When you sell a product or offer a service, you first have to define your target market. Knowing the people you are selling to can help you determine the most effective way to advertise and market your goods.
- You’ll know where to place your ads and even locate your shop. You’ll know which magazines, newspapers, TV shows, websites, and musical and sporting events to put your ads.
- You’ll be able to create the content that your target market wants to see. This content will be in your website, brochures, ads, and even within your messages on hold scripts and in store music announcements.
- You’ll find the right language to use, with the right terms in the right tone that resonates with these particular people.
- With your target market in mind, you can even forecast any future goods and services that these people are likely to need.
Advertising and marketing are a means of communicating and for effective communication, you have to know whom you’re talking to.
How Do You Define Your Target Market
Defining your target market is an ongoing process that requires research with surveys and other marketing tools. It also requires you to put yourself in the shoes of the people you want to sell to. Find the answers to the following questions:
- How old are they?
- Where do they live?
- Are the male or female?
- What are their jobs and how much do they earn?
- What’s their educational attainment?
- Are they married or single?
- What’s their ethnic background, and what languages do they speak?
- What’s their personality and attitudes like?
- What are their problems?
- What are their goals?
- What drives their actions—and purchasing decisions?
- How do they spend their time?
- What do they read?
- What do they watch?
- What music do they listen to?
The answers to all these questions can affect your entire marketing strategy and the way you set up your advertising. If you know their age, location, and their jobs, you can then tailor your language in a way that resonates with them. It’s one thing to advertise to teenage surfers and biking enthusiasts in the Gold Coast. It’s another thing to communicate with senior citizens in the Hunter Valley.
Understand How Knowing Your Target Market Makes Your Advertising More Effective
Even if you’re selling something that can be used or consumed by many types of people, the way you present the product will be different depending on who you’re targeting. So let’s say you’re offering a simple laundry cleaning product.
- You can appeal to parents of newborns, by offering a cleaning product that’s easy to use, safe for babies and very affordable.
- You can appeal to gearheads by emphasising the product’s ability to get rid of stubborn automotive stains.
- You can entice teenagers into buying your product because it can help make their cool jeans and shirts last longer.
The bottom line is – you need to know your target market so your advertising becomes much more effective.
