The biggest mistake that any business or entrepreneur can make is believing that if you build it, they will come. The truth is: they won’t. You have to go get them. The second biggest mistake is believing that if you simply close your eyes and shoot enough buckshot, sooner or later, you’re going to bag a customer. Well, you might, but you’ve probably wasted a whole lot of time, money, and energy with that kind of scattershot approach. In order to get the right kind of customer to notice you, and ultimately buy your product or service, you need to use a finely tuned, steadily aimed, high powered rifle. In other words, you need to employ targeted marketing.

Targeted marketing is a type of advertising that is designed to reach those consumers who are most likely to become your customers based on various traits, such as demographic, psychographic, geographic, economic, and other quantifiable types of behavior, such as previous purchasing habits. Targeted marketing allows businesses to eliminate wasted advertising to consumers whose preferences do not match a product or service’s attributes.

In order to identify your target market, you will need to explore the following: • Demographics – Who are the people who actually use your product or service? Demographic details include age, gender, marital status, ethnic group, family size, education level, occupation, etc. The sexes make different purchasing decisions and so do different age groups. Single people have different needs than married ones.

• Geographics – Where do your potential customers live? If you’re selling something on the north side of town, marketing to the south side, where many of your competitors abide, could be a colossal waste of time and money.

• Psychographics – Why do people buy what you’re selling? What are their interests and hobbies? And what benefits can you provide that will satisfy their personalities and lifestyles?

• Economics – Who can afford your product or service? And how much are they willing to spend? And why would you try to sell a Rolls Royce in a low income area?

• Buying behaviors – Who normally buys what you’re selling and how does your product or service fulfill their needs? What have they bought in the past and how have they been persuaded to do so? What are the best ways to reach them?

Once you’ve answered these questions satisfactorily, you still will have to do the necessary research in order to break down the universal market into the segments or niches that are most likely to become your customers. In other words, you need to create a customer profile. Instead of trying to appeal to everyone, a business is much more likely to do better by exploiting its identified niche with cost-effective marketing strategies. For example, a clothing store selling high-end maternity wear might identify its target customer as a 25- to 40-year old, pregnant, business woman within a ten-mile radius of the store. So, advertising in a woman’s magazine is smarter than taking out an ad in “Cigar Aficionado,” much less a widely distributed, general newspaper.

Does target marketing work? Various marketing studies suggest that it does. The Network Advertising Initiative’s 2009 study measuring pricing and effectiveness of targeted advertising revealed that it secured an average of 2.7 times as much revenue per ad as non-targeted advertising, and was twice as effective at converting users who clicked on online ads into buyers.

So, put the shotgun away and take out the high-powered rifle. Open your eyes, know who to aim at, and go for the right target. Happy hunting!