Marketing your Small Business Tip #1 – Know Your Audience

Marketing isn’t really about Your Company…

Marketing is, at the end of the day, not just about your company values — it’s about understanding what these mean to a customer, and getting that meaning to be felt strongly enough that they buy.

Put bluntly, People don’t care about you — people care about themselves And they care about you only to the extent that you fulfill their wants and needs. They do business with you because they believe you are adding value to their lives; and how that sweet value set of yours aligns with their own.

People don’t come into a whiskey bar just because it’s cool, they come in because they want to feel cool. They don’t drink whiskey just because it’s“manly” or “strong” — they drink it so they feel manly and strong.

Marketing is about figuring out who your customers are, what they value, and most importantly how this manifests in insecurities and aspirations. And then it’s showing them the solutions in your brand.

So start with finding out who your target customer is and then how you can communicate why your business provides value to them.
Consider who your target audience is, the interests and hobbies of that demographic, and the words and phrases they use. Millennials, for example, use lots of modern slang that’s unfamiliar to older audiences; baby boomers prefer language that is grammatically sound.

However, it doesn’t just stop at generational gaps; you’ll want to be a little more specific when determining what your audience likes and doesn’t like.

Marketing is all about forging connections with your audience, make sure to embrace the tone and language that you think will speak most directly to them.

It’s important in this process to find the right balance when defining your target market in a way that causes your audience to recognize that we are talking specifically to them. This often requires companies to narrow down their target market, so that the message is strong, compelling and clear.
Using the questions below to develop a target market description.
  • Who is our target audience?
  • Where is our target audience located?
  • What do they think about our current brand?
  • What would you like them to think about our brand?
  • How will we attract them to our products?
  • Who else is competing for their loyalty and devotion?
  • Are you targeting business or consumer sectors?
  • Is our product a luxury item or a need?
  • Which, special features are most appealing?
  • What do they like or dislike about our products, in general?
Your value proposition must be relevant to your target market. This means your target market must be identified and clearly defined.
Once we’ve answered these questions, we are ready to draft a statement on the type of target we want to go after and the relationship we would like to have with our clients and customers.
Need help with developing all of this?

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