How Do I Define My Target Market?

Whether you’re thinking about starting up a business or looking for ways to expand your small or medium-sized enterprise, knowing your audience is paramount.

Preaching to the right crowd is pivotal to the growth of any businesses and narrowing down your target market is a process which requires some meticulous consideration.

Why is it so important to define a target audience, we hear you ask…?

For big organisations and businesses with a lot of cash to be splashing around, a blanket approach is more viable. They’ve got the budget, the resource and the wiggle room for error that smaller businesses typically don’t.

When you’re a start-up, micro venture, or even a medium-sized enterprise, the valuable expenditure of time, money and resource is crucial. At this point in your journey, ROI from every single thing you do is a necessity.

In order to ensure your going-to-market strategy is successful and does bring in return on investment, you need to narrow down your niche. Speak to a more defined demographic who are almost certain to engage with your brand, product(s) or service(s).

Our top audience research tips

Evaluate your current customer base

Start with what you already know. Do some granular exploration into who your current customers are, and how they’re interacting with your brand. Look at your findings to decide if this is the route you want to be going down.

Pull out the positives and capitalise on them and where there are negatives, use this to inform your plan of action going forward.

Scrutinise the competition

Seeing where and how other businesses are experiencing success is a great way to get some inspiration. Sign up for competitors’ newsletters, keep a close eye on their social media, and watch out for any events or marketing campaigns.

Once you’ve got a good idea of what the competition is doing and who they’re targeting though, don’t just imitate. Of course, there will be significant overlap, but try to tap into a niche that they may not have thought of or reached yet.

Analyse your web and social media metrics

Metrics and reporting have become increasingly intelligent over the past decade and can provide valuable insight into who your customers are. Google Analytics and social media insights drill down into factors such as age, gender, location and interests. You might be surprised to learn who is viewing you.

Use this information to find out who the people already engaging with you are, and then go about targeting more people in these arenas.

Revisit your mission statement

During this process, make time to revisit your brand values and what it is you stand for. Reconnect with your reason for doing what you do. It should give you a good idea of the kind of customers you should be making a beeline for.

 

For more expert marketing tips and to stay up to date with the latest industry news, check out the Team Organic blog!