How to Define Your Target Market

To have a successful marketing campaign in any industry, you must segment your audience into approachable groups, or “target markets.” A target market is a specific group of people identified as the most likely potential customers for a product or service due to shared characteristics. These characteristics include age, lifestyle, income, habits, and interests.

It can be tempting to jump straight into planning the components of your marketing campaign, but understanding your customer is the key to success. In this article, we will cover two things:

 

    • What type of data can be segmented

    • How to use that segmented data

It is important to define your target market by segments so you can understand as much information as possible about your target market. The more specifically you can define your target market, the better. Segmentation is the process of dividing your target market into groups that share similar characteristics, such as demographics. Let’s get into the heads of your target customers and look at the types of data we can gather.

Target Market Types

Demographic

Demographic targeting is the most common type of segmentation. It allows you to understand the basic makeup of your target customers. It groups an audience based on:

 

    • Age

    • Gender

    • Religion

    • Marital status

    • Family size

    • Education

    • Income

    • Other parameters

A simple way to get demographic data is by using Google Analytics 4 on your website. You must ensure the demographics data collection tool is turned ON; otherwise, GA4 will not gather demographic data on your site users. I’ll also show you another free way to get demographic data in this short video: [Insert Video Link].

Psychographic

Psychographics are the personality traits and attitudes of your customers. While demographic data is more information-based, psychographics help you understand why customers buy. This segmentation allows you to gain deeper insights into your target market by understanding the motivations of your ideal customer. Examples of psychographics include:

 

    • Personality

    • Lifestyle

    • Attitudes

    • Opinions

    • Values

    • Interests

Companies collect psychographic data through focus groups, market research, website traffic data, and visitor feedback. A great free tool to help you collect psychographics is Answer The Public. Understand the common questions potential customers ask to better grasp your target market’s values.

Behavioral

Behavioral data is elite. This type of segmentation groups customers based on shared behaviors, like using the same apps or purchasing similar products. Don’t get me wrong—demographic data is great—but modern behavioral segmentation, collected from buyers’ actions, is extremely effective. Examples include:

 

    • Abandoning a cart

    • Any website engagement

    • Items in a shopping cart

    • Newsletter enrollment

    • Creating an account on your website

    • Engaging with a social media post

    • Downloading something on your site

Collecting and analyzing customer behavior data can be challenging. I recommend using Hotjar, which is free for up to three pages. By using this heatmap, you can see how users behave on your webpage. That’s a good place to start, but it’s not even close to everything you can do. I highly recommend watching this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/9a33nnycqL4.

Other customer behaviors to research include their interactions with your business (online and offline), the types of products they purchase, and how they use your products or services.

Firmographic

Firmographic segmentation divides customers into groups based on shared company or organization attributes. This type is similar to demographics, but firmographics apply to organizations instead of people. Examples include:

 

    • Size of the organization

    • Ownership type

    • Annual revenue

    • Company reach

    • Revenue

    • Growth information

    • Other performance metrics

Here’s an amazing tool people don’t know about: Google Dataset Search.

Primary Target Market

Your primary target market is the segment of a marketplace you believe will give you the best chance to make a sale. It’s a specific group of consumers you want to attract to your product or service using targeted marketing. Your primary target market will be defined by your market and segmentation research and will fall into one or more of the target market types listed above.

Making Your Perfect Target Market Profile

Now that we understand what types of data we can gather and how to collect that data, let’s dive into creating your target market profile. This is called the DRT method, which stands for Define, Research, Target. Let’s use a made-up company for examples on how to do this: an outerwear clothing e-commerce company specializing in rugged, super-cold mountaineering conditions.

Define – Research – Target

While generating plenty of traffic for your website is a key goal of online marketing, it’s not the only component. Identifying your ideal customers will help you tailor your marketing efforts, product offerings, and business approach to meet their needs and preferences. Understanding your target market can also refine your messaging and ensure your brand resonates with the right people.

1. Define Your Message

Defining your brand is an essential part of creating a successful marketing strategy. Before you start thinking about your target market or industry, defining your message and brand identity is crucial. The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) model can be useful for this process. Here are five ways to define your message for your target market:

 

    • Brand Message: Your brand message should be clear and concise, speaking directly to your unique strengths. It should summarize your product or service’s benefits and what sets you apart from competitors. Consider what makes your business unique and why your target market should choose you over competitors. Make it easy to understand, avoiding industry jargon or overly technical language that might confuse or alienate potential customers.

    • Speaking to Your Unique Strengths (USP): Your brand message should highlight your unique strengths and what sets you apart. This could be exceptional customer service, cutting-edge technology, or innovative product design. Lisa Furze shares a wonderful technique for finding your USP: https://lisafurze.com/blog/find-usp-service-based-business/.

    • Your Vision: Your brand’s vision should articulate your long-term goals and aspirations. It should state what you want your brand to achieve and what you want to be known for in the market. Your vision should be inspiring, aspirational, and resonate with your target market.

