Using Market Targeting to Improve Business Sales

Starting a business today is no easy endeavor. Regardless of your industry or niche, you’ll be facing off against fierce competition, especially in the online environment. Without a thought-out marketing and sales strategy, you’ll struggle to generate and convert leads and keep your SMB afloat.

To improve your cash flows and ensure that you get an edge over your direct competitors, you’ll need to get to know your audience and start targeting them in your campaigns.

Targeting everyone will only burn a hole through your wallet and leave you empty-handed. “Everyone” is too broad an audience, and your marketing will miss its mark if you’re trying to reach out to the whole wide world.

The more you narrow down on your ideal customer, the easier it will be to reach out to them and ensure you make a sale.

With this in mind, let’s see how you can use market targeting to keep your marketing, sales, and accounting teams happy and boost your sales.

• Set up a CRM to Gather Information About Your Customers
• Create Customer Surveys
• Use Quizzes to Learn More
• Segment Your Target Audience
• Reach out to Hot Prospects Directly
• Differentiate Your Brand
• Use an Online Billing Tool

1. Set up a CRM to Gather Information About Your Customers

Cutting-edge tools and software can be quite expensive for an SMB, so you might be hesitant about investing in them. However, a few tools are an absolute must – invoice maker for online billing, project manager for staying on top of tasks and clients, and customer relationship management software (CRM) for gathering and analyzing customer data.

CRM is as useful for retaining customers as it is for generating leads. It keeps all your customer data neatly organized in one place and enables you to access information in real-time as needed.

A reliable CRM can improve your customer relationships by 74% and your sales quota by 65%. It’s one of the most beneficial tools in your toolbox.

It enables you to create detailed customer profiles that tell you everything you need to know about their likes and dislikes, purchasing behaviors, product preferences, and more. This information can prove to be invaluable for identifying your marketing gaps, discovering new audiences, and learning how best to engage with consumers who are most likely to make a purchase.

2. Create Customer Surveys

Always putting your customers first is the only way to succeed in today’s competitive markets. Improving customer satisfaction is of the utmost importance for any business. The only way to do it is by figuring out what makes your target market happy, what makes them unhappy, and what expectations they might have from your business.

At times, this can be easier said than done. You’ll need to analyze customer interactions, browse through your comment sections, examine reviews and testimonials, and more. But if you want to simplify the process of gathering and analyzing customer feedback, sometimes it’s the good, old-fashioned methods that work best – offering surveys.

The simplest way to gauge your current customer satisfaction levels and gain insight into your business’s strengths and weaknesses is by asking your customers directly. Many would be more than willing to answer a short survey if it would mean they’d get a better experience from your brand.

The responses you’ll get will give you a glimpse into the general sentiments of your target market, and you can use them to improve your marketing campaigns, brand messaging, and personalization efforts.

To ensure that your surveys get high response rates, make sure to keep them short and concise and leave plenty of room for answers so that everyone can express themselves freely.

3. Use Quizzes to Learn More

Another effective tactic for learning about your audiences and improving your targeting is sharing interactive quizzes on social media channels.

Personality quizzes are always fun for your audiences. Depending on the types of questions you pose, you can use them to learn more about your customers’ behaviors and thinking. The information you collect from a simple quiz like “Which F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Character Are You?” or a more professional and B2B-oriented “What Type of Project Manager Are You?” can help you improve your targeting and ultimately boost your sales.

An added benefit is that you can use quizzes for marketing purposes as well. Over 81% of marketers agree that interactive content such as quizzes can grab attention effectively, increase engagement levels, and improve lead generation.

4. Segment Your Target Audience

Ideally, you’d create a personalized approach to marketing and sales that would be customized to each customer and prospect alike. Of course, this would require too much time, effort, and money, and you’d only be wasting your resources. The next best thing is segmenting your target audiences. It’s easier, more affordable, and still quite effective.

There are four main types of target audience segmentation:

• Demographic
• Geographic
• Behavioral
• Psychographic

I. Demographic - designing a different marketing approach based on the audience’s demographic characteristics (age, gender, religion, race, occupation, education, etc.).

II. Geographic – designing a different approach based on location (neighborhood, district, region, country, etc.).

III. Behavioral – designing a different approach based on purchasing and spending behavior (brand interactions, loyalty, timing, preferred benefits, etc.).

IV. Psychographic – designing a different approach based on personal characteristics (opinions, beliefs, attitudes, interests, values, hobbies, etc.).

Segmentation enables you to approach different audiences in different ways and increase the likelihood of making a sale.

5. Reach out to Hot Prospects Directly

Once you’ve identified your target audiences and attracted hot prospects, you won’t convert them by sending them generalized messages and reaching out to them with impersonal, standardized emails. 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences.

You need to use the information you’ve gathered through your CRM, surveys, quizzes, and more to develop targeted campaigns and communicate directly with your prospects.

Each of your campaigns should be personalized for the specific segment of your target audience. Otherwise, you’d have wasted time and resources collecting customer data that you’ll never use.

6. Differentiate Your Brand

One of the most significant benefits of researching your audiences and focusing your efforts on targeting is that you can use the information you’ve collected to differentiate your brand and attract even more audiences.

If your brand is virtually the same as any of your competitors, you’ll fail to expand your brand awareness and boost your sales. You’ll have nothing unique to offer your customers, and you’ll lose valuable prospects in the process.

So, use the data you’ve gathered for targeting to establish an authentic brand with an excellent USP that stands out and draws attention.

7.Use an Online Billing Tool

Your ultimate goal with targeting is to improve sales and increase your cash flows. Every step we’ve discussed so far takes you closer to this goal, but to close the deal, you need to ensure that your transactions are seamless and that your prospects can make a purchase without a hitch. That’s why you need a reliable Online Billing tool like VatPay.

It can help you convert leads and even increase your cart value. Moreover, it can help you collect overdue bills and ensure timely payments from all customers.

You don’t want to make it difficult for your targeted prospects to buy your products/services. A single glitch in your online billing can cause them to walk away from your brand and turn to your competitors.

So, if there’s one tool you need to work perfectly, it’s your online billing tool.

Conclusion

Upping your targeting efforts is what will help you outperform the competitors. It will allow you to establish an authentic brand that grabs attention, attracts audiences, and provides excellent customer satisfaction. So, before you start developing your sales and marketing approach, ensure that you have the information you need to target your audiences.