3 Steps to Identify Your Target Market Once and For All
You are most probably aware of the fact that not everyone under the sun is going to be your customer. That’s why by now, you are narrowing down your focus to certain people who are most likely going to buy from you. Every entrepreneur aims to reach high-valued prospects and this strategy makes sense because it gives you maximum results in a cost-efficient way.
But the question is, who exactly is your real market? Or rather, how would you know if this certain person should be a prospect? Technically, you might already know your audience (or at least have an idea of who they are). However, it is undeniable that many entrepreneurs also make false assumptions about who their prospects and target markets are (in general).
Unfortunately, this means that you might be committing the same mistake too. So to help you separate the wheat from the chaff, below are 3 quick steps that can help you recognize your true market:
1. Create a dialogue.
The first step really is to get to know your people. Social media platforms make this a lot easier nowadays. You can get inside the heads of your prospects by checking their Facebook or Twitter feed. Surely, these profiles will give you small clues about what they are into – the pages they like, the posts they share, things they comment on, their photos, and so much more. Social media is a huge open public forum where you can obtain customer insights such as the kind of products they often use and the influencers that they like to follow. The stuff they share and talk about can also give you ideas. 
All these gathered information will help you identify the common ground of your real market. Identifying them will help you narrow down on the people you should focus on, and knowing what interests them will help you communicate with them better.
2. Create a customer persona.
After getting inside your prospects’ head and knowing their common interests, it is time to create an illustration of how your target customer looks like. At this point, you have to create a personality and give it a name. Everything that you learned about your market in step one is vital in creating your customer persona. By now, you should know their common hobbies, the usual line of work, the food that they like, and basically anything that makes them tick. It is also important to identify the common problems and day to day struggles that they face. Play around with the information you picked up and then create a customer persona accordingly. The persona you create is the ultimate representation of how your true market really looks/acts/thinks like. Many marketers classify these into box-type personalities. For example, they could have fitness buffs, health nuts, artsy people, or cool moms in mind. Creating messages or ads that will resonate with your target market will be a breeze because it is as if you know exactly who you are talking to. This helps you focus on your message and content. People pay more attention to messages that seem to directly speak to them, not on general ads that address just about anyone.
3. Look at your numbers.
Customer data is a gold mine for most businesses nowadays especially with the help of Google Analytics, Facebook Page Insights, and other digital tools. These tools can show you real numbers and it helps you identify which groups are responding to your ads and messages. The numbers can also guide you in creating your customer persona. Most importantly, it helps you recognize which groups could be considered high-valued prospects from those that are not. Knowing who buys from you (rather than those who just follow you) can help you improve your marketing strategies. The numbers will tell where to spend your time, effort, and money more. Sure, you might be missing a few prospects in the process, but having a solid market that is ready to hear and buy from you will really pay off more. Don’t worry, you can always branch out to other prospects after establishing a solid market. Identifying your true prospects starts at the moment you stop making assumptions. So do your homework now and take a step back to get to know your audience a lot better. Crafting personas and maintaining cost-effective communication strategies to high-valued prospects help build up your business. It is also important to note that you have to assess your market from time to time. Every 6 months or so, you have to take some time to identify and ask yourself if you are still talking to the right market. Remember, trends and customer-making decisions rapidly change nowadays. It is important to keep up with these changing market trends if you still want to be heard by your market.
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Watch this video to learn more about identifying your target market.
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