    • Your Promise (Guarantee) – EOS Method: Your brand promise is the guarantee you make to customers about the quality and value of your product or service. It should clearly state what customers can expect and how you’ll deliver. The EOS method is a favorite template for defining your brand’s message and guarantee.

    • Your Tone: Your brand’s tone is the voice and personality used to communicate with your target market. It should be consistent across all marketing channels and reflect your brand’s values and personality. For example, your tone can be formal or informal, depending on your target market and industry.

By defining your brand message, vision, promise, and tone using the EOS model, you’ll have a clear understanding of what your brand stands for and how you want to communicate with your target market.

2. Industry Research

Proper industry research provides valuable insights into buyer and seller power, as well as competitive analysis that can inform your marketing and sales strategies. It’s crucial to have a solid understanding of your industry.

 

    • Seller Power: Seller power refers to the influence of suppliers, distributors, and other industry players. Factors include the number and size of suppliers, competition among them, and the availability of substitutes. Understanding seller power helps position your business to compete effectively.

    • Competitive Research: Competitive research is essential for understanding your industry and target market. It involves conducting a SWOT analysis to identify your business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as researching competitors’ marketing strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. Using tools like SEMrush, you can improve your online marketing efforts and fill out this .

    • SWOT Analysis: A thorough SWOT analysis identifies your business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, helping you pinpoint areas for improvement and capitalize on opportunities.

3. Creating Your Target Customer Profile

Now that we have a solid understanding of the industry, the next step is to create a detailed profile of our target customers. By clearly understanding our target audience, we can create marketing messages that resonate and develop strategies to reach them effectively.

Using the methods explained earlier, fill out this with accurate information about your potential customer.

 

    • Demographic: Includes characteristics like age, gender, income, education level, and geographic location. Learn how to get demographic data using or a second method [Insert Second Method].

    • Psychographic: Includes values, interests, and personality traits. This helps understand the emotional drivers motivating your target audience and craft messages that resonate.

    • Behavioral: Includes buying habits, brand loyalty, and purchasing frequency. Use this to understand purchasing behaviors and develop strategies to meet needs.

    • Firmographic: Includes industry, company size, and job title. This helps understand B2B audience needs and pain points.

    • Needs-Based: Understand specific needs and pain points to tailor messages and create solutions.

Your Target Customer Profile Example

By combining demographic, psychographic, behavioral, firmographic, and needs-based information, we can create a detailed target customer profile. This should include a description of your target audience’s motivations, challenges, and preferences. Creating a detailed profile helps understand your audience’s needs, develop effective marketing messages, and stand out in a crowded marketplace.ny industry, you must segment your audience into approachable groups, or “target markets.” A target market is a specific group of people identified as the most likely potential customers for a product or service due to shared characteristics. These characteristics include age, lifestyle, income, habits, and interests.

It can be tempting to jump straight into planning the components of your marketing campaign, but understanding your customer is the key to success. In this article, we will cover two things:

 

    • What type of data can be segmented

    • How to use that segmented data

It is important to define your target market by segments so you can understand as much information as possible about your target market. The more specifically you can define your target market, the better. Segmentation is the process of dividing your target market into groups that share similar characteristics, such as demographics. Let’s get into the heads of your target customers and look at the types of data we can gather.

Target Market Types

Demographic

Demographic targeting is the most common type of segmentation. It allows you to understand the basic makeup of your target customers. It groups an audience based on:

 

    • Age

    • Gender

    • Religion

    • Marital status

    • Family size

    • Education

    • Income

    • Other parameters

A simple way to get demographic data is by using Google Analytics 4 on your website. You must ensure the demographics data collection tool is turned ON; otherwise, GA4 will not gather demographic data on your site users. I’ll also show you another free way to get demographic data in this short video: [Insert Video Link].

Psychographic

Psychographics are the personality traits and attitudes of your customers. While demographic data is more information-based, psychographics help you understand why customers buy. This segmentation allows you to gain deeper insights into your target market by understanding the motivations of your ideal customer. Examples of psychographics include:

 

    • Personality

    • Lifestyle

    • Attitudes

    • Opinions

    • Values

    • Interests

Companies collect psychographic data through focus groups, market research, website traffic data, and visitor feedback. A great free tool to help you collect psychographics is Answer The Public. Understand the common questions potential customers ask to better grasp your target market’s values.

Behavioral

Behavioral data is elite. This type of segmentation groups customers based on shared behaviors, like using the same apps or purchasing similar products. Don’t get me wrong—demographic data is great—but modern behavioral segmentation, collected from buyers’ actions, is extremely effective. Examples include:

 

    • Abandoning a cart

    • Any website engagement

    • Items in a shopping cart

    • Newsletter enrollment

    • Creating an account on your website

    • Engaging with a social media post

    • Downloading something on your site

Collecting and analyzing customer behavior data can be challenging. I recommend using Hotjar, which is free for up to three pages. By using this heatmap, you can see how users behave on your webpage. That’s a good place to start, but it’s not even close to everything you can do. I highly recommend watching this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/9a33nnycqL4.

