Why Identifying Your Target Market Is Key To Your Success

I talk a lot about the importance of identifying your target market(s) - it’s also one of the ‘Core Elements’.

As we approach the end of 2020, this is the perfect opportunity for you to get in line with my thinking on what is without question THE most important part of growing your business—any business.

If all you do in the next 3 days is sit down and identify your most lucrative markets—this will be the beginning of something special for you and your business. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in.

Or how large (or small) your company is—or whether you sell business-to-business or business-to-consumer.

The point is this…

Selecting and then tailoring your message to each identified target market will multiply your sales and your profits.

I have some simple but great examples which will hopefully go some way towards convincing you how important this is.

First—let’s look at a typical small business. It’s a lawn-cutting service. Take a look at the classified ad on the right.

Now, don’t pay too much attention to how the ad is written—this is a good example of how NOT to write an ad (see page 7 on how I would transform/optimise it).

What do you think is their target market?

That’s right—‘large grounds/gardens’.

However, what you need to pay close attention to is the effect of highlighting this ‘target market’ on people with large domestic or commercial grounds.

So, even though this is not a great ad—it will be successful because of its appeal to the market it’s serving.

If you were an owner of a property with a large lawn or grounds and you needed it cutting/maintaining, don’t you think this would relate to you?

It would, in effect, jump out at you and hit you right between the eyes.

Compare this ad to the ad on the next page. Same size; same industry; no targeting—there is likely to be a huge difference in the results.

Notice they mention ‘Big or Small’ which could mean large or small lawns (who knows?).
Even if large gardens aren’t something they do, just again think about the impact the ad would have if it said ‘small gardens a speciality’.

It’s easy to see that the ‘Garden Care’ ad would clean up with people who have large lawns or grounds—agreed?

Here’s another good example

This time it’s a much larger company advertising their personal injury service.

IMPORTANT:

It doesn’t matter how big or small your company is—target marketing is the key to your success!
Notice here the target market is ‘people who have had serious injuries’.

This may seem quite obvious to you, but no other firm of lawyers targets people with “serious injuries”. Notice how the ad is completely focused on them.

Things like the home visits, etc., connect with these people (most are incapacitated and can’t get around after their accident).

It doesn’t take much to tailor any of your marketing to meet the needs and wants of a very lucrative target market?

Compare this to an ad that says ‘Had An Injury At Work, In The Street, Or In The Car?’ etc.—which just doesn’t focus on anyone—therefore they’re competing with everyone else. Why everyone else?

Because very few people take the time to identify their prime target markets and then tailor their messages to them.

So, by focusing on one or more target markets you almost wipe out the competition because YOU are the company that has the product or service completely tailored to the target market—everyone else tries to please everyone and in reality pleases no-one (by comparison).

That’s another reason why target marketing will help you reach your next level.

It differentiates you and therefore minimises the competition and, as a result, you’ve added considerable value to your offer and your business without really changing anything.

Of course, that means your prices or fees become less of an issue as well, and enables you to increase them with far less resistance from clients, customers, or patients.

Do you see the difference it makes?

Therefore, what you need to do is write ALL your marketing pieces based on each individual target market.

How To Tailor Your Message To Each Target Market To Multiply Your Sales

If you have three key target markets, that means you need three slightly different messages so you can ‘talk’ to each target market and address their specific needs and wants and fears and frustrations.

Yes, I know it’s easy to just target everybody.
But, by making this adjustment and putting in the extra time and effort to identify your prime target market(s) as I’ve detailed in the next article… you’ll instantly improve your results. Better still, it costs you nothing to apply target markets to your marketing!