According to the all knowing and wise Wikipedia a target market is defined as a group of customers towards which a business has decided to aim its marketing efforts. A well-defined target market is the first element to a marketing strategy.
To us, a target market is the group of people you need to talk to about your products and services. Your target market are the people who need / want your products. They are the right age, gender for your products and ultimately they are the people who will spend their money with you.
So why do you need to know your target market? Why can’t you just put your message out into the world for everyone to see? Well the reality is that although we would all love for our products or services to appeal to the masses you’re more likely to get a better result by getting the ‘right words into the right ears and the right imagery in front of the right eyes’.
One of the very first questions we ask a new client is ‘who is your target market’, it’s called demographics and it’s part of the research you need to do before going into business. The answer could be a specific gender, age group or even a geographical area but knowing the answer to this question allows us to better target your media. It helps us to choose the mediums that your target market are most likely to interact with, ensuring that your message gets to the right people at the right time, it also allows you to target specific messages and promotions to a particular target making the results more effective.
One thing to remember is that you might have multiple target markets. This isn’t a bad thing but you must understand that you need to speak to them all individually – you won’t necessarily get the result you want by giving the same message through the same medium to everyone.
A question we are sometimes asked is “how do you figure out who your target market is?”. There are a few things to think about when searching for the types of people who are most likely to buy from you. The people who it’s worth aiming your marketing at who will spend their money with you.
Firstly, you should look at your existing customer base. Who already spends with you and what are they like? Then think about the type of person who can gain the most from your product or services.
Then dig a little deeper: where do these people hang out, what do they do in their spare time, who do they aspire to be like, what do they have in common, what annoys and worries them, how do they spend money, is age an important factor in buying your products / services, what clubs do they belong to, what do they read, are they involved in social media, what do they watch / listen to, what are they afraid of and what motivates them? This information can help you talk to them directly.
You not only need a solid understanding of your customers and their needs and desires, but you also need to know yourself pretty well too. What products or services do you offer? How do they benefit your customers? Do they benefit different customers in different ways?
Ask yourself whether your product has different uses, could you create other products / services that your current customers would be interested in.
Beyond all of this remember the obvious – if something is working for you keep refining it and keep at it!!
Once you know who it is you’re going after then you can begin to design a plan around how you will market to them so they can see you, begin to learn who you are, and get to liking you so they come and buy from you
Target who you are after and you will know how to reach them easier and find that you won’t have to invest so much into your marketing to get the results you want.
You’ll be more focused, more effective in your marketing strategies and be able to get a greater return on your marketing investment.
Sources:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/answer/222022
http://www.verticalresponse.com/blog/how-to-find-your-target-market/