Before you can do any good advertising your product and service or undergo any decent marketing campaign you have to know your target market. In the world of internet marketing you need to be able to know as precisely as possible all the information you can gather so you can custom tailor your marketing mix to be more effective.
You will need to know about their demographics. On any online marketing campaign you need to know who it is that you are reaching out to. What does your ideal customer look like? How old are they? What income bracket are they in? Where do they work? Where do they socialize? What are their buying habits? The marketing strategies that you incorporate are going to use all this information. Fortunately it doesn’t take much to find out much of this. If you are targeting a certain geographic area, use the internet to find out as much demographic information as possible. In the US use the chamber of commerce for that area.
For your market targeting you will also need to know about their geographic location. What is the culture there like. Get familiar with and find out what things are typical for that region. Make sure you find out not only what marketing strategies are popular but find out also what things are taboo. What may seem harmless to one region may be a death sentence to your marketing strategy if your marketing research doesn’t find this information out.
You also need to see what other factors might affect the buying decision and behaviour of your target market. What styles are in fashion for your target markets? What type of climate is it? Are they free with their money? It may seem like a lot of work but if you want your marketing plan to work, all of this research is going to pay off.
The most important part of your marketing research will be understanding your customers needs. The more you understand this, the better able you will be to create an ad campaign. This will help bring about some effective branding of your product and services as a viable part of their buying pattern.
Your best way to find out about your target market, though, is to spend time where they are. If your hope is to have a coffee shop, you are going to want to see first hand what works and doesn’t work You will want to know what the atmosphere is like in a successful coffee shop and spend time talking to customers to find out what they like and don’t like about it. The same thing is going to be important for any online marketing plan.
Wherever it is that your potential customers go to find out more about what you are trying to offer them, go and spend time there. If there is a forum that is used by those who typically are interested in your product or service, be a member of it or spend time reading what is going on. Get in the shoes of your target market and find out what it is like to be them. The more you can understand them, the more effective you will be a marketing to your target market.
