In-store or online, substantial traffic with a low conversion rate often points to an obvious but fixable problem: you simply aren’t attracting the right people to sell to. In other words, you haven’t found your target market.
Whether you are in e-commerce, are a brick-and-mortar retailer, or are a service provider, knowing who your target market is and catering to their needs will undoubtedly help your business.
Discover Your Target Market’s Demographics
Knowing your target market’s basic demographics should be the first priority. To do this, first, think of the market as a single person (known as a marketing persona). Then, give your person a name, age, geographical location, career and income level, gender, and a handful of personality characteristics.
Of course, you won’t pull these demographics out of thin air. Your persona will reflect the customer most likely to buy your product/service.
Food On The Table is an Austin-based startup that began with nothing more than a target market assumption. To test this assumption, the founders shadowed a mom for three weeks as she did her shopping. She used coupons and adhered to a strict meal planning routine, which automatically made her an interesting potential customer for their business.
Her feedback gave the founders insights that helped to form the first version of their website. Within a year, it had a million users. The following year, the business was acquired by the Food Network, proving that talking to customers and gaining real-life feedback can give startups the edge against lesser-informed competitors.
The initial demographics, in this case, were merely assumptions. The founders looked for a female with children, as this was likely going to be their general target market. They also wanted someone on a slightly lower income who had an interest in meal planning and saving money. Shadowing a woman who fit the basic criteria helped them create a robust customer persona.
Doing this kind of on-the-ground research can help you determine your target market, too.
Market Research Matters
When your business is ready to take shape, market research becomes crucial in various ways. Product and service development, marketing strategies, and sales techniques are just some of the features that rely on great market research analysis.
Hiring a market research company, which can be expensive, isn’t the only option.
Using something like Facebook Insights can give you essential demographic information relating to who is responding well to your business’s Facebook activity. For example, if you launch a video promotion and track its progress, you can see certain customer characteristics relating to engagement (e.g., geographical location, age bracket, and gender). Facebook is a haven of data when you know how to utilize it properly.
Social media platforms are not only a fantastic way of gathering data, but they can also be used to push content to the right target market. For example, Instagram tends to be popular with younger audiences and has a huge focus on video—more so than, say, Twitter. Therefore, video content does better on Instagram, while lengthier word-based updates can go on Facebook or Twitter instead. The result? Better engagement and more conversion.
Working with the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center nearest you will give you access to the high-quality work of experienced market researchers at no cost.
Where third-party market research can cost quite a bit of money, small business clients can receive the full benefit of thorough, professional research from the ASBTDC, all for free.
Furthermore, this market research can feed into your social media findings as well, helping you to better visualize which platforms your target market is most likely to use and enabling you to use those platforms to your advantage.
Expand Your Customer Knowledge Through Facebook Groups
Facebook groups with themes relating to your business are filled with potential customers and their crucial feedback, making them a great tool for exploring your target market.
Let’s say, for example, your business sells dieting and slimming products. There’s an abundance of Facebook groups relating to health, diet, and slimming—all you need to do is find the groups, join them, and engage in their conversations.
Doing this will keep you up to date with industry and competitor trends, customer preferences, and customer values, as well as their aspirations, fears, challenges, and needs. Using Facebook groups for research also a great option if you are on a tight budget.
Furthermore, it will help you build an even more detailed marketing persona.
Your ideal customer might have an interest in things like natural and organic foods, or a dislike of quick-fix diet pills. They may prefer watching tutorial videos on cooking healthy food, but dislike influencer-style body-shaming. Always keep learning about your target market and apply what you learn.
There are so many niche subjects you can sink your teeth into when you join a Facebook group related to your industry. Go carefully though, as many of these groups are run by competitors. You may even consider starting a Facebook group yourself to stay up with the competition.
Get Expert Target Market Advice
If you are in the midst of setting up or growing a business, you are already very busy in establishing your market presence. Remember, though, that it can help for experts in the fields of business development, entrepreneurship, and sales and marketing to lend a hand.
At the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center, we work with small businesses to help you fulfill your maximum market potential. This includes helping business owners identify the needs of your target markets.
Failing to properly plan and target the right customers can set businesses up to fail from the outset. That’s why we do all we can to help you prepare and succeed.
To give your business the best chance of blooming into a lucrative market leader, get in touch with us today. Visit us online, or call 800-862-2040, and we’ll aid you in reaching your business goals!