The Importance of Defining Your Target Market for Anything

10/25/18 • 25 min

We believe an important first step to any project is to have a clear vision of who your customers will be and what problem they will solve your solution. Knowing this will help you set appropriate goals and build solutions that actually get used once they exist.

Nicole and Jon went in-depth on:

How knowing your target market can be invaluable to helping you gauge interest pre-launch.
Why persona based target market strategies sometimes don’t tell the whole story.
But how personas are useful for researching the size of a market.
Why a target market of ‘everyone on earth’ is probably a mistake.
Why once you pin down a target market, you need to talk to as many people as you can in it.
How free trials are a great low-friction way to build an audience in a target market.

Ultimately, you shouldn’t fall in love with your solution, but you should fall in love with the problems of your target market. And it all starts with defining the target market.

Nicole and Jon went in-depth on:

How knowing your target market can be invaluable to helping you gauge interest pre-launch.
Why persona based target market strategies sometimes don’t tell the whole story.
But how personas are useful for researching the size of a market.
Why a target market of ‘everyone on earth’ is probably a mistake.
Why once you pin down a target market, you need to talk to as many people as you can in it.
How free trials are a great low-friction way to build an audience in a target market.

Ultimately, you shouldn’t fall in love with your solution, but you should fall in love with the problems of your target market. And it all starts with defining the target market.

Previous Episode

Don't Assume a Quiet Customer is a Happy Customer

Jon is a big fan of Steve Blank and his concept of “getting out of the building” to talk with your customers. Routine conversations with your customers can strangely be one of the toughest habits to maintain. people are busy. Once a month or even once a quarter may seem like too much of a commitment for some. But, these conversations are extremely valuable. Businesses that make customer communication a priority will make better informed product decisions and develop deeper relationships with their customers.

This does not mean just waiting for a support ticket or issue to arise. Do the hard work of being pro active and facilitating conversations with your customers at all times.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming a quiet customer is a happy customer.

Reach out to us with any ideas, questions, or feedback on the podcast!

✉️ [email protected]
✉️ [email protected]

Next Episode

Creating a PPC Strategy for a Brand New Product/Service

You have an amazing new idea. No one has ever done anything like this before. But can you get it in front of anyone to get validation that it is that great of an idea? Is anyone searching Google for the solution you’ve created?

Nicole and Jon have had to tackle this challenge before and have some advice for creating digital ad campaigns when search volume might be low or the search phrases you want to target are less obvious.

In this episode of ‘Shape the Conversation’, Nicole and Jon cover topics like:

How to find details on the ads of any potential “competitors”
Focusing on the questions your target market are asking Google to find search phrases to target.
How to leverage the Google Ads Keyword Planner to research what people may be searching for.
Ways to think about quickly explaining your new product/service to the market.

Our biggest takeaway is that you can use this process as a way to prove to yourself and others that there is a market for your idea. Digital marketing is a great way to get your product out to the world and begin getting feedback, even before you build.

Reach out to us with any ideas, questions, or feedback on the podcast!

✉️ [email protected]
✉️ [email protected]