Target Market

Importance Of Identifying Your Target Market

Identifying a target market goes hand in hand with setting your marketing goals. A business can't develop a marketing strategy without a target audience to focus on first. 

If you consider the competition that has come with the internet, you'll realise why it's more beneficial to focus on dominating a smaller market.

You can't expect everyone to show interest in your products and services. 

And it's better to be a big fish in a small pond than being a small fish in a mighty ocean.

Also, you shouldn't be tempted by the idea of narrowing your focus. You won't be leaving a lot of money on the table anyways. 

Focusing on a smaller audience doesn't mean selling only to that audience. Other customers outside that group may need your product too. They're just not your top priority when crafting your message.

How To Identify Your Own Target Market

Identifying a target market always comes first when starting a business.

Before developing a business idea, companies must think of what their ideal customer looks like.

Here are four steps that'll help you identify your target market:

1. Examine Your Existing Customers

Examining your existing customers is a great place to start your market identification process.

Who's already interacting positively with your offers and buying your products?

Once you understand your existing audience, you can go after potential customers. Use the same characteristics to improve your message and develop your offers.

2. Pay Attention to What Social Media Analytics Tell You 

Business metrics can differ depending on where your leads are in the sales funnel. 

For instance, some potential prospects may be aware of your services. But, for some reason, they don't use them.

If you're present on social media and you have an active audience, take a closer look at the analytics.

The data will tell you a lot about your audience and what your potential customers want. That will help you identify the next steps you should take.

3. Learn From Your Competitors

It's always useful to assume that your competitors might know something that you don't. So, learning from them and improving on what they do is key to dominating your industry.

You can't test everything by yourself and expect to get all the answers. 

You need to analyse your competitors and see how their audience is interacting with them. Examine their social media posts and the content they create. Scrutinise how their customers interact with them and what they think of their products.

Then, proceed to answer these questions -

What people like and dislike about their work? And what market segments they're neglecting that you can cover?

4. Test Ads on Your Target Audience

Testing ads on a target audience might be the best solution for any company with a budget to run ads.

Running ads allow you to test your offers and messages and present them to different markets. 

Ads allow you to learn a lot about any target market in a short time and for the characteristics of your choosing.

How Can We Help?

Think you missed the mark with who you thought your target market was? Let’s go back to basics and figure out who your true target market is in a free strategy session with us - just give us a call to organise it!

If you’re doing fine, you might want to check out our blog that is frequently updated with the latest updates in marketing - all of which could be affecting your business without you even knowing it.