Identifying your target market is the most important first step in increasing brand awareness. Your target market is the group of people you want to sell your products and services to. Understanding who your potential customers are will help you create a successful marketing plan for your business. Here are five tips to help you identify your target market.
Identify the problems you can solve for your target market.
Problems can be stated indirectly by your current customers, potential customers and consumers in your niche market. Customer problems can also be implied indirectly. Common issues not addressed directly by your customers are known as silent needs. Listening to the stated and silent needs of your customer base will help you identify their pain points. Understanding these problems helps you create products and services to meet your customers’ needs.
Identify your ideal customer.
Once you've identified these problems, ask yourself what type of customers can benefit from the products or services you offer. Paint a picture of your ideal customer. Identify demographics such as gender, employment status, industry, income bracket and geographic location. Examine psychographics such as hobbies, values and behaviors. Search Facebook audience insights to determine your customer's demographics, psychographics and online behavioral patterns. Use Google Trends to find search trends in your niche market. This will help you discover the buying habits of your customers. Ask yourself what goals you can help your customers reach by solving the problems you've identified.
Determine which customers will benefit from the problems you aim to solve.
If you can show the benefits of providing solutions to customers most troubled by the problems your products and services solve is more cost effective than not sorting them out, then your marketing plan is more compelling to potential customers. By identifying the factors listed above and using Google Analytics to analyze what types of content consumers click on the most in your niche market, you can create customizable marketing campaigns to build awareness for your brand.
Find your niche market.
Find an industry or line of work you’re passionate about. If you have the particular skill set, knowledge and expertise you need for the area you’re interested in, this is a plus. Use the tools listed above to determine whether or not there’s a market for your area of interest and expertise. Narrow your niche market into sub-categories to find the right niche for your skillset.
Conduct more research to discover your competitors.
Analyze their content marketing plan and campaigns and compare what they offer against your own products and services. This research does two things. First, it helps you determine the problems your customers need to solve. Second, it helps you identify the reasons behind the products and services they offer. What questions can you answer or what solutions do you provide that your competitors don't? Answering these two questions can help you create products and services that make your brand stand out above the crowd.
Outlook Business Solutions can help you identify your target market. Contact us for more details.