7 Step Process to Market your Product and Services to your Target Audience
- businesshammers
- Dec 9, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 28, 2020
1. Do proper market research
Market research is a vital part of developing your market strategy. it is the process of gathering data about a market within an industry.
Your research will explore the challenges of the market and what makes future buyers tick.
Market research may seem complicated, but it is important if you want to lead your business in the direction of success.
When you conduct a market analysis, you learn the following:
Who are my potential customers?
What are my customer’s shopping and buying habits?
How large is my target market?
How much are potential customers willing to pay?
Who is my competition?
What are my competitors’ strengths and weaknesses?
Your market research can make or break your startup. Market research helps you minimize costs so you can better understand your clients and market conditions.
Your research also allows you to figure out what makes you different from the competition. You know what makes you stand out that way. Or, you know what you need to do to separate yourself.
2. Discover your Ideal Marketing Avatar(IMA)
Trying to sell your product or service to everyone can be expensive and inefficient. Grouping or classifying your potential buyers on the basis of those features can help to focus your marketing efforts.
Generally, segmentation is based on factors such as:
Geography — location
Demographics — age, gender, education level, income, occupation
Behavior — loyalty, attitude, readiness to buy, usage rates
Lifestyle — social class, personality, personal values.
Your target market should have a need for your product or service and be willing to pay for your offer.
3. Identify your unique selling proposition.
This is the unique reason that your customers buy from you, not your competitors — that’s what makes your company stand out from the crowd. It is important to describe what you do differently and to be able to communicate it to potential customers. Typically, this represents your unique expertise or abilities.
Start developing your unique selling proposition by answering the following questions:
What do you love about your products and services the most?
What kind of special skills or knowledge do you have?
What makes your customers come to you instead of your competitors?
How do your customers benefit from purchasing your products or services?
What aspects do you generally highlight when you describe your business to strangers?
4. Develop your business brand
Your brand is how people see you everywhere they connect with your business-both the impressions you can control and the impressions you can’t control.
Any company, whatever its size, is likely to need a brand. A brand is more than a logo, color, or tag. A well-articulated brand emotionally interacts with your target customers and expresses who you are, what you stand for, and what you will offer.
Building a brand from the ground up that stands out is not a simple job. What is it going to look like? How is it going to make people feel? Will that resonate with my target audience?
There are problems that naturally occur when you start thinking about how to link the dots between what you’re offering and who you’re trying to meet.
If you have nothing but a business idea or want to change your current brand, here’s what you need to know about creating a good brand identity for your business.
5. Have your own marketing budget
Creating and sticking to the budget is the best thing you can do to get on the financial track.
If you have already managed your budget, it may be time to evaluate your budget and set new financial targets.
You will also need to set aside money for your marketing activities. Your marketing budget will need to include items such as:
Website development and maintenance
Search engine optimization strategy
Design of branding
Printing of promotional material (business cards, brochures, signage, etc)
Advertising
Donations and sponsorships
Employing staff to undertake marketing activities.
To set up your marketing budget, we suggest you read this article:
6. Don’t Neglect Your Loyal Customer.
Whether you’re in the niche market or have thousands of other competitors, maintaining an active relationship with your customers is key to business growth.
Most often, we see businesses investing their time, energy, and resources into new customers, but they’re losing out on their biggest opportunity of all…their existing customers.
After all, statistics speak for themselves: customer acquisition costs are seven times higher than customer retention, and 81% of customers are more likely to give repeat business simply because they were provided good service.
Strategies to build loyalty in customers include:
Communicating regularly with customers through social media, blogs, or e-news
Providing after-sale follow up
Delivering on your promises
Going the ‘extra mile’ and providing benefits that exceed initial expectations.
Using feedback and complaints as an opportunity to improve services
Listening to customers
Training staff in customer service and give them a basic sales process.
7. Monitor and review your marketing activities
It is important to monitor and review your marketing activities on a regular basis to determine whether they are achieving the desired outcome or not. Initially, you should review your marketing plan every three months to ensure that your activities are aligned with your strategy.
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