If you have a start-up business, you know well what the pressure feels like in order to succeed and win the market. And this is not possible if you don’t know how to identify your audience in the first place. To effectively compete, it’s crucial to have a well-defined target market. After all, you can’t afford to target everyone. Targeting a specific market doesn’t mean excluding the rest. Rather, it allows you to focus your spending on a market that’s most likely to buy from you. With a clearly defined target audience, you can reach high-quality leads that help you generate business. If you want to know how to grow and expand your business, start with identifying who your target market is. Here are some ways to help you get started.
Speak to consumers
If you want to get information on who your potential customers may be, you need to work on the ground. Talk to people and gather information straight from them. Ask about their hobbies and preferences. Initiate conversation at offline events and see how receptive these people are to what you’re presenting and offering. You can also conduct online surveys and anonymous questionnaires to help you answer the who, why, and for what questions. Conduct one-on-one interviews or focus groups that will allow you to obtain more information about potential consumers and create a clear portrait of who your target audience may be.
Create a customer profile
Once you have a clearer understanding of who your target market is from working with larger groups, you can create customer personas that narrow your focus. You can use this to help you better understand who they are and analyse their learning behaviours. For example, you may have created a general target market that looks like this:
- Male
- 50-60 years old
- $75-80k annual salary
Your customer persona will look more specific:
- Male customer who is 52 years old with a $78k annual salary and lives in Tauranga, New Zealand.
Being more specific with your target market allows you to adjust marketing campaigns with a clearer target audience.
Know who your competitors are
Coming up with a unique product or service is a rarity in business. While your start-up may have unique selling points, your business will likely still be a part of an existing industry. And the best way to stand out is to know how to position your company within your industry. Analysing competition is one of the best ways to increase your profit even after the business launch. Know your competition and figure out what they’re doing right and what needs improvement. Study their ads, visit their website, and look at the audience they’re targeting. You can either go after the same target market or focus on a group your competition may not yet be reaching.
Test your products or services
Trying to identify your target market based on assumptions rarely works. You need to test your idea and see what kind of people like them and will be after your offerings. Once you determine who they are, you need to adjust your marketing campaigns with messages that resonate with them so you can win them over. This will help gain their trust and help you build long-lasting relationships with them.
Get Your Start-Up Off the Ground with Bartercard
Defining your target market is the hard part. But once you know who fits your criteria, it’s much easier to figure out which media you can use to introduce your products and services and reach your audience. Many platforms can help you do this – one of them is Bartercard. Bartercard is an online marketplace that focuses on helping you bring your products and services to a unique ecosystem of buyers and sellers open to doing business with you. As one of the largest cashless exchange networks in the world, we can help get your start-up off the ground, attract customers, and build lasting custom relations. Ready to learn more? Contact us today.
