One of the most important things someone can do as they grow their business is to identify their market.
It is not uncommon for many people to say, “Everyone” when asked who their market is. Aghhhh. That’s a sure statement of failure… or at least massive frustration as you try to grow your business.
The reality is, not everyone is your market. Or anyone else’s market for that matter.
Be specific
The more specific you can be, the better off you will be. Here’s why…. Identifying your market allows you to be more focused in your marketing, have a much more targeted approach with development of your product and service offerings and be more able to be a solution for your customer/clients problems.
The reality is, people pay you money to help them achieve something. Usually it is the solution to a problem; their pain point or whatever it is that keeps them awake at night.
If you are too vague about who your market is how can you possibly be able to fully understand what their needs are?
Before you invest time, money and effort into growing (or trying to grow) your business answer the following questions.
Answer this
What do you know about your market?
What is their age group?
Gender?
What is their family structure (number of children, extended family, etc.)?
What is their lifestyle like?
Where do they live?
What do they do for a living?
What keeps them awake at night?
How do they like to spend their spare time?
What motivates them?
What do they invest in specific to your offerings?
What are they likely to spend money on?
What is their annual income?
What methods do they prefer for online payment?
What type of web sites, forums and social networks do they visit?
Of course, there are many more questions that beg to be answered, but these are a great start.
This is an ongoing process. Who your market is today may not be who they are a year from now. As you grow and change, so does your market.
Things Change
When I first began my business, my primary market was corporations who needed a trainer for team building, customer service, and leadership. Today, that is not my market.
Today I work with spiritually minded speakers, authors, coaches and consultants who are ready to turn their knowledge and expertise into money-making products and services. Additionally, my clients are very, very interested in learning how to use the Internet in their overall marketing and product and service offerings.
I had no idea I would be an Internet marketing advisor 15 years after I began my business. One reason is, the Internet as we know it today was nonexistant. Nor did I have the expertise I have today to be an Internet marketing advisor. This was a huge part of the evolution of my business.
Changes in my business model and who my target market is changed as I found more and more of what my passion is, who I want to work with, what I want to teach people and what the market demand was and is.
The same will be true for you. Take the time to know who your market is, who you want to do business with and who wants to do business with you. By doing this you are in much more of a position to be an obvious solution for those people who definitely have a need, want and desire for what you do.
In success,
Kathleen Gage
The Street Smarts Marketer
http://www.kathleengage.com
Kathleen, I so appreciate this important reminder!
I sometimes find a client resistant to identifying a niche because they think it will reduce their opportunities, not increase them.
(“What about Oprah? What about Ellen? Do THEY have a narrow niche??” they’ll argue with me.)
I’ll be sharing this post! Thanks again, Kathleen.
Jeannette
Hello Jeannette,
Thank you for your post and comments. Here’s something we can tell all our clients….”Yes, Oprah and Ellen both have niche markets. They’re markets are diverse, open minded and interested in things that make a positive impact in the world.”
There is more to it then that but you can bet that they have a team of researchers studying demographics. After all, they have advertisers who look for target markets and if Oprah, Ellen or any of the big names are not clear on who their shows and information are of interest to, they likely would not have some of the advertising support and viewership they do have.
Great point you made Jeannette.
Kathleen Gage
The Street Smarts Marketer
Kathleen,
I try to explain exactly this to my partner. He is a high tech genius, guru of gurus and an overall wonderful guy who knows nothing about marketing. He wants to use all the social media to drive huge numbers of people to my sites and I’d rather have 10 people come to the site each day – and become clients – than the 10,000 untargeted visitors that he sends me.
Included your link in the weekly blog carnival and stumbled this post.
Unfortunately, many people are stuck in the belief of “the more the merrier” when it comes to marketing.
If someone is doing blanket marketing and getting the results they desire, fantastic. If they continually wonder why they can’t seem to generate the type of business they would like to, that is when they really need to evaluate what they are doing and consider doing it the way many marketing experts recommend.
Kathleen Gage