Everyone is Not Your Customer
As much as you would love to sell to everyone, you need to accept that everyone is not your customer. No matter what you sell, there are people who will want your product and others who won’t. As a small business owner, you need to focus precious marketing resources on connecting with people who might really want to buy.
There are several ways to look at your target market:
- Separate potential customers by demographic characteristics.
- Age, income, gender, marital status for consumers.
- Company sales, number of employees, years in business or industry served for business-to-business.
- Psychographics, values, lifestyle and critical events
- What is important to a consumer? Religion, national origin, home, family and job may all influence purchasing decisions? The birth of a child, a new job or a new home are all trigger events which set off a rash of purchases.
- Purchases in businesses may be impacted by industry trends, new regulations, launches of new products, mergers, acquisitions or in response to competitive activity.
about the marketing minute
Each week, host Lorraine Ball shares just a few words on a marketing topic. She boils down creative ideas, practical tips, and decades of real-world experience into a mini podcast which is always less than two minutes.
Look for these mini bits of marketing inspiration every Sunday. Then come back and enjoy the longer interviews every Thursday.
Look for the mini podcasts and full episodes on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play and wherever you listen to podcasts.