Other customer behaviors to research include their interactions with your business (online and offline), the types of products they purchase, and how they use your products or services.

Firmographic

Firmographic segmentation divides customers into groups based on shared company or organization attributes. This type is similar to demographics, but firmographics apply to organizations instead of people. Examples include:

 

    • Size of the organization

    • Ownership type

    • Annual revenue

    • Company reach

    • Revenue

    • Growth information

    • Other performance metrics

Here’s an amazing tool people don’t know about: Google Dataset Search.

Primary Target Market

Your primary target market is the segment of a marketplace you believe will give you the best chance to make a sale. It’s a specific group of consumers you want to attract to your product or service using targeted marketing. Your primary target market will be defined by your market and segmentation research and will fall into one or more of the target market types listed above.

Making Your Perfect Target Market Profile

Now that we understand what types of data we can gather and how to collect that data, let’s dive into creating your target market profile. This is called the DRT method, which stands for Define, Research, Target. Let’s use a made-up company for examples on how to do this: an outerwear clothing e-commerce company specializing in rugged, super-cold mountaineering conditions.

Define – Research – Target

While generating plenty of traffic for your website is a key goal of online marketing, it’s not the only component. Identifying your ideal customers will help you tailor your marketing efforts, product offerings, and business approach to meet their needs and preferences. Understanding your target market can also refine your messaging and ensure your brand resonates with the right people.

1. Define Your Message

Defining your brand is an essential part of creating a successful marketing strategy. Before you start thinking about your target market or industry, defining your message and brand identity is crucial. The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) model can be useful for this process. Here are five ways to define your message for your target market:

 

    • Brand Message: Your brand message should be clear and concise, speaking directly to your unique strengths. It should summarize your product or service’s benefits and what sets you apart from competitors. Consider what makes your business unique and why your target market should choose you over competitors. Make it easy to understand, avoiding industry jargon or overly technical language that might confuse or alienate potential customers.

    • Speaking to Your Unique Strengths (USP): Your brand message should highlight your unique strengths and what sets you apart. This could be exceptional customer service, cutting-edge technology, or innovative product design. Lisa Furze shares a wonderful technique for finding your USP: https://lisafurze.com/blog/find-usp-service-based-business/.

    • Your Vision: Your brand’s vision should articulate your long-term goals and aspirations. It should state what you want your brand to achieve and what you want to be known for in the market. Your vision should be inspiring, aspirational, and resonate with your target market.

    • Your Promise (Guarantee) – EOS Method: Your brand promise is the guarantee you make to customers about the quality and value of your product or service. It should clearly state what customers can expect and how you’ll deliver. The EOS method is a favorite template for defining your brand’s message and guarantee.

    • Your Tone: Your brand’s tone is the voice and personality used to communicate with your target market. It should be consistent across all marketing channels and reflect your brand’s values and personality. For example, your tone can be formal or informal, depending on your target market and industry.

By defining your brand message, vision, promise, and tone using the EOS model, you’ll have a clear understanding of what your brand stands for and how you want to communicate with your target market.

2. Industry Research

Proper industry research provides valuable insights into buyer and seller power, as well as competitive analysis that can inform your marketing and sales strategies. It’s crucial to have a solid understanding of your industry.

 

    • Seller Power: Seller power refers to the influence of suppliers, distributors, and other industry players. Factors include the number and size of suppliers, competition among them, and the availability of substitutes. Understanding seller power helps position your business to compete effectively.

    • Competitive Research: Competitive research is essential for understanding your industry and target market. It involves conducting a SWOT analysis to identify your business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as researching competitors’ marketing strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. Using tools like SEMrush, you can improve your online marketing efforts and fill out this .

    • SWOT Analysis: A thorough SWOT analysis identifies your business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, helping you pinpoint areas for improvement and capitalize on opportunities.

3. Creating Your Target Customer Profile

Now that we have a solid understanding of the industry, the next step is to create a detailed profile of our target customers. By clearly understanding our target audience, we can create marketing messages that resonate and develop strategies to reach them effectively.

Using the methods explained earlier, fill out this with accurate information about your potential customer.

 

    • Demographic: Includes characteristics like age, gender, income, education level, and geographic location. Learn how to get demographic data using or a second method [Insert Second Method].

    • Psychographic: Includes values, interests, and personality traits. This helps understand the emotional drivers motivating your target audience and craft messages that resonate.

    • Behavioral: Includes buying habits, brand loyalty, and purchasing frequency. Use this to understand purchasing behaviors and develop strategies to meet needs.

    • Firmographic: Includes industry, company size, and job title. This helps understand B2B audience needs and pain points.

    • Needs-Based: Understand specific needs and pain points to tailor messages and create solutions.

Your Target Customer Profile Example

By combining demographic, psychographic, behavioral, firmographic, and needs-based information, we can create a detailed target customer profile. This should include a description of your target audience’s motivations, challenges, and preferences. Creating a detailed profile helps understand your audience’s needs, develop effective marketing messages, and stand out in a crowded marketplace.