You ask your sales associates, “Who are you targeting with your sales efforts?” They answer, “Everyone!” Is anything wrong with this exchange?
While you may appreciate their enthusiasm, is targeting everyone really the best strategy for your business? We’ve talked about this here before: If you try to be everything to everyone, you’ll end up being nothing.
Many companies make this mistake and try to target a much too general audience. It’s important to note that by making a conscious decision to target a specific demographic, you are not excluding everyone else from buying your product or service. You’re simply devoting more of your sales and marketing efforts toward reaching those customers who are more likely to buy.
The more targeted your marketing approach, the greater chance it will resonate. When you send a message to the masses, it is too easy for individuals to ignore it–many will never read it; some will open it and delete it mindlessly. But if you have crafted a message with a specific person in mind, you have a much stronger opportunity to make a connection. You do this by focusing on their characteristics, preference, concerns, interests, and, most important, their pain. What are the pains and frustrations this person has that your product or service could alleviate? Identifying the pain of a prospect is so important, as you want to speak to people who have a need for what you are selling. As you personalize your messaging, you need to speak directly to your prospects’ pain.
Personalization of your marketing first requires you to create a target market segment. How do you do that? We’ve boiled the process down to the basics. While you can take as detailed, comprehensive approach as you like, following this general path will take you in the right direction.
First, analyze your current customers. Do you know your customer base? How well do you know them? Can you speak to their behaviors? If you don’t know them, it is time to analyze your customer base. Make a list of those who have bought from you in the past. What commonalities do they share? Do they tend to be male or female? Do they live in certain geographic regions? You can look at past orders, as well as customer feedback, to start to curate a list of characteristics of your most common buyers.
Online reviews are also helpful for gathering data and getting a sense of the sentiment your existing customer base has for your products and services. If you can answer the question, “Why did this person choose to buy from my company over a competitor?” you can predict other similar individuals or groups of people who may also be more likely to buy from you. This can help you determine your target market.
Second, take a look at your competition. Who are your top competitors targeting? It is possible that, with some research, you can determine whether your competitors may be ignoring a niche that may have potential for your business. This niche can then become part of your target market segment.
Third, analyze how your product or service is a solution to specific pains. We touched on this earlier, but finding solutions to pain is absolutely key. What are the issues and problems your target audience has that your product or service can resolve? Some pains are immediate–a lack of transportation due to a failing car engine or a freezing house because of a malfunctioning furnace. Other pains take time to surface–the frustration with feeling like your phone is outdated and not as cool as your friend’s new phone, or the pain in not having taken your family on a long-desired vacation. Needs and wants can often expose pain.
Once you identify the pains that your product or service addresses or eliminates, you can begin thinking about and targeting those individuals who are most likely experiencing those pains.
Finally, create personas. You have some general ideas about your target market. Now, begin to categorize similar characteristics to create several target market personas. [Need some guidance? Here’s how to create a marketing persona.] These personas are not actual people, but examples of buyers you would ideally like to target. Doing so can help you when writing e-mails or crafting messaging. It is much easier to write to a specific person, rather than a general group.
Building target markets to personalize and segment your marketing is a core component of what we do at Company 119. Let us know how we can help your organization.
