Define Your Target and Decide Where To Market

Miss Kemya | September 6, 2011

Define Your Target and Decide Where To Market

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

Many times business owners shell out cash for marketing and then wonder why they’re not getting business. Before you throw another dollar in the wind, ask yourself: who is your target market? Then you need to figure out how much time and money you have to spend to reach them. I made that sound real simple didn’t I? Here’s the two-fold scenario:

Who is your target market? This includes

Key decision makers for purchasing your product or service
Where your customers look for and buy your product/service
Customers’ buying habits and buying cycles
Factors that influence purchasing decisions – don’t’ just assume price is the primary reason

How much money and time do you have to spend to reach your target?

Can you reach them by joining industry organizations?
Placing ads in business newspapers/website or trade magazines?
What’s your advertising and marketing budget?
How much time can you commit to pursuing a target? Do you follow-up and engage leads, or push sales and move on?

Here’s the big question: What is the estimated return on your investment of time and resources? Is attending a few networking mixers going to get you in front of the right decision makers? If you place a pricey ad in a conference program will you get the greatest exposure to your target audience? Maybe you can place recurring ads in your local business publication if you’re a B2B, but does the reader profile match your target? Are magazine ads too expensive for your budget? Can you broadcast yourself across social media and attract enough clients there? All of these are points to consider when deciding how to best market your business versus ROI for your money, time and effort.

Consider an example: I’m a strategic marketer, and I see XYZ Company has a sponsorship offer out for a local women’s retail shopping event. The company estimates 500 attendees, so I can put my promo literature in their goodie bag for $50. Getting my business in front of 500 people via a goodie bag for only $50, oh my goodness, what a deal! Not so fast… my target market is entrepreneurs and small businesses. Women going out shopping has nothing to do with my target market, so that $50 is a waste. Yes, some attendees might be business owners, but their purpose for attending the event is completely unrelated and I guarantee my promo piece will be in the trash. Consider all the time and resources that would be invested in order to get a return. In other words, my investment would be:

cash and materials: $50 plus the cost of the promo literature
time: contact with the event host, pickup and delivery time, follow-up with event host and attendees

See, it’s more than just $50! And the ROI is almost non-existent.

Remember, marketing is more than your website and networking. You need to have a marketing plan that includes all the elements above, and then some.

Ciao,
Miss Kemya

Category: Business Planning, Marketing Strategy, Networking, Operations | Tags: how do I define my target market, what is the ROI on marketing, where does my customer shop, who is my customer

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schuhe-shop24

I will immediately snatch your rss as I can't find your email subscription link or newsletter service. Do you have any? Kindly permit me understand in order that I could subscribe. Thanks.

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Miss Kemya

Thanks! Grab the RSS button at the top of the page or subscribe via email on the sidebar of the blog page. And thanks in advance for subscribing!

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Shakirah Dawud

I like how you remind us that marketing is more than the website and networking (which a lot of us do online, too). I try to keep things from getting too focused on the online sphere on my blog, too, especially because a lot of the people I work with don't live in the digital world nearly as much as I do.

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Miss Kemya

Thanks for commenting Shakirah! I also have this same challenge in my biz. I help develop social media strategies and many of the people that need to read my blog aren't active online for business.

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