Target Market Basics

In order to market effectively you need to know who exactly it is that you are marketing to.

The more you understand and define your market, the better you can market directly to those individuals.

When you are determining your target market think about the following:

Geographic. The Geographic’s represent or describe individuals who live in a certain area.

Demographics. Demographics are the qualities and characteristics of your target market. They include age, gender, culture, employment, industry, income level, marital status, etc.

Psychographics’. Psychographics’ makes up the emotional and behaviour of your target market. They include the emotion, logic and thought processes behind your target markets decision to purchase your product or services.

Now here are a few questions to get you started:

1. Where is my target market located?   Where do they do business?
2. What are the demographics of my market? What do I know about my market such as age, income or occupation?
3. What are the psychographics of my market? What are the lifestyle preferences of my market?  What’s going on for them, that they would need your services? What emotions are they currently feeling?
4. Is this a group I enjoy working with? If I had to spend a lot of time with this group would I enjoy myself or not?
5. What publications (newspapers, magazines) or websites does my market use? Are there advertising opportunities? Can I understand my market better by reading what they are reading?
6. What are the professional organizations, clubs, or activities that my target market is involved with? Are there networking opportunities available?
7. Do I understand the challenges that my market faces? Will my service solve a problem for them?
8. Do I know the language that this market uses? Knowing the vocabulary of my market gives me more credibility.

The above is an article based on the foundations of the book The Virtual Assistants Guide to Marketing by Michelle Jamison.

Michelle is owner and operator of MJVA (www.mjva.ca).  While managing her company, Michelle is also an instructor for Red Deer College’s Virtual Assistant Certificate Program, where she teaches, Marketing, Starting a VA Business and Office Management. She is the author of The Virtual Assistants Guide to Marketing which is the basis for the MJVA Strategic Marketing Package, a unique offering for Virtual Assistants who need one-on-one support with marketing their business.