Determine Your Target Market

In order to determine who your target market is, you must first understand what a target market is and the importance of a one. A target audience is defined by Wikipedia as “The primary group of people that something, usually an advertising campaign, is aimed at appealing to.” In other words, who your product or service was designed for. Without this information, you cannot accurately advertise to this group of people and you will lose out on many sales because of it.

If you are creating your own products or services, then in reality you should determine your target market before designing the product, but sometimes that is not feasible or you have an idea for a product or service before you actually know who would benefit the most from it. No matter which path you are on, in order to determine who your target market is, you will need to find the answer to the following question.

Who is in need of my product or service the most?

Get as specific as you can with the answer to this question. Determine your ideal customer’s gender, age, marital status, income, demographic area (where they live) etc. As much information on your target customer is what you want. The more you know about them the better you can cater to their needs and wants.

For instance, if you are selling a baby sling, you will want a target audience of mothers of infants. Get specific depending on the customer you want to attract. Do you want younger mothers, first time mothers, natural living moms?

Your product or service can be of interest to other groups of people as well, but your main focus should be on the one targeted group that you feel will benefit the most from what you have to offer. Once you find your target market, design your marketing and advertising to them specifically.