Do You Know Your Target Market?
Recently I met a woman who designs pretty stationery which she sells through a few local boutiques. When we chatted, I asked her who her target market was. She said she designs for young woman, likely between the ages of 18 and 30. This made sense, as her designs are young and feminine and would appeal to such an audience and certainly to me. When I asked her who buys her products, her answer was quite different. She told me that her stationery is mostly purchased by the middle-aged customer who is buying the product for either their daughter or granddaughter. This got me thinking: you may think you know your target market, but you don’t until you do your market research and put a plan into action. This designer is clearly missing out on sales she could be capitalizing on if only she tailored her products to the audience that is buying them. Sure, she should keep her young designs as they obviously sell, but why not create a more mature line suited to her existing, more popular customer? Capitalize on the market that buys your product!
Let’s get started. You’ve already created a detailed profile as to who you think your customer is, but your sales still aren’t where you’d like them to be. How do you find out who is buying them, and how can you generate more sales from that buyer, which would result in finding out who your target market is. For most businesses you don’t always know right away because it takes a little time to develop a customer base to understand exactly who your customer is and what their needs are. Once you determine that, you can tweak your product or service to make it more desirable to that audience, and therefore, make you more money. Voila! You’ve nailed your target market! Now, here are some tips to help identify your key buyer:
Track Customers and Collect Their Information
This is simple: if you’re selling your products through retailers, you want to find out how they are capturing their customers information. If so, what information are they tracking and do they know what products of yours those customers are buying? Having a simple database will allow you to do all of this, therefore enlightening you on what your most popular product or service is. Another route to take is selling your products online through 3rdparty retailer sites or through your own corporate website. You can easily collect all of their information and get a fairly definitive idea of who your target market is, not to mention their location. Plus it will allow you to see their shopping patterns. Do they mostly shop for cards around the major holidays (Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter etc) or are they more sporadic for various birthdays and celebrations?
Maintain Your Relationships
Employees working at 3rd party retailers who carry your products are your best bet to finding out about your target market, as we mentioned above. If your business is solely dependent on them selling your products, you want to maintain a strong relationship with them, especially if your products are selling well at their location. Make sure you show interest in how your products are selling to ensure you are providing them with the right products. Also, be sure to suggest various products that you think will be a good fit for their store. Interest and determination = good relationships and solid sales. This will also be the best source of knowledge for you as you grow your business.
Check Your Website Analytics
If you have a website for your business and sell products through your site, this is the best most accurate way to see where your customers and traffic are coming from. Google Analytics is easy to set up in the back end of your site so be sure to install the plug-in and start tracking. It is important for you to know what kind of traffic your site is receiving and who your visitors are. Analytics can tell you where your visitors are coming from, how often they visit your site, and how long they stay on your site which says a lot about your demographics. This is also where you can track any PPC (pay-per click ads) you have set up. To start off, visit your Analytics page a few times a week and get familiar with its set up and make a list of the stats you want to track, which will help you with nailing your target marketing & audience. If you start noticing trends, then start capitalizing on it! Once you understand who is visiting your site, when they’re visiting, and where they are coming from you can post new information to your site accordingly.
Once you nail this part of your business, you will get a solid foundation on how to sell your products and where to sell them so you are hitting your key target market and demographics.
On a final note, we always encourage our viewers to share their tips on the topics we cover, so if you have some great tips on how to master your target market, please email to me at andrea@bratfacemarketing.com