How to Target the Right Market
Starting or scaling a small business is no easy feat. New business owners have an especially challenging time finding the right crowd to sell their goods and services to. To progress and earn, your business will need to make it’s targeting the right market. This article is our take on how to target the right market for your business.
What Doesn’t Work
A rookie mistake when running a business is trying to target everyone. You simply can’t scale going about it like this. For one, your business likely doesn’t have the budget to market to such a wide audience and another, will you find repeat sales or work.
Alyssa and I made this same mistake when starting out as freelance designers before later establishing Couple of Creatives. Our target market was simply anyone looking for a hired hand. At this early stage in our business, we just wanted work and didn’t care who supplied it to keep the lights on. We offer virtually every creative service we could think of which as a result decreased our worth two-fold.
During this time we still gained clients, but would those clients go on to be repeat clients or referrals for future clients? Are they the type of clients we wanted to be working with long-term? The odds ruled against us.
After some time it became apparent that finding a niché is what actually worked for us. We learned to succeed, we needed to appeal to a particular audience and offer specific services. Since the economy we thrive in is so massive, we needed to break our target market into manageable chunks to get ahead. You can go about this with your own business in a variety of ways of which I’ll discuss in a bit.
Many business owners have told us that they target only small businesses, homeowners, or even specific ethnicities, genders or races. Unfortunately, these markets are still too broad and lead to less reward. When targeting the right market you have to get creative and think long and hard about who your ideal customer is and why they would need to use your goods or services in the first place. Sometimes offering something unique creates a market of its own.
Identify With Your Customer
Say you have customers already. Do you notice any patterns or trends they take when buying from you? What type of customer brings in the most business? These types of customers are the market you should be targeting.
But what if you’re a new business and have zero customers? Taking to the field is your best bet in gaining real feedback about your business. Your goods or services need to prove worthy to your customers. If they can’t put trust in what you offer they will never make a purchase.
Part of this process has to do with the product itself and another part is product placement through good marketing. Humans are creatures of habit and tend to stick to goods and services they trust. This, as a result, means long time commitment which keeps supply and demand alive. Uncovering what keeps your customers coming back is the secret behind any product or service.
Asking a customer directly how you can help solve problems is the best information you can uncover when identifying with your target market.
Please, don’t go blindly into a new venture “hoping” business will come. It won’t. At least not without a marketing plan. Which we, at Couple of Creatives, can help you with.
Market Research
If you are already talking with your customers you can probably also get real data as to why they chose you over a competitor. This is beneficial to see where you stand up in a crowded market.
What Are Your Competitors Doing?
Sadly, we live in a world where there’s always going to be tough competition. In our economy (US) , rarely is it apparent when there is only one source of a good or service provided by a single business (otherwise known as a monopoly). Even if that is the case, as time tells us, it won’t be long before another competitor enters the scene.
Always, and I mean always, be aware of your competitors. Who are your competitors targeting? Is business good? If they are targeting a specific market try to find one they may have overlooked.
You won’t always find the best market on the first try. It may seem like a no-brainer to tailor your business to a specific audience but remember most of your competitors are likely doing the same thing. Try to be unique as possible. If things aren’t working try again.
How to know if you’re in the wrong market
There are a variety of factors that dictate which market is the best fit for your business. Knowing if you’re in the right market is always a challenge unless business is absolutely skyrocketing.
You might be in the wrong market if:
- Sales are low
- No one shows up to your location or knows about you
- You sell to a very large audience with wide varieties of needs
- Your competitors are doing exactly as you are (crowded market)
- Your customers cannot put enough trust in your offerings
- You set up a new shop “hoping” customers will come without actively pursuing them at first
- You don’t offer a “niché” product or service or offer too wide a variety of goods/services
Ways to target your specific market
There are many ways to target your market all of which depend on the market itself. For example, If you are targeting customers online you likely won’t want to run a print campaign just yet. Or even if you are targeting customers online and your sales are mostly in-store, you probably only want to target a specific geo-based location to start with.
Digital Marketing
Display Advertising
Display ads through Google or Bing are great ways to increase your business’s awareness online. You can target specific markets, users, and locations directly.
Blogging
Blogging is a long-term approach to marketing your business. Giving back to the community through written word or even video and audio tend to promote trust in your followers. With a blog, you can combine multiple digital marketing tactics to increase your customer base as well as build your brand. It’s not an easy route but over time it does make a difference. The key is to keep it consistent and provide rich content.
Establishing your business online (Google Business, Bing Places, Yelp, etc…)
Probably the easiest thing you can do for your business is establish it as a “place of business” online with popular search engines like Google or Bing. Yelp is also great for business looking to get real-time feedback from those who have visited their business in person.
Website Presence and Social Media
Not having a website this day and age is unacceptable. Everywhere you look people have some sort of device accessing the internet. If your business doesn’t have a presence on the web you are severely limiting your business’s potential.
The same is true for social media. Facebook and Twitter, in particular, are great social networks to be a part of both to provide information about your business, as well as contact customers directly. Many people take to Twitter for help by asking businesses first hand if they can help solve their problems which is a great way to show empathy towards your customers.
Newsletter Campaigns
Having a newsletter is a great way to provide content, promotions, announcements, and more to your more “loyal” customers. You won’t want to force your customers to opt-in to your newsletter but rather provide them the option to do so. You can do this at convenient times like on your blog or even after a customer makes a purchase. Just don’t force it.
Video
Video will always be more engaging than written word. How many times have you looked up how to do something on YouTube? I use that website often to try to learn new things or solve problems quickly. With YouTube, you can create your very own channel and offer compelling video content for your customers.
It’s hard work to record video but the videos themselves can be relatively short. People that view your videos will then associate with your business/brand and identify with you which promotes the chance of them buying from you again and again.
Direct Marketing
Direct marketing used to be “marketing” but any more the digital realm has taken over. Still, direct marketing tends to yield decent results. If you can combine both digital and direct marketing in for your business you can beat something good is bound to come of it.
Flyers
Flyers are great to share pretty much anywhere. Obviously, you don’t want to litter streets with these but if you put them up in enough locations people will certainly take notice.
Direct Mailers
If you gain customers mailing addresses at some point you can target them by mail. These are great for offering promotions to get customers to come to your business. Coupons, sales, and more are great persuaders.
Billboards
Billboards are an expensive way to get noticed but helps your business thrive on local customers.
Radio Spots
Businesses can sponsor radio programs to get referred to the broadcasting audience. I’m not aware of the return on investment on this tactic but I do know many businesses get a lot of promotion because of it. It’s safe to say that it’s worth investigating at your favorite local area radio station.
Event Sponsorships
Events get put on practically every day by small businesses. They are a great way to attract new customers, current customers, and even like-minded business who may be interested in partnering with you. Most events give something back to those that attend as well as promote a business or cause at the same time.
Where to go from here
Targeting your business’s market is a challenging task. It’s something that evolves as your business evolves. You may offer different products and services as your target market comes to fruition. The key is to test different tactics and relatable markets for a measurable period of time. Going about it in this fashion allows you to compare and contrast your findings to see what is working and what is not.
If route you choose to take doesn’t work after an extended period of time, change something. The digital and direct marketing tactics I mentioned prior are all examples of what actually tends to work for businesses.
Remember to always put your mindset in the eyes of the customer. They, after all, are responsible for your business’s success!
