As a small business owner, you almost certainly know just that marketing to market your products and services is important. But just throwing dollars towards advertising won’t allow you to get the outcomes you’re looking for. You’ve to ensure you’re getting the message to the right people!
Why is defining your small business’s target market or client demographic so critical? Because those target clients are where your marketing dollars should go farthest. Those are the people that fit your product or service; they’re those whose attention you wish to get.
Conversely, you can waste marketing dollars if the incorrect demographics are seeing your ads. If you’re selling iPhone cases with popular internet memes to them, you do not need to spend marketing dollars on the over-70 set. And if you’re selling a hair dye designed for covering up grays, you do not need to spend marketing dollars on the under-30 set.
Your target market and customer demographic will undoubtedly be based on which products you sell, what services your business provides, and what your customers value.
Demographics provide key insights into what type of people would take advantage of your business. This crucial information can allow you to target your advertising and social media platforms to achieve those individuals, thus building a tougher brand and a correctly targeted audience.
This sounds like too much to sift through, but it’s a lot simpler than you might think.
Defining Your Small Businesses’Target Market Demographics
The first step to defining your social media audience is nailing down your customers ‘or clients ‘demographics. Here is the easiest place to begin since, as a small company owner, you’re likely already very familiar along with your clients or customers.
Make a set of the overt, obvious characteristics of one’s clients or customers. As an example, if you run an e-commerce infant or toddler’s clothing shop, your customers could be “parents of young children who shop online.” If you have a pool cleaning business, your customers could be “people or businesses which have pools on the property.”
See if you’re able to slot your target customers into categories like:
- Age Range
- Gender
- Ethnicity
- Education Level
- Occupation
- Income Level
- Marital/Family Status
By answering these important issues, you will be able to put together a demographic profile of your current customers.
Define Your Business’Target Market Psychographics
Once you’ve been able to put together a clear mental picture of your customers or clients demographics profile, it’s time to expand that profile to incorporate your potential customer psychographics.
What is psychographics? psychographics are “understand[ing] where do [customers or clients] hang out, what do they read, what do they pay attention to, what do they search online, why is them tick, what triggers them to go looking for a solution.”
By defining your potential audiences ‘psychographic profile, you’ll manage to create targeted advertising to improve your marketing. When considering your customers ‘psychographic profile, you wish to view their hobbies and interests, lifestyles, and personalities.
One method to gain valuable insight into your customers ‘or clients ‘psychographics is by considering questions like:
- What do your customers or clients like?
- What do your customers or clients dislike?
- What values do your customers or clients share?
- Where do they manage to get their news?
- Where do they manage to get their entertainment?
- What do they read or pay attention to?
- How can your products or services better their lives?
- What are their pain points?
Answering these key questions can help you define your customers ‘or clients ‘psychographics, you’ll receive a feeling of what kinds of marketing they’ll respond to and what elements of your product or service you’ll need to highlight to have their attention.
Conclusion
Defining your target market is a smart part of any small company owners ‘marketing plan. Conducting background research, articulating your demographics, and exploring how to achieve those demographics can help boost your sales.
