In the Online World, knowing your market and pinpointing your target audience is absolutely crucial. If this is not identified correctly, there’s a high chance you’ll either miss appealing to a huge portion of potential customers, or you’ll be promoting to people who don’t want or need your particular product or service.
By knowing and listening to your market you’ll better be able to employ effective marketing strategies, fill product gaps and create the appropriate voice with which to communicate with your market.
As a Small Business Owner, one of the main ways you’ll likely be reaching your market is through an online presence, namely your website. This makes it a crucial tool when it comes to targeting your audience and providing them with what they want. If you’re a little unsure about how this happens online, then read on…
Your “Home Base”
Your website is essentially the ‘Home Base’ or ‘Door Step’ of your business. It’s where it all starts and is the first thing your potential customer will see when they land on your site. It’s what will determine their first impression of your business, and first impressions are everything online. This means that a lot of focus should be placed on making your website specific to your target market, so as to better attract and engage potential customers.
While creating a website which is perfectly tailored to your market may seem daunting, it is a huge benefit if carried out correctly for any Small Business Owner. The best place to start is by researching your market: what do they do for work? How old are they? What do they do in their spare time? What are their online behaviours and patterns? Once you have understood these questions, you’ll be able to use them as an effective guide from which to create your website.
You can customize products, colours, content and images to suit the specific likes, wishes and requirements of the people you’re trying to appeal to. This will ultimately result in greater interest in your business and likely see an increase in sales.
It’s also important to remember that your market is likely to change over time, so important to keep your finger on the pulse when monitoring your target audience. Perhaps there’s a trend that people are drawn to, or maybe a particular style has suddenly come into fashion. Whatever it may be, it’s vital to always be checking in with your market to make sure your website is appealing to their desires and requirements in the best possible way.
Your Website Allows You to Target Your Market Through SEO
While there are a multitude of ways to get noticed online by people in your market, SEO (or Search Engine Optimisation) is perhaps one of the most effective. One of the best ways to integrate SEO throughout your website is through high-quality content and copywriting.
SEO is essentially keywords that people within your market regularly search in Search Engines, like Google. For example, if your business is a pet shop, then good SEO keywords to use throughout your website content could include phrases such as “pet food” or “dog collars”. The Search Engine registers these keywords within your website and then ranks your business in accordance to relevance of the search. This means the more effective keywords you use, the higher your rank on Google and the more likely you are to get noticed by your audience.
When it comes to the creation of high-quality content that contains effective, well-written SEO, it pays to enlist the assistance of a professional copywriter. While you can attempt to write the content yourself, a professional will be much more able to strategically place and select keywords that see you really reaching your market and increasing your website hits.
Social Media Helps Too…
While having a website that’s tailored to your market is crucial, having audience-specific social media isn’t far behind in terms of importance. A strong social media presence can be invaluable when it comes to appealing to those you want to interact with and sell to.
The best way to approach social media as a Small Business Owner is consider which platform appeals to your market the most and works best for your business. If you sell a product that’s highly visual, then platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest will likely be most effective. Alternatively, if you offer a plumbing service, Facebook might be a better way in which to reach your market to let them know about deals, offers and business updates.
Whatever platform you choose, social media is another great tool any Small Business Owner can utilize to reach their target market.
Be Ready to Research and Change
Knowing your market involves a little bit of research. As mentioned previously, your market will constantly be changing, meaning you should always keep your eyes and ears open when it comes to knowing how best to appeal to it.
A custom designed website allows you to make the necessary changes and alterations to your site when you feel you should be appealing to your market in a slightly different way. It is the flexibility of custom design which will allow you to fill a product gap, change your layout, or add different features which aid in usability. All of this would ultimately be impossible on stock standard template-based website, which could see your online presence quickly deteriorate. As your market changes, your website needs to as well. Templates will simply see your online presence become outdated and stagnant.
It is with the correct research, clever monitoring and the effective use of your website and social media platforms that you will best be able to target your market effectively.
