You worked on your product for months or even years, you studied every small detail and now it’s ready to be sold. So, whom are you selling it to? Who are your customers?
As Simon Sinek stated in “Start with why”: ‘Most companies have no clue why their customers are their customers. If most companies don’t really know why their customers are their customers [ ], then how do they know how to [ ] encourage loyalty among those they already have?’
Understanding your customer’s needs and wants becomes a critical component for your success. Definitely, you can’t persuade somebody to buy a product if they think they don’t need it or want it.
In fact, many entrepreneurs create wonderful products, but they don’t research and understand their audience. They might think they know who their customers are, but quite often they really don’t know.
So, how do you find your right audience?
a) Market Research
You should conduct market research and customer intelligence to identify whether your product or service can satisfy your customer base. Through market research you can collect data about market trends, competitors, demographics and purchasing habits. Initially, you can start with secondary research (existing research), but in a second phase I would recommend using primary research. The most common examples of primary research are surveys, interviews, focus groups and questionnaires.
b) Segmentation
You should segment (group) the market, where people in each segment have similar characteristics, not only in terms of demographics but also psychographic and behavioral.
Be specific and find your niche.
You don’t want to sell your product to everybody; it would be too generic and you would lose focus on the customer and, on the other hand, the customer might not identify himself/herself on your product. You won’t deliver exceptional customer experience, and you won’t be competitive. You risk targeting everybody and then you are not different from other thousands competitors.
c) Create buyer personas
You should create a semi-fictional description of your ideal customers, including demographics, location, hobbies and interests, spending habits. In case, you target more than one niche, I suggest creating more than one buyer persona. Buyer personas are important to give you a better understanding and to ensure that all the efforts are directed to the targeted needs of your buyers.