When you are having a conversation with a total stranger, how do you know what to talk about?
You find some common ground and a topic that suit that particular situation....you can agree with me that this happens all the time in minibuses. You sometimes find a connection with a stranger; unless you don’t share same common grounds the conversation will probably be short-lived. Because neither of you have an understanding of the other, you must find a way to make a connection to involve each other into the conversation.
The same holds true for marketing and a business. Because a business to strive it has to keep the "fire burning.
In business we need to find a niche or a clearly defined targeted audience. This is after you have found an idea of what you want to do. So a niche is like a fire that keeps your business going. It is all about finding your audience.
Once you’ve selected a distinct group of people you believe can best help, you can research them so you begin to understand them.
Most marketing experts will tell you that you need to select a niche or a target audience. That you can’t just market to “whoever is paying attention” and be successful.
You must make a connection with your audience if you want them to pay attention and stay around to find out what your product or service is all about.
And, in order to make a connection, you have to know something about them. You have to know what problems they have that you can help to solve.
You have to understand them.
And you can be able to communicate effectively with them. And that’s what marketing is-communication.
So where can I find my niche? Your niche can be found through a set of questions which you shall ask yourself to help develop a very clear description of your target.
Then it will become much clearer to you where you can find them.
You may need to make some educated guesses when answering these questions and that’s okay. It’s a start and you can always refine your answers as your business grows and you begin to understand your target more.
10 universal questions that apply to any type of business or target audience.
1. What is their primary problem you can help solve?
You need to clearly identify the current problem your potential clients are dealing with as a result of a certain action, program or situation. That is the problem you can position yourself to help them overcome. Is it relationship issues? Is it job issues? Be as specific and focused as possible.
One place where you can find problems in your potential customer is through social media groups. Take your time to join as much groups relating to your business idea and see the questions people have and you can be able to filter out the most relevant ones but do not make others insecure just because you are trying to find more about them do it in a professional manner.
2. Are they primarily male or female?
This cannot be hard because when you are on such groups some could be specific enough and you can easily identify them.
3. How old are they?
For example, I’d say we’re primarily talking about women between the ages of 25 and 45 years old.
4. Where do they live? So here you will are basically looking for the type of community or neighborhood; is it urban area; suburban area? Also, do you have any geographic limitations (real or self-imposed) regarding where you can market or deliver your services or products?
If they are high functioning professional women, they likely live in a nicer suburban neighborhood or perhaps an urban area. So you will need to identify where you believe the majority live in your area and whether you only want to work with women in your immediate geographic area, or if you want to do distance business .
Somehow this could be broken down to you country and the district that you live for example in Malawi Blantyre. Because location can also help you decide what kind of service digital or physical service or product to deliver.
5. What type of work do they do? And where do they likely work? Their type of business as well as geographic location.
If you choose Professional people, this category could be corporate professionals, doctors, attorneys, entrepreneurs or solo-professionals. you will need to identify the fields you wish to focus on, taking into consideration the ones you feel include the greatest number of your target clients.
6. What is their socio-economic status or annual household income?
High functioning professional women are probably enjoying financial success, making them of a higher socio-economic class. They probably earn a good income and enjoy the finer things in life. Money is probably not an issue.
7. How do they spend their leisure time?
Do they belong to a gym or health club? Do they go to the movies or out to dinner frequently? Or, do they have young children and spend their time at elementary school functions, family picnics, children’s birthday parties or weekend soccer tournaments? Our life coach may need to make some assumptions here based on what she knows about her target. Again, that’s okay to start with. She can always fine-tune this later as she begins to understand these women better.
8. What is their family structure or home environment?
This niche of professional women probably includes single women as well as those who are married and have children. Therefore their home environments may vary. They may have no support or family network. They may have strong family support. Or, they may be having issues with their family based on their past. Our life coach will need to keep this in mind when she selects marketing avenues and writes her marketing messages. She’ll want to focus on what they have in common and steer away from areas of ambiguity.
9. Do they belong to any associations or professional organizations?
If you select one or several industries to target, you should be able to easily identify associations or professional organizations these people belong to. Once identified, these are excellent venues for networking and speaking opportunities.
10. What are their media habits?
Do they read the newspaper or magazines? If so, which ones? Listen to the radio? If so, which formats do they likely listen to? Do they watch TV? If so, which programs do they likely watch? Do they spend time on the Internet? If so, what kinds of web sites do you think they are visiting? Where do you think they are currently getting their information about health and wellness? These are all potential places to reach your niche with your marketing message.
You May need to make some assumptions. However all of these media can provide you with detailed demographic profiles of their audience. So if we’re looking for professional women in a certain geographic area, we’ll be able to find out if they are among the audiences for these different mediums.
Answer each of these 10 questions to the best of your ability. Talk to current clients to get insights. Or, talk to friends or colleagues who fit your client profile to gain a better understanding of whom and where they are.
Once you build this target client description, you’ll have a much better sense of where you can find them.
The next step is putting together a marketing message that speaks directly to them and what they are dealing with. The more you understand them, the more you’ll be able to craft a message that will hit home with them. That message will become your magnet, attracting the people who you can best help.
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