Target Market is a term I have been aware of since I first went into business many years ago in an offline world.
Even though I started my life out as an accountant (CPA) I have always been interested in marketing.
I mean even accountants need to market their services and be clear on who their target market is. It would be just too hard to be an expert in every type of business.
What is a target market?
It really is about identifying your ideal client. Who do you want to attract as your client? Who are you targeting?
While this is important in any business in this post I am talking specifically to anyone who has a blog.
Target Market and Blogging
I was prompted to write this post after being on a Webinar today on this subject.
When I first started this blog it was to build a network marketing company I was with at the time.
I was vague about who I was targeting then because I was so caught up in learning the ropes of blogging.
About 18 months ago I did a course with Ray Higdon. He talked about really narrowing down your target market, I realized at that point I was still too broad. Ray for example writes to Network Marketers and gives tips for recruiting and other things that concern this group of people. If you are not a Network Marketer you probably do not want to read Ray’s blog. But that is okay with Ray because you are not his audience. See how it works?
How being crystal clear on your Target Market can help you come up with content
In the training today I heard a tip that may help you if you are at all unclear on your target market. It will also help if you are every stuck on what to write about.
The person teaching suggested the following exercise.
Take a sheet of paper and draw a line horizontally down the middle.
On the left write down your ideal client.
- Do it in as much detail as you possibly can
- Identify and list what they want
On the right then write a list of their problems
- Write in detail again here
- Make as big a list as you possibly can
Then for each of their problems you have a blog post with solutions.
The advice was also not to deviate from that formula with the exception for the occasional personal post so your readers know you.
Example
If we use Ray Higdon as the example. Ray writes to Network Marketers. He would have been able to come up with a list of their challenges when he started his blog and now he listens to what people are asking about.
Can you see how this will make you very attractive to the people you are targeting? They are going to come back and read your posts each and every time.
A master at this is Adrienne Smith. She has an enormous following because she writes offering solutions to her readers. If you have not been to Adrienne’s blog I suggest you do. Many of us have learned much from Adrienne and she pretty much follows the same formula I was hearing today.
So there you have it. Get crystal clear on your target market and provide solutions for their problems.
Please leave me your comments below and share this post if you found it valuable.
Make it a great day.
Sue Price
Skype: sueprice
Arleen says
Sue- I couldn’t agree with you more that it is important to understand your target market. I plan to write down my ideal client and figure out some of their list of their challenges. I actually just wrote and article on colors in your logo. Many of our customers have their logo created and then can’t understand why there are so many challenges have it imprinted on a promotional product. When you have more than one color in your logo you incur additional setup charges and run charges which can be very expensive.
Great tips.
Sue Price says
Hi Arleen
I am glad you are going to write down your ideal clients challenges. It is a great tip for sure. I think the more laser focused we can become on our ideal client the more of them we will have.
I am over to read about logos from you:-)
Thanks for stopping by Arleen and for your comment.
Sue
Jane says
This is a simple yet very effective method to make your blog useful while you are narrowing down your niche and finding your ideal audience 🙂 Listing down the problems of our ideal customer is the way to go. And of course by providing solutions, we are proving ourselves to be quite useful!
Thanks for sharing Sue, and yes Adrienne is pretty good at it!
Sue Price says
Hi Jane
Welcome to my blog. It is a great way to narrow down your niche for sure. I started writing down my list of challenges mine face but I am planning to spend more time on it as I really see the value in doing it.
You are right we can become very useful by doing this.
Thanks for your comment Jane.
Have a great week.
Sue
Adrienne says
Thanks Jane, I’ll definitely accept that compliment! 😉
Kuldeep says
Hi Sue, it is very difficult to reach on a certain target as the business market is very huge. I appreciate your post it is very informative.
Sue Price says
Hi Kuldeep,
Thanks for visiting my blog and for your comment.
It is difficult to reach our target market for the reason you say but the more we drill down the more successful we can be.
Have a good week.
Sue
Barbara Charles says
Hi Sue,
Very enlightening. I just recently did a post on identifying your niche market. I like the examples you gave with Ray and I’m sure this will help people determine what they need to do.
Excellent post and clearly should help people narrow down their market.
Take care and have a great week,
Barbara
Sue Price says
Hi Barbara
It is interesting how much you can drill down. I laugh to myself at how broad it was when I started online. I am in the process of writing down the problems they face. It is interesting and something every business should revisit I think.
Thanks for your comment.
You have a great week too.
Sue
Corina Ramos says
Hello Sue,
I really like the exercise you shared. It’s another great way to come up with ideas for new content. I like to write things out too, I learn faster that way. I’ll have to try this method and see what I can come up with.
