How to Find Your Customer Base & Successfully Market to Them

One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a business owner is to not clearly define your target market. Before you start promoting, before you launch a public relations campaign, or start to Tweet, or blog or launch an Ad Words campaign, know who it is you’re targeting. Who is your audience? Who precisely is your target market?

If you've developed a new anti-aging skin cream and are marketing it to teenage boys, you'd better take another look at your strategy. I know that example is a bit extreme, but in more subtle ways, business owners make that type of mistake on a regular basis. You need to initially know who your market is, you then need to know how to contact them. You may indeed have the best product or service out there, but if you're pitching the wrong target audience, it's not going to work.

Believe me, this isn't an uncommon mistake; more businesses than you think have done everything right and gone belly up because their targeting was off. This is one of the basic aspects of launching a successful business. Know who your prospects are. Know your clientele. That’s not always as easy as it sounds. Often the idea of a particular market clouds business reality. For example, if you have developed a jewelry line that you’d like to see carried by Tiffany’s, but your true target market is Walmart, you have a problem. Best you learn that now and learn it quickly.

The following are some tips on how to study your competition to help define your particular market:

1. Utilize the internet; it can be a goldmine of information. Google your competition as well as any keywords related to your business. You’ll be amazed at what you can learn w. (which brings up another topic of knowing your keywords- check out next week’s post on Knowing Your Keywords).
2. Study your trade publications. Most fields have publications, newsletters or websites dedicated specifically to that particular business sector. Study them. See who else is out there working in your field and study how they are positioning themselves.
3. Study ads and articles in mainstream media. Whether it’s a local newspaper or a national magazine, see how others in your field are positioning themselves and learn from what you read.
4. If applicable, actually visit your competitions’ places of business and study how they deal with clients, how they market in-house and how they present their business.

Once you’ve defined your market, you can focus on defining your PR and Media Relations Target Market, which is a very different process. Here you’re looking for the magazines, newspapers, TV programs, blogs, social media sites and other communication and information outlets that speak directly to your prospective clients. This is a different process, but equally important. If you define your customer base correctly, but miss the mark when it comes to your PR and marketing campaign, you’re not going to be reaching your clients. It’s like drilling for oil with the right equipment, but drilling in the wrong place.

Defining your market doesn’t need to be that hard a process. Be realistic about your business. Not every product or service has a huge market, but you don't need huge, you need one that’s realistic and well-defined. Describe your perfect customer and client base. Look at your competition; study who they target. Now develop a marketing plan to effectively reach your customers or prospects. Once you’ve successfully defined your customer base and designed a targeted media campaign, you’re in the business of growing your business.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

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