Did you know that by reducing your potential customers you could actually increase your profits?

By knowing who your target market is you could reduce your potential customers and those that remain would be more easily sold to. Therefore your sales would go up, your promotional costs go down and hence your profits rise.

Why Target Market ? Being able to serve just one group of people could easily put you in a superior position to your competitors. By finding and concentrating on just one group would keep your advertising costs to a minimum and your response rates much higher.

Advertise in a general magazine, for instance, and your advert is being wasted on a majority of readers. Now run your advert in a specialist publication, that your target market may read, and your advert will be seen by far many more interested readers. So you see, there is a definite need for you to know your target market and not believe that everyone is your potential customer. Then, and only then, can you concentrate your promotional efforts on the right people.

Once you know your market you will find that promoting to them is far easier. You will know which publications to advertise in and which events to visit and maybe promote at, even if it is just giving out your business cards. Gone will be the days of giving your business card to everyone, now you know exactly who to give them to. I am not suggesting you save money by reducing the number of cards you have printed. Still retain your repeat order with the printer but now your business cards are going to the people who are more likely to use your services. Cost of cards are the same but the potential business would increase.

How to Find Your Target Market This is the scary bit for many people. If I mention market research many will stop reading and quickly find another 'reader friendly' article but don't worry I have a better way of doing this. Before we look at that, though, let's consider what is involved to find your present market.

Your current customers are your first clue as to who your target market is. Conducting surveys with your existing customers will tell you more about the people who use your services. From these surveys you can build a picture of who your potential market is, where they come from (local, nationally, internationally for example), what they do and where you are most likely to be able to promote to them.

Another method of discovering your target market is to study your competition. Where do they promote, who are their customers, where are their outlets. Look at their marketing materials, their advertisements and, if they have one, their web site. From this information you may get a better understanding of the group of people they are promoting to.

As previously mentioned, all this requires market research and is time consuming. Now let's look at an alternative.

Create Your Own Target Market This is where you can reduce your potential customers yet still increase your profits. Become a specialist in one particular area of your business. A few examples may help.

A clothes shop would be just another clothes shop in any town or mall but if it specialized in, for example, party clothes, people would come from other areas for that special dress or suit.

If you own a book store then you are competing with similar stores with similar products in every town. Specialize in, for example, aviation books and you could get International recognition for the place to go for that particular subject. Well maybe not to 'go' but to order via mail order (could be an expensive book otherwise).

Think about your business and how you may be able to create a specialist niche for yourself within your industry. Is there a particular profession you do a lot of business with, an area of your country that requires your services more than any other, a hobby whose participants use your products. Define a niche for yourself then promote your business to that niche.

Maybe you could have more than one niche but keep them separate. If you have others working with you, a partner, spouse or trusted employee, then you could consider each having control of one particular niche. That person could then become the 'expert' in that area and give even more prestige and credibility to your business.

Conclusion By targeting your markets in this way you become the business to go to for the product or service type you supply. You become recognized as the expert in your industry and attract customers from further away. No longer will you waste time on people who may or may not be interested in what you have to offer. Your customers are now coming to you because they want to not because you are just another outlet, like so many others in your trade, that the customer checks out, browses and leaves.

Your advertising and returns become far more effective and you could also consider finding other companies, to partner with, that don't compete with you on product but have the same target market. Maybe joint advertisements or the occasional shared Trade Stand at exhibitions would be beneficial to both you and your new found promotional partner.

If you do exhibit at exhibitions then these benefits are not just financial. First, the exhibitions you choose could be less generalized and far more highly targeted. Second, there are the obvious cost savings of shared amenities but also the advantage of providing a larger presence, creating more interest and having more staff to manage the shared stand.

That last paragraph illustrates just one extra advantage of having a target market, there are plenty more, I am sure you could think of, for your own business. If you think deeply about your business, your products, your services and your customers you will be able to discover who your real target market is, or could be, and then re-position your business to take full advantage of target marketing.