So sure, you now know you need to discover your target market and then sell to them, but where are these people anyway? The biggest most important question most people ask about targeting their marketing is where to find their market after they’ve identified who their target market is.
It’s actually fairly easy to find your customers; it just takes a little work and some outside of the box thinking. Here are a few questions you should ask yourself to help you identify who your target market is and where to find them:
• Are you targeting business or consumer sectors?
• Where is your target audience located?
• What do they think about your current brand?
• What would you like them to think about your brand?
• How will you attract them to your products or services?
• Who else is competing for their loyalty and devotion?
If you’ve already identified who your target market is then you should know what interests them and that’s key to discovering where to find them.
Here are just a few places you should be frequenting in order to connect with your target market:
Community forums on a common topic that interests them
If you sell wedding favors you should be frequenting community forums where people go to find answers to their wedding planning questions. Casually introduce yourself and why you are an expert (you own a wedding favors shop and have seen many brides with the same issue as the bride asking the question) and then try to answer their questions.
Caution: Don’t include a sales pitch or you will not gain favor.
What will happen is people will see you as a business person who is genuinely trying to help and they will then be curious about your business.
Topical blogs
Yes you should have a blog that discusses topics of interest to your target audience but you should also be visiting blogs and commenting there too. For example if you sell wedding favors visit other related sites, like flowers, or wedding planning sites (probably not a good idea to visit your competitors’ sites) and comment on the comments. That is, if someone comments on the blog post or asks questions add to their conversation in a helpful way, much like on the community forums.
Spy on your competition
OK I mean this in the very best way possible. I truly believe that there are plenty of customers to go around that there shouldn’t be anything more than a “friendly” competition with your competitors. But that said check out what some of your more successful competition is doing in terms of reaching their market. Let their actions inspire you to find ways to reach customers in your own way.
Gain allies
Develop relationships with people in your niche or a similar niche and ask them what works for them. The relationship should go both ways though with you being willing to offer advice on anything you’ve learned as well.
Social Media
Join social media pages about topics that interest your customers. Better yet, create a Facebook or Pinterest community page in addition to your business page. A community page should be about your niche and it should be a place where anyone can share information and ideas.
Finding your target market may seem a little elusive at first but knowing who they are, will help you discover where they are. Who is your target market?
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