Who's Your Target Market?

by James Himm Mitchell, M. A.

This can be one of the most difficult concepts for a business owner to wrap his or her head around: Knowing who their target market is. It's easy to get this confused with who you think your target market is. They aren't always the same thing.

If you run an online business, one way to discover the market that you're actually reaching is to use your website's analytics. By looking at this information, you can see where your visitors are coming from, their age group and what keywords they are using to find your site.

Once you know who your target market is, it will make it much easier for you to advertise to them. You'll know where they are, what places they like to visit, where they live and you will understand their likes, needs and problems.

If you don't take the time to research your target market, your advertising campaigns are just throwing money down the drain. You're blindly trying to attract the right group of people to what you have to offer.

The following are the main reasons why you should discover who your target market is. You'll no doubt agree that it's much easier to market to a defined segment than a much larger, general one.

1. By narrowing down your target market you can position yourself as the expert. This in return will get you more media exposure, more clients and customers and, of course, allow you to increase your prices.
   
2. After researching, you'll know how to reach your audience. This allows you to get in front of them with a clear message that will hold meaning for them. As anyone in business knows, once you present your offer to the right people, your profits will increase.
   
3. Researching allows you to understand your market. You'll learn what their problems are and present them with a solution.
   

The best way to actually define your target market is to research demographics first. This will give you an insight into their age, gender and location. Next, you want to gain insight into their lifestyle choices along with knowing what their profession is.

Put all of this information together and you will have a specific gender of person, along with their age group, their problems and wants. For example, you can now target males and females aged 17 - 21 who are looking for skin care solutions.

Once you have a specific problem or need identified, you can work on how you'll present them with a solution or answer to it. This adds up to you getting in front of the right people at the right time. In return, you'll see an increase in your sales figures.