Successful marketing is about understanding your target market (i.e. your customer) and meeting their wants and needs profitably. To make your marketing effective, you need to have a clear idea of your ideal target customer. This description is sometimes known as a 'customer avatar'.
If you plan to sell to individuals, how would you describe them? Describe them by gender, age, marital status, occupation, income, location, how many children they have and anything else that may be useful.
If you plan to sell to businesses, think about company size, sector, location and what sort of person in the business you are targeting (Office Manager, Accounts Department, Managing Director etc).
Think about the things that affect their buying decision: what, when, how and why they buy.
Next, describe your market and the characteristics and size of each market segment; what are the key market trends?
Where are your customers based? What prompts or motivates your customers to buy your products or services? What might trigger a potential customer to think of you - this can help you think about where to do your marketing and the message you give.
Have you sold your product/services to customers already or do you have customers waiting to buy? If so, try and describe them in detail.
Think about the profitability and sales potential of different groups of customers (known as market segments) and of different products or activities.
It can help you to think about your ideal customer by categorising them into good, better and ideal target - For example, if you are running a restaurant, your types of customer may be described as students, young couples, middle aged men, retired couples etc. Once you have described them, you can plot where they appear on your ideal customer target...which ones are the best?
Why not download the FREE customer avatar worksheet from our website and define your ideal customer...
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