How to Better Understand Your Target Market

Having a defined target market – a specific group
of people that you focus on reaching in order to
sell your services – is critical for effective and
successful marketing. In fact, there’s a saying
“If you try to market to everyone you end up
marketing to nobody.”

This is especially true when marketing coaching.
Coaches who try to be all things to all people, struggle.
Coaches who define a narrow target market with
specific wants, needs and desires and then focus
their energy on reaching and serving those people
get results.

Because here’s the deal: If you don’t know who
your best prospects are, and as much as you can
about them, you are going to waste a lot of time,
energy and money trying to market to people who
are not interested in what you have to offer.
Answer the following questions to see how
well you know your target market.

9 Questions To Better Understand Your Target Market

1. How well can you describe your target market?
Write at least one paragraph and be as specific as possible.

2. What are their biggest problems?
What keeps them awake at night?

3. How are they currently addressing these problems?

4. What are their most important goals and desires?

5. What obstacles are keeping them from achieving
these goals and desires?

6. Does this target market use coaching to address
their big problems and achieve their most important goals?

7. How can you find your target market?

8. Where does your target market “hang out,”
both in person and online?

9. How would your target market search for you?

Unless you’ve been in business for a while,
or you’re just a total rockstar, my guess is you
may not immediately know the answers to all
of these questions.

So your next step is to engage in some target
market research. While it might seem like a lot
of work, investing the time and energy to really
understand your market pays huge dividends!

7 Ways To Rearch Your Target Market

1. Conduct an online survey. People love to give
their opinions and if you make it quick and easy for
them, they will tell you exactly what you need to know.
I like Surveymonkey.com.

2. Do personal interviews with current and past clients.
Not only is this approach great for gaining in-depth,
first-hand knowledge, it’s also an excellent strategy
for reconnecting with past clients who might now be
ready for additional coaching.

3. Run focus groups. This strategy is great because
you can gain a lot of information at once and the
participants in the group will often feed off of each
other, enabling you to get even deeper information.
In fact, a coach in one of my recent trainings did
several focus groups and in addition to learning
a ton about her target market, she also discovered
that they loved connecting with other women in a
group environment. So the coach altered her
business model and started offering group coaching!

4. Research your competitors. It’s a good sign
when other coaches are serving the same target
market as you. It means that that market hires
coaches. You can quickly increase your knowledge
by studying the marketing messages of your
competitors.

5. Reach out to industry experts and people in
your target market. This can also have unexpected
benefits. For example, one of my clients was invited
to speak at an industry event by a big wig he
interviewed as part of his market research.

6. Talk to other professionals who serve your
target market. These people are also your ideal
strategic alliance and joint venture partners.
So in addition to gaining lots of information,
you can also start developing powerful
relationships with people who can help
you more easily reach your ideal clients.

7. Immerse yourself in your target market.
Read magazines, books and articles.
Attend conferences and events. Participate
in online social networks and forums. Join
associations and clubs. You don’t necessarily
have to eat, drink and breathe your target market,
but it sure can’t hurt!

The Bottom Line: There’s an old expression that
says that you need to walk a mile in someone else’s
shoes in order to really understand them.

Do this with your target market and you’ll find
yourself with a wealth of information that will
enable you to better connect with, market to,
enroll and serve your ideal clients.

As opposed to a mile from where you started
in a pair of stolen shoes! Ha ha ha ha ha.