One of the most critical issues for any business is how to reach its target market. To accomplish this task, companies need to craft target marketing strategies. This article will discuss what target marketing is exactly and what its best practices are.

LEAD Innovation states that not enough product demand is the number one reason startups fail. Introducing a new product or service is not just hard; it is also risky. Without understanding who your target market is, your marketing campaign will be less effective. The lack of market demand is a result of a combination of different factors.

However, lack of market response is sometimes caused by not having target marketing strategies. By not understanding the relevant needs of your target market, your product will always fail to sell. That is why it is essential that you research and study who your target user is to easily define your target market.

For this reason, understanding your target market is one of the most important things for a marketer. You will need to define who will use your product to craft a compelling marketing message. Let’s dive deeper.

What is Target Marketing?

Before you can craft your business’s target marketing strategies, you need to know what target marketing is. In simple terms, target marketing is identifying the who, where, why, and how’s of your prospective consumers. In addition, it involves research to understand the needs and behavior of your prospective buyers. With this, you will be able to break your market into segments during the process. You will also need to define who will use your product to craft effective target marketing strategies. These segments of consumers are known as the target market.

What is a Target Market?

Target market refers to the group who are more likely to avail of your product. Therefore, they are the intended recipients of your marketing messages. Usually, marketers categorize the target market by:

Demographics

This market segment refers to age, education, occupation, gender, race, religion, etc. Demographics answers the question, “Who will buy my product?” An example would be a barbershop focusing its target on the male population within an age bracket in the city.

Location

Next is the answer to the marketer’s question of, “Where are my customers?” For instance, a grocery store’s target is families and young professionals living in its neighborhood. However, in this digital age, location can also mean which websites or platforms your customers frequently log on to. Therefore, you should research your target consumers’ geographic areas or zones.

Psychographics

Why do your customers buy certain products? By answering this question, you will learn about the lifestyles and personalities of your target. For instance, a vegetarian restaurant will likely focus its brand messaging on people living a vegetarian lifestyle. Or, a publishing house will segment its audience on different genres of books.

Behavior

How do your customers behave? How much information do they need before they buy a product? And, where do they get their information from? Answering these questions will let you figure out your customer’s buying behavior. For example, a hardware store will focus on opening communication channels towards people who like do-it-yourself projects. Or, a charity organization will reach out to people who are concerned about education and hunger.

Top Target Marketing Strategies

With the target market now defined, you will develop your target marketing strategies. By doing so, you will deliver clear branding with messages that resonate with your target market. Here are the most popular target marketing strategies used by many organizations:

Mass Target Marketing

Mass Marketing or undifferentiated marketing is a target marketing strategy that involves the entire population. Meaning, your business or organization will create one target marketing strategy to target everyone. This marketing strategy focuses on reaching the masses through maximum product exposure.

For instance, products such as toothpaste and other essentials use this type of target marketing. Hence, they use mass media such as TV, radio, newspapers, and digital channels for maximum exposure.

Segment Target Marketing

This type of target marketing strategy differentiates its strategies to focus on a segment of the target market. Segment or differentiated target marketing focuses on a specific section in the market called the “target audience.” This targeted marketing strategy takes advantage of the difference between the market segments by designing a particular marketing mix.

A great example of an organization that uses a segment target marketing strategy is Shopify. The e-commerce platform differentiated itself from its competitors by taking its customer support and service further. Shopify even created a Twitter account solely to assist its customers.

Focus Target Marketing

It is sometimes called niche target marketing. A company that uses this target marketing strategy focuses on reaching a specific segment of the market. First, the said company will do market research to understand that market segment’s needs, motives, and behavior. Afterward, the company will design a marketing mix to target the said segment.

This target marketing strategy is perfect for businesses that have limited resources. By not competing in many markets and only catering to a specialized segment, these businesses will not strain their resources. One perfect example is how Starbucks became successful. Starbucks differentiated itself from its competitors during its startup years by focusing on serving customers who want gourmet coffee.

Micromarketing

As its name suggests, this target marketing strategy focuses on a narrower segment than focus target marketing. Micromarketing aims to reach individuals (individual marketing) or targeted geography (local marketing).

For instance, Etsy.com, which sells hand-made goods, focuses its marketing campaigns on individuals who like customized crafts. At the same time, Amazon Local and Groupon use local marketing by partnering with local businesses. These online service providers also offer timely deals in specific locations.

You and your marketing team can always customize and mix these top target marketing strategies.

Why Do You Need to have Target Marketing Strategies?

Doing the hard work at the start will help you define the target market earlier. Then, through research, surveys, and analyses, you will get information on the who, where, and how of your customers. Afterward, using the data, you will be able to design the perfect target marketing strategies. Through this, you will not waste resources and money to reach your intended audience.

Directly aiming and reaching out to people who are most interested in your product is more cost-efficient. So before you create your brand message, you need to understand who receives it. It is essential to know your target market because they need to relate to your brand’s message for them to buy. As a result, customer loyalty will increase. And, the only way to achieve this is to design target marketing strategies.

Full Scale specializes in assisting startup businesses to work efficiently. Our talented and experienced software developers, QAs, and digital marketing specialists will help you make your app, software, and website a reality.

Let’s take your business to the next level! Contact us now and start designing strategies for your business success.