How to Find Your Target Market
Posted on June 12, 2010 | No Comments
Temi Adew asked:
How to find your target market? First of all, make sure your service or product matches what your clients need.
Marketers have always told business people to focus on needs. A better step would be to think of what problems exist so your business can help solve those problems.
How this works: For instance, if you’re trying to sell to small business owners, make a list of what problems they have. Then you need to narrow down the list to which particular small business group the problem applies to. Next determine how your business can solve that problem.
An example of a small business group is freelancers, who have their own particular set of problems. Here’s a list below. How could your business solve these problems?
**** invoicing clients **** selling their services to clients Don’t like to network Don’t know how to price services Lack motivation Lack organization skills Working in isolation Need help finding constant streams of work
Here’s how different companies find their target market by determining their problems of the group they want to sell to, then finding the solution.
Problem: **** invoicing clients: Freshbooks carved itself a niche when it created invoicing software that freelancers could use to track their time effectlvely. Clients could see how much work the freelancer had done. Freshbooks also allowed them to invoice the clients directly.
Problem: don’t like to network: I secretly believe Twitter was set up so business people who **** to network could get around this sometimes unpleasant, but necessary task. Selling yourself in just 140 characters? Perfect!
Problem: working in isolation: Why do countless coffee houses have comfortable chairs, nice tables, delicious snack food and free WIFI access? They’ve identified the niche they want to attract – people who need the mental stimulation of others as a place in which to work. These customers come often, spend often and even have their clients come to meet them there – bringing in more business for the coffee house. Same goes for co working spaces. If you have a home office, you sometimes need the mental stimulation of others.
Only when you have found a problem that you can solve for a specific target market should you start creating products or services around that need.
Quick steps to help you find a target market
Be a part of the target market. One of the easiest ways to understand the problems of a potential market is to have that problem yourself. It’s not absolutely necessary that you be in your target market, but it is necessary that you figure them out and get to know them well. Research keywords. A great online tool for research is Google’s Keyword search tool. Type in your idea and see if enough numbers come up to justify your pursuing the idea. Research problems for their popularity. Are there existing magazines, books, products and services geared towards solving problems already? Think about pain. What itch needs a scratch? What are people frustrated about? What are your frustrations? Survey people you know to get an idea of what they are frustrated about.
By finding the problems first, you gain an advantage on others trying to find a target market. You will be way ahead of other business owners who choose a product or service first and then and then try to find a market to sell it to.
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How to find your target market? First of all, make sure your service or product matches what your clients need.
Marketers have always told business people to focus on needs. A better step would be to think of what problems exist so your business can help solve those problems.
How this works: For instance, if you’re trying to sell to small business owners, make a list of what problems they have. Then you need to narrow down the list to which particular small business group the problem applies to. Next determine how your business can solve that problem.
An example of a small business group is freelancers, who have their own particular set of problems. Here’s a list below. How could your business solve these problems?
**** invoicing clients **** selling their services to clients Don’t like to network Don’t know how to price services Lack motivation Lack organization skills Working in isolation Need help finding constant streams of work
Here’s how different companies find their target market by determining their problems of the group they want to sell to, then finding the solution.
Problem: **** invoicing clients: Freshbooks carved itself a niche when it created invoicing software that freelancers could use to track their time effectlvely. Clients could see how much work the freelancer had done. Freshbooks also allowed them to invoice the clients directly.
Problem: don’t like to network: I secretly believe Twitter was set up so business people who **** to network could get around this sometimes unpleasant, but necessary task. Selling yourself in just 140 characters? Perfect!
Problem: working in isolation: Why do countless coffee houses have comfortable chairs, nice tables, delicious snack food and free WIFI access? They’ve identified the niche they want to attract – people who need the mental stimulation of others as a place in which to work. These customers come often, spend often and even have their clients come to meet them there – bringing in more business for the coffee house. Same goes for co working spaces. If you have a home office, you sometimes need the mental stimulation of others.
Only when you have found a problem that you can solve for a specific target market should you start creating products or services around that need.
Quick steps to help you find a target market
Be a part of the target market. One of the easiest ways to understand the problems of a potential market is to have that problem yourself. It’s not absolutely necessary that you be in your target market, but it is necessary that you figure them out and get to know them well. Research keywords. A great online tool for research is Google’s Keyword search tool. Type in your idea and see if enough numbers come up to justify your pursuing the idea. Research problems for their popularity. Are there existing magazines, books, products and services geared towards solving problems already? Think about pain. What itch needs a scratch? What are people frustrated about? What are your frustrations? Survey people you know to get an idea of what they are frustrated about.
By finding the problems first, you gain an advantage on others trying to find a target market. You will be way ahead of other business owners who choose a product or service first and then and then try to find a market to sell it to.
Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress