Who are These People? Picture Your Market

To sell your products or services, you need two things:
1. A product or service to sell
2. People to sell to

Getting the Picture. The problem is that you don’t know who these people are, and you need to find out. To find out, you have to create a picture of these people. Here are some suggestions for finding the story of your market, depending on whether you have a local market or a more widespread market, maybe on the Internet.

The picture of your market. What I mean by the “picture of your market” is that you need to do extensive research to create a visual image that describes the people you want to sell to. You need to ask some questions about them, to learn about them. For example:

• How old are these people?
• How much money do they have?
• What do they like? What don’t they like?
• What education do they have?
• How far will they go to buy things?

Clarifying the Picture. See what I mean? By the time you get done researching the market for your product, you have created a clear picture of the people who make up this market. The more detailed the picture, the better you can be at getting them to buy what you are selling. Here are some sources of information for researching local or larger markets:

If you have a local business

• Talk to the local Chamber of Commerce or Small Business Development Bureau
• Get an appointment with a SCORE marketing expert
• Go to city-data.com for extensive information about people in your city.
• Get information from local real estate companies. They have lots of data about homeowners, home values, and neighborhoods.
• Talk to the marketing people at radio and TV stations and the local newspaper. They also have good demographic data about your city or area.

If you have an internet business

• Find the website for an association that serves the people in your market. If you want to sell to gun owners, for example, try the NRA (National Rifle Association).
• Look at publications and magazines that serve your market. If you want to sell to gardeners, try a gardening publication.
• Find online chat sites where the people you want to talk to hang out.

For all types of businesses:

The best source of marketing information for businesses marketing to customers in the U.S. is InfoUSA.com.  While they won’t tell you who to market to, you can see the size of your specific market and purchase mailing lists and email lists.  You can specifically target a market with all kinds of variables.  For example, if I want to send something to women Baby Boomers in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois who are quilters, I can create and purchase a mailing list for this group.

Or I can target 20-somethings in California who make over $50,000 a year, are renters, and who love surfing.  Any demographic is available.  And the people at InfoUSA can help with questions.

Asking the question “Who are these people?” and getting the answer are essential first steps to your marketing success.

Image source: Newscom