The first step in any successful marketing strategy is understanding your true value to customers, then developing that valuable insight into customer profiles so you can pinpoint the people you need to target. To find out more about the thinking behind this, read our blog here.

Once you understand the importance of audience analysis, it’s time to build an action plan to put them in place so you can grow your business by creating a marketing strategy that delivers tangible results.

Grouping your customers

The first step involves identifying groups of customers so that a profile can be built. It can feel hard to know where to get started with this, but just know that there are no wrong answers, and you will adjust these groupings as you go along.

The kind of factors used to differentiate groups depends on whether your business serves other businesses or consumers.

For B2B, business groupings will often be split according to:

  • Size of company (based on turnover or employees)
  • Industry
  • The position of a person in a company
  • Their attitude

For B2C businesses, demographics of individuals will be more important such as:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Family situation
  • Hobbies
  • Pets

You can create 2 groups or 15; it completely depends on your business.

Thinking beyond your target audience

It’s worth bearing in mind that you don’t need to stick to your ideal customers. For some businesses, it can also be helpful to understand referral partners, as these relationships can result in the best quality leads.

It’s also worth taking the time to understand people you don’t want to do business with, so you can gracefully deal with them and release them back into the world to work with someone who’s a better fit, armed with a clearer understanding of who you serve best. And you never know, they could be a good fit in the future, or be able to send someone your way who is a good match to work with you.

Naming your target market

Give each group a descriptive name so you understand who they are. The names don’t need to be pretty (although they can be if you want!); they just need to be functional and include the elements that matter.

For example:

  • Ladies 40-50, Legal, Partner
  • Young Dads – 18-25 Football Fan
  • SME 10-50 Employees Manufacturing

After grouping customers, focus first on the one that seems most appealing. Then consider:

  • Are there events or situations that prompt each customer group to look for you?
  • What do they want to achieve by using your product or service?
  • What matters most to them?
  • What could hold them back from working with you?

By thinking about these points, you will begin to build a clear picture of who your target market is and what makes them tick. From there you’ll have the information you need to build a detailed profile for each group so you can use this information to create a marketing strategy that produces real results.

Interested in learning more?

Get in touch today for a free marketing consultation to start the process of identifying your key target market and creating a tailored marketing campaign to grow your business.

Think you don’t have time for marketing?

Think you don’t have time for marketing?

Think again!

Join the Ideal Marketing Minute weekly email for your weekly marketing to-do list which can be reviewed in under a minute!

Learn more here, or sign up here.

 

 

You have Successfully Subscribed!