How To Identify and Define Your Target Market

Before you begin a marketing campaign, it’s crucial to understand who you want that campaign to reach. Without knowing this information, you are throwing your money away with little to no guarantee of a return on investment.

Keep reading to learn how to avoid this!

What Is a Target Market?

A target market is a specific group of people that you want to reach through your marketing campaign. These people are more likely to visit your business (either in person or online) and make a purchase more than any other random group of people. They have specific characteristics in common, such as their demographics or psychological and behavioral patterns.

Once this market is taken into consideration, all that you have to do to find your ideal customer is zoom in at the individual level. This individual customer will not have to be convinced to purchase your product or service, because they will already be naturally interested.

Questions To Ask When Defining a Target Market

The best place to start when identifying your target market is with your existing customers. These customers have already found you and continue to come back to your business, so you might as well ask them a set of questions to further guide your marketing efforts.

Here is a start to figuring out who your client is.

Demographics (Age, Sex, Race, etc.)

Where do they shop?

Where do they eat?

What are their hobbies?

Developing Your Client Avatar

When going through the steps of defining your target market, it is normal to find that you may have a few secondary markets that you wish to target. This is where creating a client avatar comes in, as it can help specify exactly who it is that you are trying to reach. A client avatar is essentially your buyer persona. It is the profile of your “perfect” customer or client. If you can narrow down this information, it becomes much easier to begin building your marketing campaign and ensures you won’t throw your marketing dollars down the drain!

Here are more detailed questions to begin narrowing down your perfect client.

What do they value?

What services and products are they interested in? Why?

What are they searching for online?

How much are they willing to spend?

When breaking down the idea of client avatars, we like to differentiate between finding your “Karen” versus your “Becky.” These two metaphorical clients are great examples of who you are trying to target and who you aren’t. Here’s a breakdown of the difference between the two.

Becky

Becky is your ideal and perfect salon client. She researches your salon on Google before visiting. She browses your website. She books her appointment online. She shows up on time, understands your services and prices, clearly communicates her desired look, and leaves a 5-star review on her way out. Becky is no problem at all. We want Becky in our salon!

Karen 

We tremble at the thought of a Karen in our salon. Karen doesn’t read any of your policies or price ranges before booking a service with you. She shows up 20 minutes late and expects to be seated, does not clearly communicate her beauty goals, and chooses to leave a 1-star review. It’s crucial that you do everything you can to avoid a Karen at all costs.

When you can clearly define who it is you are trying to target, your perfect client becomes much clearer. This is why it is incredibly important to set your business up for success by outlining and defining your market. A “Becky” will share your company values, be interested in the services you offer, research you ahead of time online, and have no problem spending their money on high-quality service.

Without this target market analysis, you’ll be luring a client into your salon that isn’t a good fit. It will be a lose-lose for both parties.

To continue identifying your target market, download our Salon Digital Marketing Guide, where you have access to a free client avatar worksheet.