Are You Hitting the Right Target Audience?
How well do you know the people who buy from you? If you run a small business selling a service then you may know every single one of your clients by name but that doesn’t mean that you know them. A key area of marketing is defining who would benefit from using your product or service. Many businesses target their products at the people who they believe are most likely to buy them. This is not the most reliable strategy though and is a marketing tactic based on ‘hoping for the best’. The successful way to make sales is to know that your product will improve your customer’s life because it’s developed to suit the specific target audience and demographics that the customer is from. So how do find out who will benefit from buying your product or service?
Think small
Unless you have the marketing budget of a multinational company it’s unlikely you’ll be able to get your message out by flooding the media with TV adverts, billboards, exhibitions and advertising in magazines. Many small businesses have a tiny marketing budget and choosing what to spend this money on is key to reaching your target audience. You can’t be everything to all people so sharpen your focus on what you sell and who you sell it to. To find out who will benefit from buying your service or product you need to think about who your current and past customers are and why they chose to buy from you. Sometimes this is easy, for example, if you sell a lawnmower that can cut huge gardens in minutes then your customers will all have large gardens and not small lawns or yards. People who have large gardens tend to live in large houses, often with their families; it’s likely that they live in the suburbs or small towns and villages. Once you jot down your assumptions check over your customer database and see if you’re correct. Add to your list any other patterns you discover about your customers and you then have a clear idea of who your target audience is.
Why you?
Unless you sell a totally unique product that can’t be bought anywhere else you will find that you have many competitors also marketing to your target audience. It’s important to remember then that your target audience is made up of real people who can choose to spend their money with your business or someone else’s business. People are individuals so each of your customers will have bought your product or service from you for different reasons. Often customers give testimonials or will tell you without being asked why they chose your company. Sometimes, the easiest way to find out why people bought from you instead of your competitors is to ask them. Take half an hour out to call your customers and ask them how their product is working out for them, take on board what they say and then ask them why they decided on your company. It could be down to price, the quality of your products or service, your location, how friendly your staff were or a special offer you had on at the time. Their answers will help you to further define what your customers look for when they make a purchase. If nine out of ten customers chose you because your staff were friendly and honest then you know these are traits which your target audience value and you can build this into your marketing plan.
What next?
Now you know who your customers are and why they buy from you, you can then start to develop your product or service so what you offer can meet the needs of your target audience. Once you know who your audience are you can start to tailor your marketing to them. A good place to start is with your website as this is often the least expensive of all your advertising to tweak and change. Ask content writers”>web content writers to rewrite your website copy so it is targeted at your newly defined audience and appeals to them. Good website copywriting can grab your visitors’ attention and actually sell your product or service for you so can concentrate on other areas of your business, knowing that your website is bringing sales in.
By focusing your business resources on a highly specific target audience you can start to carve out a niche in the market which your business can actually serve far better than much larger companies. For more information on website copywriting contact Pure Ink Creative today.
Tags: online marketing, web content writers, website copywriting
