If you’re having doubts about your target market, or find that your target market is not responding to your marketing, ask yourself if you are aiming at the right market. It may be that it is time to refine your target and be sure that you’ve defined it sharply and effectively. Here are some questions to ask yourself about your market that can help you determine if you are aiming at the right target market.
1. Do you have a natural affinity for your target market, where you understand their problems, psychology, and their objectives?
Is there some connection between you and your target market that makes you an obvious choice to provide their solutions? Are you a member of that market yourself? Have you had the same problems and solved them? Do you have familiarity bred in your upbringing or family? Have you expertise that has developed because of dealing with your market’s problems for years or decades? Have you training combined with experience? Look for a market where the totality of your background clearly positions you among the top choices to provide services.
2. Have you developed solutions that specifically target your market and have no real competitor?
Where have you used deep knowledge of their problems to create well-thought-out answers to those problems? What is it about the way you solve these issues that no one else offers? How did you come up with the unique service offerings that are tailored to your target market? What made you figure out these specifics? If you haven’t put this much effort and attention into the solution your target market needs, you probably are not aiming specifically enough.
3. When you’re aiming at the right market, you don’t have such a struggle to bring in new clients.
Your targeted prospects see you as an obvious choice. You don’t have to pursue them, or “hard sell” when you engage with them. They are interested, eager, and excited to know about your business. They express interest in your services, and they ask you for more information. They read your marketing writing and website writing and let you know that they’ve read everything. They ask you questions, and want to understand the details of how your services work.
4. It is easy for you to identify a “flesh and blood” member of your target market.
When you meet someone who fits your target market criteria, you know it – and so do they! There’s instant recognition and affinity. You “speak their language” and they speak yours. There’s deep understanding, and you know how to engage with them. You feel comfortable and so do they. It’s easy for you to know what to say and what kinds of questions will elicit the information that you need. They are open and willing to share. They get that you “get” them. The conversation is smooth and a real connection happens between you.
5. It is fairly easy to sell your services to your target market.
When you make contact with your target market, they recognize their need and have a budget to buy. They express elation that they’ve finally found the answer to their problem by finding your services. You don’t have to struggle to sell them, and it’s not an effort to close them as clients. They have been looking for the answer you provide. You’re skilled at clearly explaining what you do and how you do it. It is a smooth process to turn prospects into clients. They are ready to buy and looking for answers.
If you are having problems selling your services, it may be time to re-examine whether or not you are aiming for the right target market. Sometimes the market changes. Sometimes our business changes. Sometimes, we simply need to re-target. Use these five ideas to examine the question, “Are you aiming for the right target market?”
Suzi Elton provides business writing that attracts targeted prospects to your service business and converts them into clients for you. She is a Robert Middleton Certified Action Plan Marketing Coach, as well as a professional writer. Her website offers a free series of 8 assessments you can use to analyze your own site.
