Your list of prospects will be of real use in your marketing campaign only if it accurately reflects the profile of the audiences targeted. Have the customers of the product or service been identified in terms of their geographic and demographic profile, their employment status, profession, special interests, membership of clubs, and so on? Have you compiled a list of your business targets in terms of where they are located, their size, names of the decision maker, and repeat purchase percentage? Have you identified the best sales channels to reach these target customers? Sales efforts can only be as good as the list of prospects selected in the identified target markets, and that list must reflect the profile of the audience the marketing proposition was developed to reach. 

Ensure that You Are Giving Your Customers What They Want 
With a thorough understanding of the needs and wants of your ideal customers, strive to create an offering and proposition giving them: 
 • Exactly what they want 
 • Precisely when they need it 
 • In a way that is convenient for them 
 • At a price they can afford and are prepared to pay  

If you are not convinced that your sales proposition meets all of these criteria, then study the profile of the selected customers again and revise your offering. Is it about quality or quantity of prospects? A precision-driven marketing approach with a high-quality list of prospective customers or leads will, dollar for dollar (of marketing spent), prove far more productive and profitable than an untargeted blanket approach to generate sales. Quality of leads, based on understanding, knowledge, and careful profiling of customers and their needs, will increase your ability to convert these leads into sales. 

Pinpoint what Your Prospects and Customers Want or Need 
Having selected ideal customer groups, you’ll now need to be absolutely clear about what they want and need, and exactly what it is that you are going to offer them. This understanding will enable you to develop the specific marketing message and proposition that will most effectively sell the benefits of your product or service to them. If these messages are wrong, then it’s almost certain that your marketing efforts will fail, as customers will buy from competitors. Your product, service, or business proposition will have missed the target completely. 

Before developing a marketing strategy, it’s always worthwhile to speak to a sample from the target audience. Consider having a focus group or randomly selecting businesses from the identified audience profile to interview or survey. 

Check that the profile of your intended market is the right one, and test your assumptions about what you think they want and why they would buy from you. You could do this by speaking directly to a group of people or undertaking a survey in the form of a questionnaire, which can be e-mailed to a sample of target customers, or created and sent out in forum discussions or social media. (Check out www.surveymonkey.com, as a costeffective online survey tool.) Alternatively, you could talk to passersbys in a location that is frequented by your ideal customers, but this could be very time consuming and may not be as accurate. 

 Things to Avoid 

Failing to Test Assumptions 
The most common mistakes made when targeting products and services toward specific users are caused by not testing the assumptions made about your audience. You’ll waste valuable time and marketing budget if a campaign is launched toward an audience without accurately identifying who those customers are or precisely defining what they want and why they should buy from you versus the competition. 

Lack of Focus 
Do not buy into a list of unknown prospects no matter how attractive it seems to get names of thousands of people to blanket sell to in the short term. Find out who they are, where they are located, and test the assumptions about what you believe they want. By testing, you can either confirm the profiling was right, or adjust the offering until it is right. Being precise will lead to more sales more quickly, and more profit over the longer term. 

Market is a generic word used to describe any group or organization who might become a customer of your product or services. However, not everyone is a customer of your products or services. How do you go about target marketing and finding out who your most probable customer is? 

If you had the ability to target only those who are most likely to buy – your most probable customers – your business would most likely be very successful! Knowing this information, you could direct all your marketing efforts specifically to people who are likely to buy, rather than to a wide spectrum of people, many of whom are not likely to buy. 

The first step is to look at your overall market and identify its various subgroups or “market segments.” Once these segments are identified, evaluate them and select the market segment that will produce the best results for your business. This will become your “primary market segment.” 

The other identified market segments that produce desirable results are called secondary market segments or, as Michael E. Gerber of the E-Myth Mastery refers to them, “flanker market segments.” 

 How do you describe a market segment? What enables you to differentiate one market segment from another while trying to differentiate the segments and identify prospective customers to attract to your business? 

Demographics are used all the time in business to find probable customers. Every time you speak of someone’s address, age, income, education, family size, and marital status, you are speaking the language of demographics. Demographics are the objective, directly observable characteristics that best describe people and organizations. We see it all the time when you fill out a form to receive something in return. The form will ask specific targeted questions to best identify if you fit the target market for that company. 

