Simply put, a market is a group of buyers that are willing and able to buy your product or solution. A market is made up sub-markets or “market segments”; market segments are groups of potential buyers who have similar wants, needs, experiences, or problems. In fact, a wise man once said, “There is no market; there are only market segments”.

Your target market is the market segment that you choose to serve. To truly understand that market you need to be able to answer these questions:

– Who are they?
– What do they want to buy?
– How do they want to buy?
– When do they want to buy?
– Where do they want to buy?
– Why do they want to buy?

Successful entrepreneurs target the under-served or overlooked markets where there is little or no competition. This segment, while small, is still big enough for the entrepreneur to make a profit; simply put this is niche marketing. The key to niche marketing success is the intimacy that you have with the customer needs, problems, and issues. I call this being a “knowledge broker”—- this means being an expert about the customer’s day-to-day life.

This knowledge allows you to create a dialog with them. In time you can build a constituency made up of customers who believe in what you do. If they refer you to other customers you have achieved an advocacy which sustains your business. This is when you know that you have made it.

Turning your customers into your advocates is not easy. It can take blood, sweat, and tears to get them. Your referrals are the best indicator of a bull’s eye hit of your product in your target market. Interesting enough, you may be surprised when you get them since they may not be who you targeted in the first place.

For example, when I wrote my book First, Best, or Different (shameless plug) I figured my book would appeal to a broad spectrum of readers including small business owners, marketing executives, and avid business book readers. While this has proven true, my raving fans are not people that I had necessarily targeted.

My longtime landscaper and gardener may be my biggest advocate. He so enjoyed my book that he has been trading his services for my books of which he gives to friends, family, and other customers. Although I had heavily researched the business book market, I had no idea that a small business owner like him would connect with my message.

The lesson for me is simple. It is not what I think that counts. It is what the customer thinks, feels, and does.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2007 All rights reserved.

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