Target Market – Ideal Clients

Why is this item important?

Many people think marketing is just advertising and promotions but it’s also about building a connection with your ideal buyer(s) to draw their attention to your products or services. By understanding your buyers, it will help you develop marketing messages that will build a connection with your audience, allow you to make more informed decisions on what online or offline marketing channels to use and ultimately develop trust with you and your brand to become a paying customer. 

How can I tell if I meet this item in my business?

Can you answer the following questions about your ideal buyer(s):

What pain points do you solve for your clients?

What are their specific needs and priorities?

What keeps them up at night?

Do you know who is buying your products or services? i.e. Your buyers’ age, gender, relationship status, kids/no kids, occupation, goals, values, interests and purchasing habits.

Why are buyers seeking out your products or services?

What do I need to do to meet this item?

You need to develop a profile of your ideal buyer(s) or as others call it a “buyer persona.” The questions above will help you to start to define your ideal buyer(s). Interviewing your current customers, reviewing website analytics and other sales results can help give you further answers to the above questions.

One of our Brand and Marketing specialists can work with you to develop a profile of your ideal buyer(s) which is one of the critical steps for creating more effective marketing.

Why is this item important?

Having a clear understanding of your ideal buyers helps everyone from marketing, sales, product design, branding etc. to have a clear visual of the customers you’re trying to attract and transform them into real people. This information is critical for product development, sales follow up, maximising content creation and anything that relates back to your customers.

How can I tell if I meet this item in my business?

Have you identified your target market and understood what your products/services have to offer to a group of people or businesses?

Do you know what problems your products or services solve for your ideal buyers?

Do you know what the features and benefits of your products and services are?

Are you aware how your ideal buyers are finding your products or services?

What do I need to do to meet this item?  

Before any purchase of your products or services can take place, your ideal buyers must have a reason that there current situation is different from where they are and that they have acknowledged they have a problem that you can solve. 

By knowing what your products or services have to offer and what will make customers buy, you can begin to identify common characteristics of your potential market. Without this information you are literally marketing your products and services to the masses and hoping for the best. Is this truly sustainable for your business in the long-term?

Why is this item important?

Put yourself in your ideal buyers’ position. Why do you buy the things you do? Why did you decide to purchase your house from real estate agent A instead of real estate agent B? Where do you like to shop? Do you make purchases online or in store?

It’s critical to know the buying decision process that your customers will take so you can align your marketing strategy and sales process to directly fulfill the buyers needs at that particular time in the process. Your ideal buyer will make buying decisions from arrange of different sources so don’t rely on one single avenue to market your products or services.

How can I tell if I meet this item in my business?

Do you understand what sources of information your ideal buyers use to evaluate/compare your products or services?

Do you have enough sources of information available for them to understand if your products or services solves their problem?

When was the last time you conducted research to understand why your current customers buy from you and how they found you over others?

What do I need to do to meet this item?  

Your ideal buyer can compare and evaluate your products or services just with a click of a button on their computer or smartphone. It is more important than ever before to understand your buyer’s decision process. When defining your ideal buyers put a process in place such as:

• Understand if your ideal buyer has a need for your products or services and do your products or services help them fulfill that need. Do your marketing activities help them to potentially identify this need?
• Identify the sources of information they use to evaluate your products or services. Your ideal buyers will use a number of different ways to gather information about your products or services from flyers, events, articles, websites to review sites, social media etc.
• Once your ideal buyer has purchased your products or services, review your buyer’s decision process by evaluating what went well and what may need to be changed or included in your process to make the decision easier for your ideal buyer to purchase. Measuring your marketing activities, using analytics and collecting customer feedback will help you understand your buyer’s decision process more and the criteria they use to inform their decision.

Why is this item important?

Customers’ expectations are so much higher than ever before. They don’t want just good service and pricing but expect businesses to really understand their wants and needs and provide a personalised and consistent experience across multiple channels. If you don’t meet their expectations it is very easy for your buyers to take their business somewhere that does.  

How can I tell if I meet this item in my business?

Do you know if your products or services meets your ideal buyer’s needs?

Do you know what outcomes your ideal buyer expects from your products or services?

Do you know what level of service is expected to meet your ideal buyer’s needs?

Do you survey your current buyers to measure their level of satisfaction with your products or services?

What do I need to do to meet this item?  

To understand your ideal buyers’ expectations, you need to really get to know them and their wants and needs. Research your ideal buyer and directly find out what they truly expect from you. Look at any survey results you have from any existing buyers or those who had an interest in your products or services.