Standard demographics include the following elements: 
While performing research and determining the demographics for commercial customers, keep in mind that a person (not a business) makes the buying decision. The decision process is different for organizations and is influenced by additional factors that depend on the nature of the organization or the persona of the organization. The demographics of an organization include: 

 • Industry 
 • Product Line
 • Size of business (sales, number of employees, etc.) 
 • Type of business (manufacturer, distributor, retailer, reseller, etc.) 
 • Location (headquarters, number of branches, operation locations) 
 • Geographic scope of business (local, regional, national, international) 
 • Financial status of the business (revenues, profits, leverage, etc.) 

How can you get the demographic information you need, now that you have identified the individual and business questions? The best source is objective, professional market research. I am in no way an expert in market research, nor do I claim to be, but I realize the importance of finding out this information. Here are some valuable sources to finding demographic information: 

Formal Approaches: 
• If you can afford it, use a professional market research firm 
• Get free information from sources such as: 
  - Department of Commerce 
- Chamber of Commerce 
- Small Business Administration
- State and Local Governments 
- Bureau of Labor Statistics 
- Local Newspapers and Magazines 
- Census Bureau 
- Library Reference Sections 
- The Internet (Google, Yahoo, Bing, Technorati, Social Media) 
• Have customers complete a demographic questionnaire on your Web site or in a survey 
• Conduct a telephone survey (preferably with an outside source so you can get reliable information) 

 Informal Approaches: 
• Collect data in-house through observation of customers by asking well-placed questions to get information that cannot be      observed. Be sure to document your findings. 
• Create a customer demographics questionnaire 
• Gather information on a monthly basis during different months of the year to compile accurate data 

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I get asked every day... 

I need to reach more people on Twitter. What’s the secret to getting a lot of followers? 

My response is another question: “Do you want to show a big number on the screen, or create profitable relationships?” 

If you are looking for a way to find more people who are anxious to have what it is you offer, and never waste time selling to people who don’t want what you have, then you are ready for what we call Profitable Social Media 

First, you need to learn the secret of marketing in future: 


LISTEN: Read others Tweets. Learn what your market wants and get it for them. 

LOVE: Respond to questions, refer people to resources. Especially to those people who have little or no chance of buying through your existing sales process. Do this as often possible and say thank you whenever you can.

Have fun helping people and you will be attractive or "Follow Worthy" as we talk about in Twitter Revolution .. It turns out that people want to do business with those they know, like and trust. 

You may be getting advice that some system will get you more followers and automate marketing on Twitter. Many of them don't work, even the ones that do will make you look like a 20th Century marketer and could get you labeled as a spammer. (read more on "Don't Be THAT GUY at the Social Media Party" here). People don’t want to buy from “that guy”

The "followers" number posted on a profile is not the best indicator of whether someone is helping other. It is one indicator of activity. 

Better number would be: 

• The number of conversations you have 
• How often you recommended a good link that doesn't point to a self serving sales page 
• The tweets you get from someone that say "thanks for the help" 
• The number of times you use retweet functions (RT) to share others tweets. 

A few "famous off Twitter" people can build up a following regardless of whether they engage with the public. Most of use regular folkswon't see any value from Twitter until we engage in listening and love (caring). 


There are many examples of sales through Twitter. Dell attributes $6.5 million to posting deals. Dell can do that, they are a multi-billion dollar company. It is possible to sell things on Twitter, but if that’s what you aim for, you may be seen as the pushy salesman and lose out on the majority of profitable prospects there. 

Zappos.com is a better example of a company that gets "listen and love" The CEO tweets as @Zappos and most of the office staff does too. You may see a special offer, but mostly they are listening to their customers talk about shoes and joining conversations to add value, help and spread love and good energy. 

The Secret of High Follower Counts 

They don't do much for click through results. More connection give you more opportunities to listen and love and more conversations result in real people, real relationships and real business. However, when I post a link with tracking data.. the results are about the same as when I had 1/10 the followers. Twitter is not a broadcast medium. 

