Does every business have a single market? It might be better to say each marketing campaign has a single market and a business can run several campaigns for several markets. So, it is worth giving some thought to the markets for your offer or proposition.
Identify Your Markets
Some businesses say their services are for everyone and this can be a problem. How can you market to everyone? You need to address your market, so they know you are speaking to them. What can you possibly say that everyone would hear?
Some businesses mean, when they say they are for everyone, they don’t discriminate on grounds of demographics. Estate agents for example presumably don’t expect more of their customers to be men or women, they are looking for people who want to buy or sell a house. Many of us occasionally need their services but most of the time we don’t.
This is a useful albeit basic way of looking at a particular market and I’m sure estate agents segment their market into several more detailed groups. And they will approach them in different ways.
How Do I Approach it?
My business offers local marketing consultancy to local business, community and voluntary groups. This is a large market, especially as I offer my services to anyone anywhere in the country. So, how do I segment my market?
I have two major divisions in my market, (1) local businesses and (2) community and voluntary organisations. Each of these can be further subdivided, so for local businesses, perhaps (1.1) traders, (1.2) coaches, (1.3) self-employed and so on.
I could then take perhaps 1.2 and further subdivide them (1.2.1) life coaches, (1.2.2) career coaches and so on.
I can subdivide further but let’s say I chose life coaches. This is where I might introduce demographics. As I build an idea of what a member of this particular market is like, I may find this is a career where many practitioners are women and so my marketing might show that.
Maybe I build an avatar who is a woman and a life coach. Would this rule out working with male life coaches? No it would not. Your knowledge of the market and the way you picture each market is behind the scenes. It helps you personalise your marketing. What I say may be addressed to a female avatar but is likely to appeal to all life coaches.
How to Approach Multiple Markets
So, you have identified several markets, now what do you do?
If you are a small concern, choose one as a focus for your marketing. Choose one likely to be responsive. If you do this well, your offer will be clearer and you may be approached by others who don’t fit that market.
But your aim is to reach that particular market and that may be the best point of concentration for you. If you choose to market to more than one small market you are likely to find capacity becomes an issue.
Each market needs to be addressed individually and whilst this is possible, it can become a lot of work. Bear in mind most campaigns don’t work, so you may be better off focusing on one or very few markets likely to respond positively to your message.
Of course, you need to know about your wider market to find smaller markets likely to be more responsive. You may find if you begin with a larger market, you get interest from a small section and you can focus your marketing on that section, as you develop your business.
The Pareto Principle might help you with this. It says, 80% of your business is through 20% of your customers. There’s a lot more to it but it means whilst you may have a large potential market, the chances are a small corner of it will deliver most of your business. Find that corner and use your marketing to address them.
Have you found a corner of a larger market that responds positively to your offer? How did you find them and how do you approach them?