You’ve done your market research, you know that there are enough people out there who potentially want your product to make your business viable now who are they -really? Knowing this will tell you how to reach them. This is a case of, the more narrow you can be the better. A well-defined target market will bring clear focus to the rest of your marketing mix and ensure that you are spending your money in the most effective areas. Knowing your customer will help you find out what motivates them. Consumers buy when you solve a problem for them, satisfy a need or make them feel good. If your product is B2B do you save them money, help them increase revenue or maintain revenue? Make the connection between what your product provides and what your customer wants and put your message in front of them.
Here are the main market segmentations and some points to consider:
Geographic Segmentation
- Local, national or global
- Place of work
- Climate
- Size/ population
- Urban/suburban/rural
Demographic Segmentation
Create a profile of your target customer or the decision maker. If you are targeting businesses include industry, revenue size, number of employees, number of locations, location of HO.
- Age
- Sex
- Income
- Occupation
- Education
- Ethnicity
- Religion
- Life Stage
- Generation
- Household size
- Home ownership
Psychographic Segmentation
- Lifestyle / interests – family, job, community, fashion, recreation, home.
- Attitudes and beliefs – social issues, politics, economic, education, culture, business.
- Activities – hobbies, social, travel, entertainment, community, sport.
Other segmentation methods include Product segmentation (usage, relationship to product, benefits, preferences), Behavioral segmentation (knowledge, attitudes, habits).
Unless you have a bottomless budget you can not reach everyone so go for the customers who will be most interested and most likely to buy. Also consider life stages and generations, as this is trickier now more than ever. Don’t make assumptions, you may find information you didn’t expect for example, women are having babies much later, people in their 70 aren’t retiring and 30 somethings can be living at home. You could uncover an untapped market or a secondary market.
Researching these points will give you a better focus on who your best customer is, what they really want and how to speak to them. Have fun getting to know your customer!
Cheers,
Liz
