4 Ways to Understanding Your Target Market

The market, the mission, the competitors, the customer;  Get clear on these as part of your foundation to developing a strategy plan for your small business or start up.

Are you ready to create a strategy plan for your business or startup?  This will help walk you through some questions.  Provide tools to conduct powerful intel and generate great research for your business.   Save the research that you do here along with the answers to these questions in their own binder.  Reviewing this will help to keep you on course, allow you to pivot when needed and give you insight to running your business.

Here is the process for the foundation of your Marketing Strategy plan:

1. Current Business Analysis – When you get the idea for a business it’s important that you take the temperature of the current environment as it pertains to your industry.  This is where your first round of research comes in. Are people spending money on your product or service? What is the average spend?  What keywords are people using when searching for your business?How much traffic are your competitor sites getting?   Luckily, this information is accessible to us with a little research.

Here are a couple tools to help you discover the answers to these questions.

Research & Resources

1. 1. Keyword Everywhere (Browser Extension) This tool will give you data on monthly search volume and suggested bid. Keyword Everywhere is a must have tool for every entrepreneur and business owner.
      
   2. Similarweb.com – See any websites traffic sources & you can uncover their online marketing strategies so you can replicate.
      
   3. Google Analytics – Has your company or website been established for some time. Are you actively monitoring your website and traffic sources? Google analytics is a must to collect data on your own site.
   4. Quora.com You can submit your own questions, but mainly answers questions and certainly get a grasp with what questions people have within your industry.
   5. Polls and Surveys – Typeform, Google Forms  Ask the questions to your own network.
   6. Facebook Groups 
   7. Online Marketplaces & Reviews (Amazon, Yelp, Google)
      1. See what books are selling on your industry
      2. Read reviews left by the customers of 3-4 stars. Look for those who “would have given a 5 star if only…” Fill the gaps left by your competitor.
   8. JustAsk & Ask Anything

2. Brand Promise and Positioning Statements
Identify your brand’s reason for existing and the value it delivers to consumers. What is the problem that you solve / the solution you bring to the table?

What is it that you believe? What is your brand’s vibe?

Describe your brand’s position relative to its direct and indirect competitors.

3. Competitor Analysis
Create a detailed list of your competitors, their products, their online destinations, their marketing efforts, their content publishing, and their competitive advantages and disadvantages. Use this to identify what differentiates your brand from competition.   It’s important to know what your competitors are doing because if they have it down then you need to learn what they are doing right. And if they don’t have it down, you can get clarity on your differentiator.

4. Customer Analysis
Describe your target audience and segment consumers into unique buyer personas.

1. Who is your target customer?
2. What matters to them?
3. How do they live? What kind of lifestyle? Where are they located?
4. What do they like?
5. What do they believe?
6. Why do they care about what you offer?
7. Identify their reason for buying your brand or competitor brands, and what is most important to them when they purchase products like yours.

Describe what you can deliver to customers that meets those wants and needs.

Today’s savvy consumers have options. What separates you is your message. And in order for you to create a message that resonates with your buyer you have to begin to understand them at a much deeper level.

From there you can start finding them online.

“Start by doing what you can, then doing whats possible, suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

Take Action by creating your course of actions.

IMPORTANT
Write your goals down and read them every morning. Create a Vision Board so you can see it daily. Spend a few minutes daily visualizing. No matter how hard things may get, “just keep swimming”.

Sandra Noemi Torres

Linkedin.com/in/SandraTorres
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