comes after the target market is identified (in preparing the marketing campaign) but it is also very helpful in certain industries where the product or service meets a need that there are not many choices for. A good example of this would be a BMW car dealership (not many choices within that city and only a certain type of person would purchase a high end car).
4) To Whom do you want to sell your product or service to?
Arguably, the most important step. In fact many businesses go straight to this step. However, it is important to understand that the above steps would provide valuable insights in order to get the most out of this step. In this step you want to visualize the customer of your product/ service. With the information you have gained from the above steps you should have a pretty good profile of your target customer. Things like age, sex, wealth, height, weight, etc are all now clearer to you. The end result will not exactly be one value for each of these identifiers but a range. For example, you sell high end fitness equipment. Your target market would include both males and females, would be more affluent, and possibly younger than 60 (unless your products are meant for older people).
Using this information you can fine-tune your marketing and advertising efforts to focus on your target market.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking your products or services can be used by everyone. While we would all like to believe that, it is something that rarely happens.