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On a very well known business reality TV show, one of the candidates was launching a new range of greetings cards.
"Who's your target audience?" asked the head buyer, quite justifiably.
"Everybody" came back the reply.
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The sad thing is, I hear this time and time again in the small business world. If you run your own small business, then arguably anyone could be your customer. But...
...the fact of the matter is that they’re not! They could be. But they're not.
Get this drilled into your brain, and then take a deep sigh of relief and relax in the knowledge that your marketing is about to become a whole lot easier.
You see, your job, through learning "how to do this marketing" stuff, is to learn to how to identify your customer or client, and ultimately where to find them.
And this is it…this is your Secret Key to Your Business Success.........
The secret key that unlocks the mysteries of making marketing work (and thus making your business a success) is knowing precisely who your target market is.
“Target market” (or “target audience”), by the way, is just fancy marketing speak for the client or customer who’s best suited to buying, and is most likely to buy, from your business…and the one that you’d most like to deal with.
Actually, it's not so much of a secret...it's standard practice in the marketing world to profile target markets. But it's something that is very rarely done in the small and home business world. So get right ahead of the game, and learn how to use this "secret".
So....who is YOUR target market? Who is it that buys your product or service? Who is it that would buy your product or service if only they knew about you? Who is it that you’d like to buy from you? (Ah…interesting question…and not necessarily the same answer as the one to the previous question. Think about it!).
You absolutely must spend some time profiling your target market fully, and do the research so that you can profile them. You don’t just want to know their age and gender – you also want to know about their likes and dislikes, their habits, their interests and hobbies, their lifestyle, their feelings and so on. Make them your new best friend – because you should get to know them on this kind of level.
Once you know WHO your target market is, you can find out exactly WHERE they are.
And once you find out where they are, marketing to these people, and ultimately talking directly to interested people who want to know about you and your business becomes very simple.
So, working on finding out who your target market is should be one of the very first things you do with your business. It's absolutely critical to your business success: if you want to open the door to success in your business, then you probably need a key.
And this is it.
Speak to any professional marketer or creative about marketing a product or service, and the first thing that they will ask you is:
"Who's your target market?".
And you'd better not answer "Everybody"!
“To have great poets, there must be great audiences too.”
Walt Whitman