Identifying Your Target Market

Identifying your target market is the most important thing you can do for your business. You have to understand who your customers are and where to find them in order to be successful.

The first step in identifying your target market is to understand what your products/services have to offer to a group of people or businesses. To do this, identify your product or service's features and benefits. A feature is a characteristic of a product/service that automatically comes with it.

Here’s an example, if toothpaste has a stain-removing formula - that's a feature. The benefit to the customer, however, is whiter teeth.

While features are valuable and can certainly enhance your product, benefits motivate people to buy.

An example is anti-lock brakes; they are features on a car, but the benefit to the consumer is safety.

By knowing what your product/service has to offer and what will make customers buy, you can begin to identify common characteristics of your potential market.

For example, there are many different consumers who desire safety as a benefit when purchasing a car. Rather than targeting everyone in their promotional strategy, a car manufacturer may opt to target a specific group of consumers with similar characteristics, such as families with young children.

Now is the time to renew your customer database and determine who your target audience is. The next step is segmentation or breaking down that market so that you can very specific as to whom the solution is provided.

Parts taken from an article by the Edward Lowe Foundation.