Identify Your Ideal Customer with Target Market Analysis
Target Market Analysis can be a powerful tool to dominate online, but in order to utilize it correctly you’ll need to complete the baseline assessment of your online presence. Only then you can move forward to stake out your ideal customers. Why would you do that, you ask? I give you three reasons:
- You get to discover how your target customer thinks.
- You learn what makes them look for you and how to focus your marketing efforts.
- Having gathered the info, you can attract your target audience online.
Target Market Analysis – Taking the Right Steps Towards Your Online Findability
To improve your Findability, you need a very clear picture of the people searching for the solutions you offer. Demographic characteristics are not nearly enough, although it’s a start.
Your ideal customers are not just Twitter followers, LinkedIn contacts, or “Likes” on Facebook. They’re also not hits, traffic, search volume, or analytics data.
Detailed intelligence will reveal specifics about who these folks are and how they search for you and your products or services.
A big part of Findability is to have a full understanding of what motivates customers to seek answers to their problems. In the movies, spies don’t just put on a trench coat and rush out to follow “people of interest.”
First, they do surveillance to collect intel:
- What are their habits and routines?
- Where do they hang out?
- What are their problems?
- What clothes do they prefer?
- Whom do they associate with?
- What motivates them to take action?
Building Your Customer Dossier – Target the Right Businesses With a Strong Market Analysis
Just like spies gather a rich dossier filled with details after a thorough investigation, you create a persona or profile of your ideal customer.
Of course, you will need to access and understand the mindset of your potential customer, not just their behavior. It’s time to put flesh on the bones of your ideal clients, and create unique profiles to improve online conversion.
Target Market Analysis – Your Ideal Buyer at a Glance
Carefully separate each prospect by type as you think about the following questions.
What percentage of your customers are male vs. female?
Everyone thinks the gender split is “50/50” but that’s rarely the case. There’s a big difference between the person who searches and the person who buys.
For example, a CEO may need a specific venue for an upcoming event. He asks his assistant to research online and bring him three good options:
- Some people might focus on aesthetic elements, interiors, and catering.
- Others might look into cost, location, and logistics.
So whatever target market analysis outline you think you might have, it doesn’t apply if you’re not sure who was the decision maker.
So, first find out the skew regarding gender to get clear on your target.
What is the age range of your ideal customers?
It doesn’t matter if you’re a small business or a large one, knowing where to focus your marketing efforts is crucial.
If you have a consumer product or service, what is your ideal customer’s average income?
A very important target market analysis that ensures your step towards focused success.
For business-to-business, find out what is their title and type of company?
The common assumption is that all website visitors are decision-makers, but that’s purely a dream.
People with a variety of titles from many levels will search for the same result like the CFO, CIO, or EIEIO. This includes interns, administrative assistants and all the other various positions in the organization, not just the CEO.
What education level do they have?
Knowing your customer base, and what their education levels are will help you create a unique brand message focused around your target audience.
Target Market Analysis Helps Formulate a Profile of Your Ideal Client
Here’s a list of decision making criteria when doing your market analysis:
- Is the sales cycle fast or slow?
- Is the purchase driven more by features or costs?
- Is your product or service fast or slow to close?
- Whom does your customer have to impress?
For business-to-business, they might be C-Suite, internal workers, middle management, HR departments, or meeting planners.
For consumers, you might need to talk to moms of young children, blue-collar men over 40, or single women with high-powered jobs.
Crack the Code on How Your Potential Customers Search
Now you know who your ideal customers are and understand them in greater detail. You’ve gathered intel to discover what problems they have and the pain that makes them suffer.
Now it’s time to go deeper to learn how they search for solutions on the web. With that knowledge, you can help them find you and the solutions you provide.
This framework is called the “Path-to-Purchase” which is the process that underlies all buying.
The Path-to-Purchase is fully explained in my book, Marketing Espionage: How to Spy On Yourself and Your Prospects to Dominate Online
Discover the evolution of keywords that attract customers during the decision-making process and at the precise moment when they’re ready to buy.
Three Levels of Keyword Phrases
No matter what kind of products or services you offer, weather you own a small business or a large corporation – knowing your keyword can be the ultimate bridge to your success.
For clarity, a “keyword” can be a single word or a combination of several words in a phrase. We’ll use the terms “keyword” and “keyword phrase” interchangeably.
- Informational Keywords. Many people search for “travel” online, but they have a very low intent to buy using that keyword. They’re just browsing and are curious, gathering details to figure out which destinations they might want.
- Shopping Keywords. Someone searching for “inexpensive travel” is closer to making a choice. They add modifiers like “inexpensive” to refine the results and comparing options. The intent is a little warmer, but they’re not yet ready to buy. They are still figuring out what they want.
- Buying Keywords. Someone searching for “inexpensive travel in Italy” is packing his or her bags. The last level of keyword phrase includes the “Buying” triggers. These might include, “wine tour” for oenophiles, “all inclusive” for families, or “clothing optional” for singles, which are warmer still. These are like hot buttons waiting to be pushed. These are customers on the brink of making that decision and taking the final step.
The Shift from Shopping to Buying
There is a sweet spot between shopping and buying keyword phrases. The ideal buying phrase can dramatically change the response from your visitors resulting in higher conversion rates on your website.
Choosing the right keyword phrase to attract people who are ready to buy is essential for success. As customers move from shopping to buying, they use longer and more specific keyword phrases demonstrating a stronger intent to buy.
We understand that the road of target market analysis can be difficult, but that’s exactly the reason behind our website – to guide you with our expertise every step of the way.
