It doesn’t matter if you are an interior designer, a professional organizer, a travel planner or some other type of service provider, figuring out who your target market is can be overwhelming! Here are some simple ideas for select the right people for you to reach and help.
One of the biggest challenges in this industry is that anyone and everyone can be your client. Wait, isn’t that a good thing? Of course it is! However, when it comes to marketing you need to pick a specific group you want to work with. For example if you are new to Real Estate in general, you may be more comfortable marketing to first time home buyers then to investors.
CHOOSE YOUR TARGET MARKET
Picking a target market can be something as simple as choosing your neighborhood and looking at some demographic information:
- What is the average age?
- What is the average household size?
- What is the average education (high school, college, graduate school, etc.)
- Are they working parents or is there a stay-at-home Mom/Dad?
- What schools do their kids attend?
But an even better way to choose a target market is to look at where you are in your own life right now.
- What stage of life are you in? (ie: just married, young family, single Mom, empty nester, etc.)
- What are your hobbies?
- Who or what are you passionate about?
For example, do you love to run and are you a member of a running group? We know a guy who spends much of his time running races for charity. Can you guess what he’s known as? He’s The Running Realtor.
Is your Dad a veteran and do you love to help those who help others?
Are you an advocate of stay-at-home or single Moms?
Here are some more target market ideas:
- First time home buyers
- Move up buyers (growing families looking for larger homes)
- Empty nesters (looking to downsize and simplify)
- Real Estate investors
- Veterans (have you served?)
- Single Women/Men (divorced women/men?)
- Ladies who quilt
- Red headed women who like to do sing opera
Once you have this information, you can create a profile of what your specific target market person might look like. Here’s an article I love from Problogger about creating a reader profile/persona.
You could use a technique similar to this or even pick your closest neighbor or friend who fits your target market profile. Then, you want to be sure all your marketing messages are written in a way that is appealing to them and that show you are the ‘go to’ expert.
Don’t worry if you think your market is too small. It’s not. Your core target market people are also going to become referral sources for you.
Also, this doesn’t mean you can’t spend your marketing dollars reaching out to other people; you just need to be clear on who you are focusing your marketing efforts and be sure you are speaking their language.
So spend a little time making a list of all the different things you are passionate about and select the right people you would love to work with!
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