How to Find and Define Your Target Market

Finding a target market is one of the important key of your business growth. It is understandable that in the beginning we just want the highest profit by reaching people as much as possible, but selecting the right target will actually boost the engagement of your product rapidly.

Realistically, there is no single business that applies for everyone, especially the new, small one. Even a product that has been exported to hundreds countries still have some people disliking it. What a great businessperson do is to focus on their target market to optimize the sales. Therefore, defining your target market is tremendously important.

Dibb and Simmkin(1) describes how to define target as market segmentation. According to them,

Finding the specific target market is very important because, as the groups of people have different needs, if we want to reach too many kinds of groups, we will end up dishearthening people of each or all groups. Our brand will end up being unappealing.

Defining your target market is not really a one-time decision making. Take your time for several hours or days to decide, and ask the opinion of your team or your potential market.

Here are some points to consider in finding and defining your target market:

1. Set up some questions, and answer them all

If your product is fashion, for example, you need to be able to answer series of questions as shown below:

Some of the questions above may surprise you but deep investigation is important for future business strategy, that you may not imagine today. So, the more questions answered is mostly the better.

2. Formulate your questions into a definition, but be specific

The questions above can be more/less depending on your decision, but generally, the more specific you ask yourself and answer precisely, the better. You can't just wrap up your target market by saying that your product is for women.

You should really say that your target market is women in the 20-35 age, working in the creative industries, that are care about environmental issues, and has $500-2000 income. Or you should say that you're aiming companies that sell electronics in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and have sales over $ 10 millions or more.

Again, the more specific it is, the better. These target markets are also called niches, that once you decide, you will be able to spot on better prospects. Knowing your niche better will also make it easier for you to describe your business to people who work with you, like your legal consultant, strategic consultant, or your copywriter. That way, they will come with a more specific approach that fits your business.

3. Do the research to people

The best way to define your target market is by setting up a questionnaire to the people in the community you are targeting. You can set up some question and send it to people in your contacts, through Google Docs or social media.

You can also see some demographic, customer research made by some other foundations, companies, or universities. Whatever the method you choose, make sure that your target market is decided not just from your own point of view, but based on some reliable data.

4. Evaluate

The target market you proposed for your own company might not be final in the first stage. In fact, a good target market research has to be tested and evaluated. Make further questionaire research and observe again the result within 3, 4 or 6 months, depending on your situation.

Speaking of copywriting in defining target market, sometimes the copywriter can help you decide becase the person is/was also in some business. They could know how to plan a strategy, as early as setting the target before launching the advertisement. If you want to talk about how to grow your business and need a copywriter to set up an accurate campaign, you can talk to us here.

References:

1. Dibb, S., and Simkin, L., 1996. The Market Segmentation Workbook: Target Marketing for Marketing Managers. Cengage Learning EMEA