The revolution in sales and marketing is just starting. With the technology we have now, there is no reason to ever try to pitch someone that is not anxious to hear from you. Rather, we teach our clients monitor the Tweet stream for conversations and questions of those that are looking for a solution (Listen), then where appropriate, join in the conversation answer a question give advice without any expectation of making a sales pitch (LOVE). 

You can focus on helping people in your target market, or just help in general. People will be attracted to you when you GIVE.. it's the Law of Reciprocity (you can get anything you want if you help enough others get what they want).. we want to do business with givers.. people that we know, like and trust. Asking for a sale too soon kills that process. 

Fortunately, the technology today allows us to meet and network, get to know people and build a trust relationship fast. A good salesman knows that marketing is a process and hones his skill. Today, the skill that we all need to learn is "listen and love" .. It's a lot more fun than cold calling, much more productive and will transform us all into better people. 

Why waste time selling to someone that doesn't want to buy.. there are millions looking for whatever you have.. just help them get what they want! 

Listen and Love... it’s as simple as that. 

Warren Whitlock is the co-author of “Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online,” the first book on Twitter, social media marketing strategists, speaker. He blogs at http://BestSellerAuthors.com/blog


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The beauty of target marketing is that it makes the promotion, pricing, and distribution of your products and/or services easier and more cost effective. Target marketing provides a focus for all marketing activities. Your purchasing target consists of the individuals or businesses within the defined target market that need the product or service and can actually afford to purchase the product or service. Purchasing Target = People who form buying centers, that is, those responsible for purchasing the required products or services for a company or organization. The communication used to target this market is referred to as the communication target. The messages sent through the communication target can be presented both formally or informally. Communication Target = the objective of the communications to the customers. For example, the objective could be to increase awareness of a brand by 10 percent or to sell X number of units. 

 The first job when profiling a target market is to precisely identify the audience and to determine the purchasing target through communication channels. Can you accurately describe the characteristics of ideal customers? Which customers currently spend the most? Why do they do this? If you don’t know the answers, it is time to stop, evaluate, and find out. Business owners most likely already have a good idea about the groups of people or types of businesses to whom they can sell a product and/or service. Individual customers may be people of a certain age, gender, socioeconomic status, occupation, or a group with common or special interests, such as sports or hobbies. Business customers might be located in a specific area, or in a particular sector, or could have similarities in terms of the customer groups. The objective should be to concentrate marketing on groups of people, businesses, or existing customers who are most likely to buy a product or service. This takes experience, but once a target group of people or businesses is identified, you’ll have completed the first step in profiling the identified market and now have a list of target prospects who are ideal customers. 

Don’t forget existing customers or, even better, customers of competitors, if that is possible. Double-check to ensure the marketing message is right for the selected target market. Once communication with the target market takes place and customer needs are confirmed, you’ll be in a position to create or adapt a marketing proposition to sell the benefits of the product or service. Consider carefully whether there is anything further that will make the marketing message even more appealing. Will these communications convince them that the product or service being offered can provide the benefits that meet their exact needs? 

Once you know who your target market buyer is, you will have a far better chance of being able to create marketing copy for your company that will appeal to what they want. For example, if your target market buyer is a 20-something single businessman, he’s probably more interested in his mindset of what looks good and what will attract positive attention than what the actual product or service item costs. This target customer will be attracted by marketing campaigns that state “Stand Out From the Crowd” and “Lead the Pack” than he will by ones which just list features that can be found on other similar items elsewhere. On the other hand, if your target market buyer is busy mom on a tight financial budget, then using marketing copy that has headlines such as “Need to Find Extra Time in Your Day?” or “Increase your Time for Less Expense” (if these are appropriate to your product/service) will have a much better appeal to this target market audience. 

