Defining your market

There are several ways to identify and define your target market. It does require a lot of time and research on your part so it may be a good idea to consider hiring a market research company to find your target audience for you. As you go about defining your target market, there are a few things you need to look for.:

• Gender - A lot of companies have products that are targeted toward specific genders. Use surveys to find out if the majority of your market is male or female. Once you know this, it will be easier to find out what types of media avenues you need to focus on.
• Income - It is important to find out the income level of your market. This will help you create marketing strategies to suit their needs. Perhaps you can offer promotional products or your can do yearly discount sales. If your audience is in a higher income bracket, they actually expect to pay a higher amount for products so it is important to price them effectively for everyone.
• Age - You must know the age group you are targeting your products to. Knowing the age can help you understand what types of media you need to use. For example, marketing adult diapers may not be effective on Facebook, but it will be effective as a commercial in between a morning television program like "The Price is Right."
• Need - In order to successfully define your target market, it is important to figure out what their needs are. Why do they need your company and your products? What makes your products unique and different from your competitors?
• Market Segmentation - Each product you create will serve a different need to different consumers. To help you market to your audience better, it is essential to spend some time figuring out which markets need what products. While you may have a large target audience, you will also have some smaller niche markets. It is important to the success of your business to spend time on both markets.
• Customer Descriptions - When it comes to defining your market, you need to take into consideration the various personality types of your customers. Can you define some of your customer descriptions? A few things you might need to consider is the type of marketing they prefer, online or offline, where they are located, and how they want their products delivered to them. The more you can break down your customer descriptions, the easier it will be for you to market to them successfully.
• Research - In order to stay in business, you need to check and see if you will actually generate enough revenue with your company to justify staying in business. If you are serving one small niche market, it may not be feasible for you to stay in business locally; perhaps you need to expand your business online or in other ways.

  Market research will also help you define your target audience as you conduct surveys and studies to find out if people are interested in your products. Since most markets change often, it is important to do market research once a year or every other year. This will help you keep in touch with your audience as you will know what types of media they are interested in and what they are looking for with some of their products.

• Competitors - To stay in the current market you are in, you must know who your competitors are. Take a look at their products to see how you compare with them. What types of marketing do they do to reach their target audience? How can you adjust your marketing and your products to suit the needs of your customers better?