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01-26-2008, 02:01 AM
Right on Target
Choose your target customer, then take aim in the right direction.
Open the doors to your business, and it's easy to think of the whole world as your oyster. Why focus on a target market and exclude all those other market segments with which you could be conducting business, right?
"A big problem for many small businesses is that they are so desperate and so grateful for anyone who buys from them, they don't go the next step and ask who they should be doing business with," says Lisa Fortini-Campbell, adjunct professor of management at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in Chicago and founder of market research and consulting firm The Fortini-Campbell Company.
Targeting the right prospects can mean the difference between success and failure. Before taking a scattershot approach to building a customer base, consider these tips:
6. Don't assume. Fortini-Campbell, who is also the author of Hitting the Sweet Spot: How Consumer Insights Can Inspire Better Marketing and Advertising, says that too often, small-business owners assume they know what their customers will want before doing their homework. "If you want to launch a catering company and think it's only about serving good food, but your customers really want all the trappings that come along with having someone serve them--such as the dishes and the table décor--you're going to lose business if you're not prepared to deliver that experience," says Fortini-Campbell.
She says that since your future customers are currently buying from other places, you should use your competitors as a research tool. Make note of not only what your competitors are selling, but how they are marketing and selling their products and services. "All your future customers are out there buying from someone else now," says Fortini-Campbell. "What are they buying? Who are they buying from? What can you learn about what others are doing?"
7. Find the perfect match. "The most important thing a small-business owner can do is figure out what kind of customers will help them get to the goal. Who are the most strategically valuable people to them?" says Fortini-Campbell. "Do you need a lot of people who buy a lot, or people who buy across an entire service line?" Is your ideal customer a business or an individual? Affluent or middle-income? Is he or she local, or does geography not matter? Identify as many traits as possible so you can organize your business to keep those customers coming back.
8. Identify different segments. After you've outlined whom your best customers will be, recognize that you may have more than one profile, says Fortini-Campbell. For instance, the catering business we mentioned may find lucrative market segments in cooking and presenting elaborate holiday meals for affluent families, as well as providing simple, daily heat-and-serve meals for busy working parents.
9. Use free market-research tools. "The internet is a wealth of information," says Fortini-Campbell. "Search on any topic and you will find websites, blogs and discussion rooms on everything imaginable." In addition to the great number of books available on market research and targeting customers (including her own), she recommends checking out the free market-research resources available in your state, county or municipal economic development offices to see which market segments are growing in your area.
10. Service, service, service. "More small businesses lose customers [due to] poor service than bad products," says Fortini-Campbell. Your business's most important marketing tool is the way you conduct sales and service customers. Every time you do work for a client, you are marketing yourself, she says. When you do that well, customers pay you back with loyalty and referrals.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneursstartupsmagazine/2006/march/83560.html#target
Choose your target customer, then take aim in the right direction.
Open the doors to your business, and it's easy to think of the whole world as your oyster. Why focus on a target market and exclude all those other market segments with which you could be conducting business, right?
"A big problem for many small businesses is that they are so desperate and so grateful for anyone who buys from them, they don't go the next step and ask who they should be doing business with," says Lisa Fortini-Campbell, adjunct professor of management at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in Chicago and founder of market research and consulting firm The Fortini-Campbell Company.
Targeting the right prospects can mean the difference between success and failure. Before taking a scattershot approach to building a customer base, consider these tips:
6. Don't assume. Fortini-Campbell, who is also the author of Hitting the Sweet Spot: How Consumer Insights Can Inspire Better Marketing and Advertising, says that too often, small-business owners assume they know what their customers will want before doing their homework. "If you want to launch a catering company and think it's only about serving good food, but your customers really want all the trappings that come along with having someone serve them--such as the dishes and the table décor--you're going to lose business if you're not prepared to deliver that experience," says Fortini-Campbell.
She says that since your future customers are currently buying from other places, you should use your competitors as a research tool. Make note of not only what your competitors are selling, but how they are marketing and selling their products and services. "All your future customers are out there buying from someone else now," says Fortini-Campbell. "What are they buying? Who are they buying from? What can you learn about what others are doing?"
7. Find the perfect match. "The most important thing a small-business owner can do is figure out what kind of customers will help them get to the goal. Who are the most strategically valuable people to them?" says Fortini-Campbell. "Do you need a lot of people who buy a lot, or people who buy across an entire service line?" Is your ideal customer a business or an individual? Affluent or middle-income? Is he or she local, or does geography not matter? Identify as many traits as possible so you can organize your business to keep those customers coming back.
8. Identify different segments. After you've outlined whom your best customers will be, recognize that you may have more than one profile, says Fortini-Campbell. For instance, the catering business we mentioned may find lucrative market segments in cooking and presenting elaborate holiday meals for affluent families, as well as providing simple, daily heat-and-serve meals for busy working parents.
9. Use free market-research tools. "The internet is a wealth of information," says Fortini-Campbell. "Search on any topic and you will find websites, blogs and discussion rooms on everything imaginable." In addition to the great number of books available on market research and targeting customers (including her own), she recommends checking out the free market-research resources available in your state, county or municipal economic development offices to see which market segments are growing in your area.
10. Service, service, service. "More small businesses lose customers [due to] poor service than bad products," says Fortini-Campbell. Your business's most important marketing tool is the way you conduct sales and service customers. Every time you do work for a client, you are marketing yourself, she says. When you do that well, customers pay you back with loyalty and referrals.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneursstartupsmagazine/2006/march/83560.html#target