Target marketing is a way to narrow down who your audience is across each of your chosen marketing channels.
As a small business owner, you may sometimes feel overwhelmed by the many aspects of running your business. One of the most important aspects, however, is marketing. Marketing helps you reach your target audience and sell your products or services. To succeed in marketing, it is important to understand the core principles of marketing. Understanding these principles is a great place to begin your journey in marketing as a small business owner.
If you don’t know who your target audience is, then you need to step back and figure it out before you spend any time or money on advertising or marketing to the wrong people.
Recently, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts and heard a marketing strategist discussing target audiences. The conversation went like this: “I was on a call this morning with a prospective client. And I said, ‘So tell me about your target audience.’ And he said, ‘Oh, well, we work with everybody from A to Z. I mean, it’s startups and billion-dollar companies.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, we can’t work together.’”
What the hell?! As a marketing strategist, this really made me pause and wonder what type of strategic agency she has.
Why did this happen? Because the potential client misunderstood the concept of a target audience. Your target audience is not everyone. The more you can understand your target audience and whittle that list down to the people who are your ideal customers, the shorter the sales cycle will be. Instead of turning away the potential client, the strategist could have taken the time to educate them on how to have effective marketing.
So, who is your target market? Who is your ideal customer? It’s not simply anyone who might buy your product or service. And it is not something you can guess at. It’s the person who, if they could choose anyone on the planet to walk in your door tomorrow, would be that person. How do you know how to talk to YOUR ideal customer? It takes research to understand who they are. Ask yourself:
Understanding your target audience helps you craft a message that speaks directly to them. For instance, if your ideal customer is a health-conscious, environmentally-aware millennial, your marketing message should reflect those values. If your ideal customer is a busy executive who values efficiency, your marketing message should reflect that.
To help you figure out how to talk to your ideal customer, I’ve created a free workbook download called Finding the Voice of the Customer. This workbook will walk you step-by-step to find the voice you should use with your ideal customer.
In conclusion, marketing for small businesses is all about understanding the core principles of marketing. Knowing your target audience and crafting a message that speaks directly to them is key to effective marketing. Take the time to figure out who your ideal customer is and hone your message accordingly. And if you need help along the way, don’t hesitate to reach out.