By Alison Shadrack
As you start to build and market your business, you will feel the temptation to appeal to every consumer with your message. After all, the more people you reach, the more people you will move to make a purchase, right?
Wrong…
In order to amass the type of customers who will value what you do, pay you what you’re worth and tell others positive things about you, you need to market to your ideal clients (i.e. those who have the specific problem you’re promising to solve). Anyone else who receives your message will not identify with it, because they don’t need what you’re offering and won’t see the value in it, and will then mentally catalogue your brand as inconsequential (or worse) and may even tell others to avoid doing business with you.
It is imperative that you identify your target audience before you pitch to any media outlets. Unless you know how your ideal clients are getting their information, you won’t know where to market your business, or how to put it in front of the right people.
Start identifying your target audience by answering these questions:
- Who is your product or service for?
- Who does it most thoroughly serve?
- Who wants or needs what you’re offering?
- How old are they?
- Where do they live?
- What is their marital and family situation?
- What is their income bracket?
- What products do they already buy?
- Where do they shop?
- What are their interests?
- Who and what influences their decisions?
- Who will most highly value your product or service’s special features (those things that differentiate your company from the competition)?
- Which social media platforms do they use? Or where are they spending their time?
- Who is the decision maker? Tip: it’s not always the end user.
- Who does your competition serve?
If you’re not sure about how to answer these questions on your own, a great source is any existing ideal client. A customer who’s perfect for your brand will not only have great advice for you on how to reach and move others like them, they’ll know where to find those people. So get in there and ask questions of these valuable resources.
And as you answer these questions, remain on the lookout for the ‘sweet spot,’ or the common area composed of those who are interested in your product and those who can afford it.
Next, it’s time to find out how your target audience members get their information and entertainment, so you can work to put your business in those media outlets, as well as make connections with influencers who have deep roots within your target audience.
Here’s what I suggest for choosing the media outlets you will pitch to:
- What are your ideal clients reading online?
- What are they reading offline?
- What are they watching?
- What times of day do they prefer to get their news?
- What bloggers, vloggers or other influencers are they following?
- What social media groups do they belong to?
Answer these questions, and you will have a much better chance of putting your business in front of the people who will want to buy and who will want to spread the word about it.
Alison Shadrack, pictured above, Founder and CEO of Adia PR
