Why Define Your Target Consumer?

One of the hardest things to do as a small business owner is to define your target consumer. Often times we want to sell our products or services to everyone, all the while, believing that this is the best approach. The thought of targeting fewer people is absurd (one might think). Well, in this post I am going to challenge this line of thinking and hopefully prove to you that taking a more targeted approach will prove to be more profitable.

In order to make the most out of your marketing dollar, it is best to break down your target market into what most call “consumer profiles.” These profiles are created to target specific consumers that are most likely to purchase your product or service.

Your product or service is perfect for some, just not everyone. Let’s take a look at some questions that are going to help you define your target consumer. Keep in mind that if your business offers a diverse range of products or services you will need to repeat this process for each of them, to get the best results. For the sake of this exercise, I would like you to simply focus on one product or service.

The Questions.

Demographics

What is the age range of your target consumer?

What is the Income level of your target consumer?

Is your target consumer confined to a geographic location?

What is your target consumer’s buying habits (think frequency and amount spent)?

Where do your target consumers like to shop?

Psychographics

What does your target consumer value?

What are some of the core beliefs of your target consumers might have in common?

What is the typical attitude of your target consumer?

Does your target consumer have a shared hobby or interest?

Does your target consumer share a typical emotional disposition?

The questions we just looked at are what we would call demographic and psychographic information. Gathering and utilizing this type of information when developing your strategic approach to marketing your products and services is key to the success of any marketing campaign. You might be thinking how am I going to gather this info from my consumers?  I know that the getting your hans on this type of information is tricky. However, here are four suggestions of how you might go about doing that:

(1) Analyze the data from your website traffic. “Google Analytics” is a great tool and resource to start gathering some of this data.

(2) Analyze the results of your most recent Facebook ad campaign. Judging by the success or failure of your ad you should be able to determine if you are targeting the right demographic.

(3) Conduct an in-store survey, you may have to provide an incentive for your consumers to fill it out.

(4) If you are not able to gather any information from the previous three suggestions, you’ll have to make your best guess at it. In other words, you will have to define for yourself who you think your product or services will best serve by answering the aforementioned questions.

Benefits of Defining Your Target Consumer.

There are many benefits to doing the hard work of developing consumer profiles to strengthen your marketing approach. I wanted to quickly touch on some of the key benefits:

Write effective and targeted marketing copy for each campaign.

Select targeted imagery that will draw in your target consumer.

Get more campaign visibility by select which marketing channels your target consumer uses.

In Conclusion.

In conclusion, I am convinced that taking the time to create and develop your consumer profiles is necessary. Therefore, set aside some time today or tomorrow and do your homework. I have attached a downloadable file that you can print with the questions mentioned in this article. Believe me, I do think that it will be well worth your time.