Corporate Strategy Day In The Life

Target marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies you can have in your marketing toolkit.

The opposite of target marketing is mass marketing. Mass marketing might make sense for Proctor & Gamble when selling detergent, but as service professionals and small business owners, appealing to a more select group is what will help you achieve maximum results when building your business.

Although “everyone” may be able to benefit from what you offer, you can’t please everyone with the same services and products. Proctor & Gamble has enough of a market share and enough products in their warehouse to successfully mass market.

Targeting your market can be the result of making a proactive decision about who you want as a client, or it can be the result of analyzing your client base and focusing on a subset of that group.

Here are 6 reasons to target your market:

1 – You can easily drill down to the features and benefits of your services and products that are most important to your target market. For example, as a photographer, everyone who wants a photograph can benefit from your services. But the benefits and features most important to someone wanting photographs of their wedding versus someone wanting a business headshot will be very different.

2 – Once you know your target, it’s a lot easier to communicate with them using the features and benefits that are most important. Whether communicating verbally or in writing, you can address the issues most important to your target market. The bride-to-be will want a visual record of the most important day of her life to share with her children and grandchildren. The corporate businessperson wants a photo that makes them look professional in print and online. The words you use to communicate with each of these markets will be different if they are going to be effective.

3 – Once you identify your target market, it is simpler to determine where and how you can most effectively market your services. A wedding photographer can leave business cards at bridal shops or tuxedo rental stores, or implement online advertising using “wedding photographers” as a keyword and include their geographic location.

4 – Finding your market becomes much easier when you focus on a target. You can form partnerships with other businesses that offer complimentary services. In addition to wedding planners, the photographer may want to partner with companies that specialize in wedding cakes or facilities that specialize in weddings.

5 – By targeting your market, you can be proactive about deciding whom you want to work with. If you only want to do high profile weddings, you can build your marketing around that choice. If photographing weddings drives you nuts because you have to deal with the mother of the bride and groom, the wedding planner and the bride, maybe you can specialize in “City Hall” weddings where the decision makers are likely to be just the bride and it’s a smaller group. Deciding on your ideal client by targeting your market will make your work much more enjoyable.

6 – Adding additional target markets becomes easier once you have your marketing strategy in place for the first one. So if you become tired of weddings, or want to create an additional revenue stream, quickly implementing a marketing strategy for your next market becomes simple. Be careful though – you want to research the market and know exactly what your strategy will be to attract clients.

Just because a prospect doesn’t fit your target market, doesn’t mean you don’t work with them. That’s a decision you can make on a case-by-case basis. Targeting a market can make attracting clients much easier – it’s the power of focus. Once you set up your process for identifying your target market, you can add other markets when you’re ready.