Having identified your target demographic audience, you’ll not only be able to use this information to increase your lead to conversion rate, but you’ll also find that you are able to run a more effective advertising campaign where you put ads for your website in websites or in other media where this demographic is likely to hang out. This is where the analysis of what interests a particular demographic audience has its main power. It may seem like a lot of hard work to identify your target demographic audience, but you’ll find that it will increase not only your lead to conversion rate, but your profit margins. In the long term, this time well spent in identifying the right target audience with the right message that they want to hear, will pay off. Share  Bookmark this on Delicious

Sharpshooting has developed more and more into a popular sport. Highly proficient, a shooter knows his or her weapon, ammunition and target well. The shooter aims at the target and with the utmost poise, delivers the ammunition and hits the target! The proficiency and accuracy comes from extensive training, development of a skill set and determination to succeed. A business marketing leader is similar to the athlete noted for accurate aim. Trained to recognize the target market, with full knowledge of a company and it's products, a marking sharpshooter identifies the needs of the customer to aim and deliver products or services with a commitment to excellence.

"How do you market you business?" Many small business owners focus on creating the best products or services based on their skills, knowledge and abilities, then find customers who need or want what they have to offer. The services are created, for instance, on what the would want or what they believe other people would need. Structure is then built around these ideas, marketing messages are created, a Web site is built, and off they go - feeling like they're going to change the world. Then reality sets in. Few prospective customers visit their web site and there are few incoming calls about their offerings.

If the business owners do not get discouraged and give up, they often either go looking for a business coach to take courses in marketing and copyrighting to empower them to grow their businesses. In turn they get sold on the idea that if they were more clear in their marketing messages, people would flock to their businesses. While it's not a poor plan to use a business coach or focus on your copyrighting, this does not always relate to selling more of your products and services and making more money. 

The real advise here is to have the plan in place (the get ready), determine how you are going to market this new idea (the get set), and roll out the implementation of the new idea of products or services to meet customers' needs (the go!)Share  Bookmark this on Delicious

When researching and writing a business plan, the focus of the Market Analysis section is critical and a thorough examination of your target market needs to take place first.  Target market are those people that you intend to sell your products or services to.

The first step is to define your target market.  If you want to know more about how to do this, see my new book titled Full BRAIN Marketing that is available on www.amazon.com and www.fullbrainmarketing.com.  

Even if you intend on selling a product or service only in your own city or state, you're not selling that product or service to everyone who lives there. The first step is to identify exactly what the people who might be interested in buying your product or service are like, and how many of them there are.

The next step is to make some projections about your target market, in terms of how much of your product or service they may buy, and how the target market may be affected by trends and policies.

When developing a business plan, research is the key. Before writing the market analysis section of the business plan, use these general questions to start your research:

Target Market

• How old is the identified target market?

• What gender are they?

• Where do they live?

• What is their family structure (number of children, extended family, etc.)?

• What is their income?

• What do they do for a living?

• What is their lifestyle?

• How do they spend their spare time?

• What motivates them?

• What is the size of your target market?

Don’t stop here. To define a target market, ask the specific questions that are directly related to your products or services. For instance, if you plan to sell computer-related services, identify such things as how many computers prospective customers own.

If you plan to sell garden furniture and accessories, what kinds of garden

furniture or accessories have they bought in the past and how often?

Projections About the Target Market

• What percentage of your target market has used a similar product?

• How much product or service might the target market buy? (Estimate this in gross sales and/or 

in units of product/service sold.)

• What proportion of the target market might be repeat customers?

• How might they be affected by demographic shifts?

• How might they be affected by economic events (e.g., a local manufacturing plant closing or a 

large retailer opening locally)?

• How might they be affected by larger socioeconomic trends?

• How might they be affected by government policies (e.g., new bylaws or changes in taxes)?

Writing the Market Analysis Section of the Business Plan

All of the above information may feel overwhelming. When writing a business plan with a market analysis section, it needs to be a thorough examination of your target market, those people to whom you intend to sell your products or services. This is the time to determine target markets in terms of how much of your product or service they may purchase and how they may be affected by trends and policies.

Once you have all this information, write the market analysis in the form of several short paragraphs that are clear and precise. Use appropriate headings for each paragraph. If there are several target markets, consider numbering each or identifying each by a subcategory under the main target market category. 

Properly cite sources of information within the body of the market analysis. This will help you and others reading the plan to know the sources of the statistics or opinions gathered from others.

DJ Heckes, CEO & Author

Full BRAIN Marketing

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