Knowing who your customers are can be the thing that makes or breaks a business. 14% of businesses that fail do so because they don’t know who their clients are according to a study from CB Insight.
If you want to be able to keep going with your new business idea, you need to know who it is that you are selling to. When it comes to website design, you need to make sure that your site meets your customers’ needs and preferences, and that your marketing campaign is targeted right at them.
Identifying who it is that you want to target can be done in two ways – with a general understanding or through secondary research. For example, if you are selling baby clothes, then you can have a general understanding that you are targeting mums-to-be in the UK. The secondary research would be looking at the industry, your competitors and so forth.
Define your audience specifically. Look at age, gender, hobbies, job description, etc. Work out their motivations as this will help you to create a message that shows them how you can help them reach their goal.
If you are selling a niche item or service it is easier to target your audience correctly. However, that isn’t to say that a broad market doesn’t have its own wide niche. This could be based on age or gender, for example.
How to Develop Your Marketing Strategy for Your Target Audience
Once you’re ready to launch, you can target your audience effectively by following these steps.
- Low budget ad campaign – A soft launch with a test campaign can be a helpful way to define your audience properly, and with some A/B testing, you can develop your message so that it really strikes the target audience well.
- Work out the right time and place – Your audience will be better reached at a specific time. If you are in retail, then peak sales periods may be what works best for you. If you are running a website for children, then the start of the summer holidays might be the best time to launch.
Make sure you are promoting your site on the channels that your target audience is using. Try to reach opinion leaders in your niche, industry blogs or thematic forums. PR is another great way to reach out to the right people, although it does take time and effort.
- Analyse and customise – Keep analysing and assessing your marketing efforts as you go along. This will ensure that you are getting the most ROI for your efforts.
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