I couldn’t agree with you more about Adrienne. I’ve learned so much from her…she is truly awesome and the perfect example of a “blogger” because she seems to have it all balanced out and makes it look so easy. 🙂
Have a wonderful day and a productive week!
Sue Price says
Hi Corina
I am still in the process of writing out my list. It is interesting and I see as you say it is a good way to have more ideas on content.
Yes Adrienne is amazing and she does provide so much value. I too have learned so much from her. I think we all have. I also have met some amazing people through Adrienne.
Thanks for your comment Corina and you too have an excellent week.
Sue
Adrienne says
Why thank you Cori for that wonderful compliment. I appreciate that so much coming from you. Glad to hear I make it “look” easy but you definitely know it’s not.
Ah, thank you so much Sue for this lovely mention here. It always makes me feel so good when I know I’ve been able to help others and they continue to learn from me and are meeting other awesome people at my place too. Yay!!!
Sue Price says
Hi Adrienne
It is my pleasure to mention you as you are a great example Adrienne.
You have been responsible for so many of us meeting each other.
Sue
Sylviane Nuccio says
Hi Sue,
Until 2008 when I first became a member of a program for affiliat marketers I had never heard of the term “target market” and it was like Greek to me.
As I went through their training, however, it made sense to me and I started studying the thing much deeper until I could even write about target marketing.
This is a concept that we really need to udnerstand, no matter what we are trying to sell online. We need to find our target market even withing a niche.
Sue Price says
Hi Sylviane
I guess if you have never been in marketing your would not hear it. I did a business degree and some marketing in it so was always familiar with it. I became more aware of the importance in my accounting days when I knew the sort of client I wanted.
When I came online to do a network marketing company I seemed to lose my basic training and wrote to everyone. Big mistake!
Thanks for your comment here Sylviane.
Have a productive week.
Sue
Donna Merrill says
Thanks for sharing that exercise Sue!
I was on a seminar with Ray a while back and took this advice. It really helps so much when writing a post or email to our list.
I spent the past year researching my target market. So much so, I’ve narrowed it down to male vs. female, age groups, etc. But what prompts me the most is the feedback and questions I receive from emails and people on my list.
It all came down to “newbies” and that is what I’m writing about these days. Even my hair dresser wants to blog! People I meet are always asking me the how to’s so I am following that lead and decided to go into the newbie niche.
-Donna
Sue Price says
Hi Donna
Yeah it is a great exercise and Ray is very good at it. I was on his MLM team when I did the course with him so he helped me a bit. No matter what I came back with he would tell me to narrow more.
I guessed you were targeting newbies from several things you have said of recent times. I have thought of that too but then I think I might get a bunch of people like I was – who did not know what a Browser was – true 🙂 I guess I do not want o teach kindergarten but being in EN it seems like a good idea as I have all the products to teach people.
Tell me I was worse than most newbies – please? I think I was. I never even did my own typing much as I had PAs from a very young age so it has been a real learning curve.
I love the topics you are choosing now Donna.
Thanks for your comment.
Have a successful week.
Sue
Dare says
Hi sue,
You are absolutely correct!! Adrienne is good at nurturing relationships and the contents on her site makes people to keep coming back all the time.
To the basics, having a targeted audience should be the major goal of a serious and professional bloggers for now and the coming year 2014.
I once found myself in a general niche and I realized that I was not getting along and virtually had no committed reader or subscriber. This made me to launch a new blog with a focused niche with a mission on helping people grow their blog.
Thanks sue, I really appreciate your post.
Sue Price says
Hi Dare
I am glad you agree with me about Adrienne. She is a great example of what a blogger should be.
I think many of us started out with a too general niche when we started blogging. It is all a learning curve. Even Adrienne says that 🙂
Ah so you have a new blog and niche. I will be over later to check it out. Thanks for visiting me and for your comment Dare.
Have a great day.
Sue
Karl E Bennett Jr says
Hi Sue,
Early on in my career, I talked to a lot of people that was not in my target market. LOL, it was definitely a learning experience. Sue I agree with you having a target market is key to achieving success rather sooner then later. Sure, you did a good job on showing us what to do to better define your target market. I like this article.
Sue Price says
Hi Karl
I think we all started with an undefined market until we learn. You would not have had that learning experience by yourself 🙂
Thanks for your feedback on the article and for visiting my blog.
Have a great day.
Sue
Adrienne says
Hey Sue,
I remember those types of exercises as well and they really do help. I’ve had several clients I’ve coached and although they’ve taken my advice to comment on other people’s post they were totally ignoring their own target audience. Although some of what they shared others could definitely be interested in their content but it’s just best to go after those that definitely are.
