Know Thy Target Group!

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You need to understand who they are and what motivates
them. You want to paint a picture of who these people are
- their habits, vital statistics (demographics), their
character or personality (psychographics) and their buying
habits.

Let me expand on demographics and psychographics.

Demographics for individuals are their vital stats such as
age, gender, marital status, education, income and so on.

In terms of businesses, the demographics would be size of
company, type of industry, number of employees, gross
sales, geographic locations and so on.

Psychographics are more about what makes a person tick.
You can have two 35 year old men with the same basic
demographic make-up but they could vary significantly in
terms of their outlook, personality etc. For example,
traditional versus modern, conservative versus liberal,
down-to-earth versus sophisticated, bargain shopper versus
impulse buyer, and so on.

Psychographics are usually expressed in terms of adjectives
like frugal, homebody, cutting edge, sporty, creative and
so on.

The idea is to look at your target groups’ demographics,
psychographics and anything else you can find out about
them, and then distill it down to a descriptive paragraph
or two of your target or niche market.

For example, you may be a financial advisor/planner and
your niche market is defined as:

Affluent couples in their late 40’s – late 50’s who live in
the New York area and have children. They are looking for
specific help with their retirement planning and they
intend to retire early. As well, they are interested in
legacy issues around the family money and their children,
plus the possibility of setting up a charitable foundation.
They are well educated, liberal minded and responsible.
They support arts and educational endeavors in their city
and give generously to various charities that help the city
youth.

After reading the above paragraph, you get a pretty good
idea of who the target market is. Your descriptive
paragraphs could be similar or even more detailed depending
on your product and services.

See how you can really paint a picture of your target or
niche market? The more detailed you can be, the better
marketing message you can craft and the more powerful your
marketing communications will be.

You may have a good understanding of your target group
already – via past and present experience with clients,
research you may have done, or your customer database.

If you don’t feel you understand your target or niche
group, then talk directly to your clients and ask them.
Ask your salespeople or receptionist for any insights
they’ve gained from dealing with customers. Take a look at
any client data you may collect and try to figure out
patterns and similarities from that.

If you don’t have clients yet or don’t know a lot about
your target group, then do some research. Check out
competitors’ websites, magazines, trade publications -
anything that talks about people in your niche or target
group.

Take the time to understand your target or niche group and
your marketing and business success will reflect this
effort.

About the Author:

Jody Gabourie, The Small Business Marketing Coach, teaches
simple, innovative and powerful marketing strategies to
help business owners find and keep their most profitable
clients. To learn more about how she can help you take
your business to the next level, and to sign up for her
FREE special report, ezine and articles, visit her site at
http://www.JodyGabourieMarketingCoach.com