5 Steps for Figuring Out Your Target Market and How to Market to Them
If you are responsible for digital marketing for your company, you are probably aware how important it is to connect with your target audience. You can look at this core group of people in two different ways. They can be defined as the customers who are currently buying from your company, or they can be defined as the customers that your company would like to attract. Discovering who they really are can help you reach them better, and it can also help you set goals for company growth.
Look at Who Is Currently Buying
You may think you know who is currently buying your product, but you need several pieces of data to back up what you believe. You need to identify their gender, their income, their age and where they live. You also need to know when they shop online and their particular pain points. There are several different ways you can identify your target customers. As Top Nonprofits suggests, you may want to send some of them a survey with their next order and give them a coupon to use on a future purchase in exchange for answering your questions. The more that you understand about your target audience, the more successful your marketing will be in the future.
Is There Room for Growth?
If you are looking to grow your business, you need to compare the number in your target audience to the size of that market overall. For example, perhaps you sell products to American teens and have 30,000 customers, but statistics from the Office of Population Affairs show that there are 42 million teens in America. Therefore, you know that you still have lots of room for growth with your marketing strategy. On the other hand, if you sell rabbit carriers, your customer base may be 3,000 breeders. If statistics show that there are only 3,500 breeders in total, you can deduce that you need to widen your product base.
Research the Competition
You should also study your competition. Some tools will help you analyze who has connected to your competitors’ social media accounts. You may also find white papers that state who these companies see as their target audience. Once you have figured out who that is, you can identify gaps in that group that your competition has missed. Think about what sets your company apart from each of your competitors and identify strong marketing messages that may persuade customers to change companies based on their value system.
Use Google Analytics
If most of your sales come through your website, you should use Google Analytics to discover more about your current customer base. Google Analytics can provide you with lots of helpful information. After installing Google Analytics on your website, you can then employ a tracking code. Once this is done, return to Google Analytics and click on the “audiences” link. At the bottom of the page, you can customize your report based on different demographics. This will tell you who is visiting your website, and if you click on “acquisitions,” you’ll also learn who is buying through it. Comparing these two reports may show you which customers are leaving your site without making a purchase, and that could help you expand your target audience.
Create a Lead Magnet
A lead magnet is an inducement you can provide to lure potential customers. In exchange for this incentive, they will gladly give you their email or other contact information. In order to do this, you must identify the target audience in your niche, determine their pain points and present a solution. This will usually be downloadable content. It could be in the form of a PDF report, an instructive video or an ebook.
Watch Foot Traffic
If most of your business is done in a retail establishment, you can watch your foot traffic. See if most of the people coming into your location fall into specific demographic groups. For example, you may discover that the customers who are entering into a game store are older than you thought. This could be because they are coming in to buy presents for their children and grandchildren.
Follow Up
After you decide to expand your market, you’ll need to follow up to make sure you are reaching your new target audience. Reading reviews is one way to do that. As Podium advises, to get better reviews, you should encourage your customers to leave them right after service and explain that it helps you improve your service or product. Your Google Analytics should be showing that you are achieving customer retention.
Create Specific Landing Pages
Once you have decided on your new target audience and designed a campaign to attract these customers, consider sending them to specific landing pages. You will want to ensure that these pages are attractive and that your new marketing is reaching the people you’re after. Running A/B tests can help you see which ideas work the best.
In order to be successful in business, you need to use as many different factors as possible to identify your target audience and that of your competitors. Determine the size and demographics of this group. Those tools will help you craft a marketing strategy to grow your company.
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