Target audiences are merely a strategy away
A business needs customers. Plain and simple. But, you, dear business owner, have to take some time and determine who exactly your customers are- your targets, as it were. It’s critical to know what type of person is interested in your products and services.
When I work with businesses, we look at 3 target markets to analyze. Why three, you may ask?
3 is the magic number
I work with three markets as a part of the overall strategy for marketing the business. Three audiences help to really define what your audience can do for people. Each audience is unique in its pain points and needs specialized and often, custom, attention.
Let’s take a quick look at tapping into a target market.
Here are 5 quick questions to explore when you’re building their profiles:
1. Who are they?
A no-brainer, but the first step in identifying who you want to sell to. Go deep. Get details. The more you know, the more you can connect… and sell.
2. What is your target market’s biggest issue or pain point?
Walk in their shoes a minute and discover what they need the most. Can you fill that need?
3. Where do they get information?
If you can determine how they mine the interwebs for info, you are really getting into their heads. If you know where they hang out online, you can be there too. More on that next week.
4. What’s more important to your targets- the benefits or features of your products and/or services?
Most people want to know, “What’s in it for me?” That said, you have to be able to communicate effectively and in a compelling way the benefits of your products and services.
5. How do you keep from sounding phony or “salesy” with your audiences?
Be authentic. Be yourself. Know the kind of language that they speak.
Getting to know your audience in real depth takes time. Creating buyer profiles that you can refer back to is a significant effort, and the output isn’t content that can be shared with customers. But it’s well worth the time to develop this expertise.
Effective marketing is SMART Marketing. Learn more.
Give it a try. See what you can discover and uncover about your target audiences. Let me know if you need support. I would be happy to help!