Who Are You Targeting? Really?

by smartamarketing

To achieve true segment focus, manangers must be able to identify and define the markets they plan to market to/with.  To hone in on the segments to identify the ones that best fit their business/marketing strategy.

To do that, you must be able to answer a series of key questions, including:

• Who are the current customers that make up your market?
• Who are the future customers in that market that align with your product offering?
• Do you want more customers like them and are those customers profitable?
• What are the distinct segments in the market and how big is each segment (i.e., number of prospects, market value, and revenue expectation)?
• What is the growth rate of each segment and how much will it cost you to target each one?
• What are the major trends in each segment that make it attractive?
• Which characteristics (company size, revenue size, IT budget size, geographic location, business model, current needs or pain points) define the buyers in each segment and how do those characteristics align with your product offering and value proposition?
• Why (based on the criteria above) is a particular segment a good fit for your business?

Answering those questions should help you boil down your target market to the customer segments that make the most sense for you to target.