Develop a profile of your ideal buyer which includes information such as what their goals are, what they value, and demographics which will help you further understand their expected level of service.

Why is this item important?

If you want to get people to buy your products or services, you need to truly understand how your ideal buyers make purchasing decisions. You need to understand your customers’ buying behaviour which helps you to reach your audience through the right channels, use the right messages and ultimately influence their buying decisions. 

How can I tell if I meet this item in my business?

What attitudes prevents your buyers from considering your solutions?

Do your customers know, like and trust you enough to invest in your products or services?

Why do your customers make the purchases that they make?

What factors influence consumer purchases?

Are there ways you can shift their attitudes or concerns with value-added material?

Do you speak with your customers to develop strong relationships and build trust?

What do I need to do to meet this item?  

When it comes to your ideal buyer’s attitude, sometimes this can be quite difficult to change as they may have certain views, brands, companies that they just do not want to shift away from. However, if your products or services meets their needs and engages their interest then you may be able to change their attitude or concerns and turn them into your ideal buyers. Consistency is key and having a clear strategy and message is highly important so that your ideal buyers get to know your brand, your products or services and truly believe that what you are offering is going to solve their problems.

Why is this item important?

Personal factors such as age can dictate which products and services we consume and how we react to certain marketing messages. Our specific desires or interests can also play a big part in our choice of products and services.

For example: If you enjoy the outdoors you are more likely to purchase outdoor products as opposed to indoor cushions or candles. Having a very clear understanding of our ideal buyers and what triggers them to purchase our products or services is key. Without this information do we know whether we are truly reaching our ideal buyer and sending out clear marketing messages?

How can I tell if I meet this item in my business?

Do you understand your ideal buyers wants and needs and how your products or services meets these needs?

Do you know what triggers customers to move into the purchasing phase?

Do you understand your ideal buyer’s personality types?

Are your ideal buyers influenced by other opinions and perceptions?

What do I need to do to meet this item?  

Marketing campaigns persuade people and influence what they buy. It’s imperative to fully understand your ideal buyers purchasing decisions and behaviours and who you are trying to target as this information helps you assess the impact of your marketing strategies, and how you can improve them to appeal to the right audience. Without a targeted approach, how will the right buyers find your products or services?

Why is this item important?

By understanding what your market wants, making smart product and service improvements, and developing new product and service offerings that meet and exceed your customers’ expectations, you are delivering a product or service that will set you apart from your competition and talks directly to the needs of your ideal clients.

How can I tell if I meet this item in my business?

Do your new products or services meet and exceed your customers’ expectations?

Have you conducted market research to determine whether your products or services will solve a problem for the market and doesn’t already exist?

Are your products or services meeting the needs of your ideal clients?

Is your products or services pricing strategy correct?

Do you know what sets your products or services apart from your competition?

Have you interviewed potential ideal clients to get constructive feedback before you launch your new product or service to the market?

What do I need to do to meet this item?  

Before you launch any products or services to the market, make sure you have conducted market research to fully determine whether there’s a need, if you are differentiating yourself from your competition, filling a gap in the market and that you have positioned yourself correctly to grow your business effectively.

You can have the best product or service but you still need to conduct research to determine whether there’s a need for it, who will buy it, your current brand perceptions and how you will see future growth for your business in that market area. Understanding your ideal clients is one area that can help inform this research.

Why is this item important?

Marketing is essential to any business no matter how big or small. Many people think marketing is just advertising and promotions but it’s also about building a connection with your ideal clients to draw their attention to your products or services offering. Too many small businesses ignore this step of getting to know their customer and try to market their products and services to everyone causing inconsistent marketing, disappointing results and overspend on marketing budgets.

Understanding your ideal clients will help you develop more succinct and effective brand and marketing strategies and the positioning of your products or services in the market. It will allow you to create marketing messages that will build a connection with your audience and to make more informed decisions on what online or offline marketing channels to use to reach your ideal clients.

How can I tell if I meet this item in my business?

Have all your marketing strategies and activities been chosen with your ideal clients in mind?

Are all your online and offline marketing channels that you’re currently using building a connection with your ideal clients?

Have you defined your ideal clients before marketing your business?

What do I need to do to meet this item?  

Once you have defined you ideal clients you need to use this to inform the direction of your brand and marketing strategies, allowing you to focus your marketing efforts in a more efficient and effective way that gets you results. Not everyone will have a need for your product or service offerings and this is why it’s so important to narrow down and identify those people that do.