Ray is fabulous in teaching about this because he’s such the pro. I’m glad you shared this exercise because I have a feeling so many people will find this very helpful.
Thank you so much for including me in this post. I’m so flattered and I always appreciate when people use me as an example. It just helps me to know I’m on the right path in providing valuable and helpful content that others can learn from and help introduce them to more bloggers.
Thank you again Sue so much and great share here. See you in a couple of days I hope.
~Adrienne
Sue Price says
Hi Adrienne
You and I did the blogging course Ray had out last year and he also went through this. Remember it was when we both had just joined Numis.
I agree I think this is a topic that many people can do with help on. There are many bloggers who just write to anyone, or so it seems.
As you know I am still getting crystal clear on mine.
You are a good example to use and as most people who come here know you they understand the example.
Yes I will definitely see you this week for a short time at least.
Sue
Gladys says
Hello Ms. Sue
I hope you are well.
What a wonderful post on knowing my target market.
When I started blogging, I started with the intent of writing on Life Coaching, Personal Development and Life’s Experiences. I totally agree, I think I still need to narrow the list down. It will work better for me.
As far as Ms. Adrienne; I can say that she has been a superstar for me. She shared the important things of blogging with me and now I am still learning so much from her. We know that her strategy works, because of those that are following her. It is amazing what love and caring for others will do. Oh, I have also met other wonderful people and I can call them friends.
Thank you again
Gladys recently posted.. In Times of Trouble, What Beliefs Sustain You?
Sue Price says
Hi Gladys
I am well thank you and I hope you are too.
I am the same as you and have been writing on too many topics. My target was always home based business people but I just wrote about a mixture of things. I think choosing one audience works better. The idea of listing their challenges and then writing solutions is a great model. I have now heard two seven figure earners give this advice so it must work for them 🙂
Yes Adrienne has been wonderful for the blogging community. She is loved and respected because as you say that is what she gives out. And yes many of us have met each other because of Adrienne.
Thank you for commenting Gladys.
Sue
Kumar Gauraw says
Hi Sue,
Yes, target market matters and those who focus on it, benefit.
I heard this a long while ago when Amy Porterfield, the facebook marketing expert said, “LESS IS MORE”.
I also have a network marketing business and we teach through our education system the same principle. Get focused, get niche and stay there. Do your work and you will find the results you are looking for. It works. It works like magic.
Thank you for sharing about target marketing today and have a great weekend!
Regards,
Kumar
Sue Price says
Hi Kumar
I love that saying “less is more”. It is so true.
Ah your network marketing company is wise. That is a long way from the old days when many believed that if someone was breathing they were a prospect. Of course this type of belief and behavior contributed to the bad reputation network marketing has had to overcome.
Thanks for your comment Kumar and you too have great weekend. It is already Friday evening in Australia.
Take care
Sue
Viola Tam says
Hi Sue,
Great tips! I came to the blogging world without first defining my target audience. Gradually, I have narrowed down to the category – Network Marketers. At this stage, it is still way too broad.
I appreciate Ray’s approach. It is extremely effective! He is a real expert in collecting others’ concerns BEFORE he decided to write about the solution to those challenges.
I am glad that you share this. My journey is a messy one. Following experts like Ray & Adrienne is the way to go!
Viola Tam – The Business Mum
Sue Price says
Hi Viola
I am the same as you I did not define my target market either when I first came online. And like you mine is still too broad but getting narrower 🙂
Yes Ray is a great example of answering people’s questions. I have heard him say he gets a lot of ideas from his team and also from what people ask on Facebook.
Ah don’t be hard on yourself re your journey. I am in a Mastermind group with Adrienne and she says she had no clue when she started. We all start somewhere and learn along the way.
Thanks for commenting. Have a great week Viola.
Sue
Amiti says
After trying out the idea of comparing your ideal clients/readers to the issues they face, I definitely see room for improvement in becoming more effective at marketing/ It is a simple yet very effective manner in being more crystal clear and effective.
Sue Price says
Hi Amiti
I think most of us can get better at narrowing down and defining your ideal clients. I am sure it will help us all become more crystal clear and effective as you say.
Thanks for your comment here.
Sue
Sudipto says
Hey Sue,
Great content and Yes, for getting success in blogging, we have to first crystal clear on our target market because if we have not fixed our target, then we just do different things which definitely not provide us success. So, we have to first fix our target market and then try to provide what they want. I really enjoyed this post while reading. Thanks for sharing this post with us.
Sue Price says
Hi Sudipto
I am glad you enjoyed the post. When I started blogging I had my target way too broad and gradually have narrowed it down. It is great for people to be clear before they start so they do not waste time.
We learn as we go though.
Thanks again for the comment.
Sue