When we give marketing talks at events we talk about Market Segmentation a lot. And many people ask the question: “What is market segmentation?”.
You see, when you’re running a business (and yes, you’re running a business if you’re self-employed) it’s important to know who you’re selling to.
So, here’s some thoughts from the Smashing Self-Employment Podcast on why breaking down your marketing into target audiences is important:
The idea of market segmentation is to identify the groups (or groups) of people most likely to be interested in what you have to offer.
Remember, when you start to focus your marketing on those most likely to buy then you’ll save time, money and hassle.
Not only that but your marketing will get better results too.
If you’ve been in business a little while then you should be able, with a little bit of thought, to work out some patterns in your customers.
Are they of a particular age bracket?
Is there a particular gender that you typically attract?
Is there an economic bias in them (lower, middle, upper incomes)
If you’re a local business then are your customers all local?
Are your customers on social media?
There are loads of other questions you can ask but it’ll do you a load of good to spend some time on this. Simply because you can then begin to focus your marketing on those particular people.
And focused market segmentation gets much better results
You see, when you put out broadcast marketing you’re hitting everyone and anyone. The worst part is that at least 90% of that marketing will have been wasted on folks who aren’t in your target market.
But when you know your market, you can then begin to focus your marketing.
Not only that but it should help you to improve the marketing messages you put there because you only need to speak to those most likely to buy.
This will save you time and money and get you better results because you’re wasting a lot less.
The key is to understand your market in as much detail as possible. Then it’s much easier to be in their space with your marketing messages.
Want more on marketing? Check out:
Why your customers buy – it’s often not about the product (article)
Are you doing enough marketing in your social media? If not, you should be (video)