When it comes to your business’s marketing strategy, if you try to speak to everyone then you won’t end up reaching anyone. That’s why, before launching a new product or marketing campaign, you’ll first need to determine your target audience. Who wants and needs what you have to offer?
Target marketing breaks down the larger market into smaller segments to reach a specific group likely to want and purchase your product or service. In this way, businesses can identify their customers and develop effective marketing strategies that turn strangers into customers.
Figuring out Your Customers
Target audience is really another way of saying potential customers. Not everyone wants what you have to offer. Knowing the type of person who would have an interest in your product or service shapes your marketing strategies. So you want to make sure you know as much as you can about who your audience is before starting your marketing.
Your goal as a business is to identify people who are looking for what you’re offering and meet them at their point of need. The more you know your target audience, the better you can meet their needs. At minimum, you should have a general idea of their characteristics.
To make it simple, you can define your target market using four types of market segmentation: demographic, behavioral, psychographic, and geographic.
Demographic Segmentation
Demographic market segmentation divides the general population according to factors such as age, gender, race, religion, education level, marital status, or income level.
You can understand demographic segmentation by looking at the automobile industry. For example, luxury car brands like BMW and Porsche sell cars at a high price point, so they target consumers in a high income bracket.
Teenagers primarily choose Adidas as a sneaker brand, but athletic adults as a whole prefer Nike. A business selling both would then base their marketing segmentation on these types of customer demographics.
Questions to ask to determine demographic segmentation:
- What age range do your ideal customers fall into?
- How much do your ideal customers earn?
- What education level do your ideal customers have?
- Are your ideal customers male, female, or doesn’t it matter?
Behavioral Segmentation
Behavioral market segmentation breaks down your target audience according to their behaviors and decision-making processes.
This approach to marketing segmentation became particularly popular during the rise of the smartphone. Blackberry tended to target business people while Samsung targeted users who prefer using free apps on Android devices. Meanwhile, Apple marketed its iPhone to premium customers who preferred quality over savings.
Behavioral segmentation could also consider behaviors during a specific shopping season. For example, businesses should take into consideration how people shop during the Christmas season. Does your target audience look for deals a month prior on Black Friday or wait until the last minute to buy presents the week before Christmas? Others may wait for after-Christmas sales.
Questions to ask to determine behavioral segmentation:
- What are your customers’ usage habits?
- How do your customers spend their time, money, and other resources?
- What kind of purchasing habits do your customers have?
Psychographic Segmentation
Psychographic market segmentation looks at the values, interests, opinions, social classes, and lifestyle of a particular group of people. Psychographic and behavioral segmentation are quite similar, but the psychographic approach looks more into the psychological motivations behind consumer behaviors. Behavioral segmentation targets how to lead a consumer to purchase while psychographic segmentation discovers how a brand fits into the customers’ lives.
Questions to ask to determine psychographic segmentation:
- What does your target audience value in their lives?
- What kind of pain points do your customers face?
- What factors would keep potential customers from hesitating to buy your product?
- How can you bring value to your customers’ lives?
Geographic Segmentation
Geographic market segmentation explores where your customers live. Localization depends on the reach of your business. For example, a small business like a hair salon will target a specific region or nearby area code while a manufacturer of car parts may market on a national or international scale.
A good example is selling lawnmowers. You’ll want a suburban or rural geographic market where your product is more likely to meet the needs of the customers over an urban market where demand may be less. Another example might be bicycles. Urban customers will be looking for different bikes than customers living in the mountains, so segmenting marketing according to location will result in higher sales.
Questions to ask to determine geographic segmentation:
- What are the location-based attributes of your target market?
- How will your product be used in different locations?
How to Find Your Target Audience
Businesses can rely on various strategies and tools to answer questions about their target audience. Customer surveys reveal the exact information you’re looking for, and customer reviews give clues of what’s important to your customers.
You can take a look at your current customers. Digital marketing tools can reveal your target audience demographics. For example, analytic reports from your website traffic or social media pages will show the average age, location, and gender of your visitors. You can also observe the competition and their current customers.
Web Graphics, Inc. can take the mystery and time-consuming research out of finding your target audience. We’re able to quickly and expertly identify your ideal customers and put your messaging in front of them, so you effectively reach the right customers.
Give us a call now at 800 932 7746 and ask for a free website analysis.