Know Thy Target Group!
By: Jody Gabourie
You need to understand who they are and what motivates them. You want to paint a picture of who these people are - their habits, vital statistics (demographics), their character or personality (psychographics) and their buying habits.
Let me expand on demographics and psychographics.
Demographics for individuals are their vital stats such as age, gender, marital status, education, income and so on.
In terms of businesses, the demographics would be size of company, type of industry, number of employees, gross sales, geographic locations and so on.
Psychographics are more about what makes a person tick. You can have two 35 year old men with the same basic demographic make-up but they could vary significantly in terms of their outlook, personality etc. For example, traditional versus modern, conservative versus liberal, down-to-earth versus sophisticated, bargain shopper versus impulse buyer, and so on.
Psychographics are usually expressed in terms of adjectives like frugal, homebody, cutting edge, sporty, creative and so on.
The idea is to look at your target groups' demographics, psychographics and anything else you can find out about them, and then distill it down to a descriptive paragraph or two of your target or niche market.
For example, you may be a financial advisor/planner and your niche market is defined as:
Affluent couples in their late 40's - late 50's who live in the New York area and have children. They are looking for specific help with their retirement planning and they intend to retire early. As well, they are interested in legacy issues around the family money and their children, plus the possibility of setting up a charitable foundation. They are well educated, liberal minded and responsible. They support arts and educational endeavors in their city and give generously to various charities that help the city youth.
After reading the above paragraph, you get a pretty good idea of who the target market is. Your descriptive paragraphs could be similar or even more detailed depending on your product and services.
See how you can really paint a picture of your target or niche market? The more detailed you can be, the better marketing message you can craft and the more powerful your marketing communications will be.
You may have a good understanding of your target group already - via past and present experience with clients, research you may have done, or your customer database.
If you don't feel you understand your target or niche group, then talk directly to your clients and ask them. Ask your salespeople or receptionist for any insights they've gained from dealing with customers. Take a look at any client data you may collect and try to figure out patterns and similarities from that.
If you don't have clients yet or don't know a lot about your target group, then do some research. Check out competitors' websites, magazines, trade publications - anything that talks about people in your niche or target group.
Take the time to understand your target or niche group and your marketing and business success will reflect this effort.
Jody Gabourie, The Small Business Marketing Coach, teaches simple, innovative and powerful marketing strategies to help business owners find and keep their most profitable clients. To learn more about how she can help you take your business to the next level, and to sign up for her FREE special report, ezine and articles, visit her site at http://www.JodyGabourieMarketingCoach.com
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