How to Define Your Target Market: 7 Tips to Grow Your Customer Base and Boost Your Marketing

Let’s be real: without a clearly defined target market, your marketing strategy is like throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something sticks. I’ve seen it firsthand with so many businesses that have amazing products or services, but struggle to connect with the right people. Defining your target market isn’t just step one—it’s the foundation that supports your entire marketing house.

If you’re ready to stop wasting time and money and start reaching the right customers with the right message, keep reading. Here’s my step-by-step guide to help you define your target market in a way that’s clear, actionable and a little bit fun.

 

1. Understand What Your Product or Service Actually Does

The first step of defining your target market is the most straightforward but often skipped by business owners: Understand the value of what you’re offering, including the problem your product or service solves and what benefits customers walk away with.

Take a few minutes to outline the top 3–5 core benefits of your product or service, and then think about who needs those benefits most. Are they busy small business owners? Procurement managers? DIY home renovators?

Getting crystal clear on this lays the groundwork for identifying your perfect-fit customers.

Helpful resource: Learn how to create a customer profile

 

2. Analyze Your Current Customer Base

One of the smartest shortcuts to defining your target market? Look at who’s already buying from you.

Pull some simple data like:

• Age and gender
• Geographic location
• Common characteristics (interests, job titles, company size)

You can grab these insights from Google Analytics, your CRM system or even by chatting with your sales team.

According to BIA/Kelsey, 61% of small business owners say more than half their revenue comes from repeat customers, so why not focus your marketing efforts on people who already love you?

Pro tip: Look at patterns across your customer base. If most of your best clients are midwestern manufacturing companies with 50–200 employees, boom—you’re already starting to see your market segments take shape.

 

3. Dig Into Your Competitors’ Strategies

If you’re not keeping tabs on your competitors, you’re missing half of the picture.

Start by analyzing your competitors’ social media accounts. Examine their tone, content and engaged audience.

Set up Google Alerts to monitor where they’re showing up online. Are they guest posting, speaking at events or getting mentioned in industry publications?

You don’t want to copy them (never a good look), but understanding who your competitors are targeting can help you uncover opportunities—or gaps—in the market.

Helpful resource: Check out HubSpot’s guide on audience targeting

 

4. Create Detailed Customer Profiles

This is where the magic happens.

A customer profile (also called a buyer persona) is a detailed description of your ideal customer. A complete profile or persona should include demographics, job title, goals, pain points, buying habits and additional relevant details, like their favorite podcasts. We prepared this checklist to simplify the customer profile creation process.

Here’s what you’ll want to include:

• Age, gender, geographic location
• Income level, education, industry
• Biggest challenges or frustrations
• What they value most in a product or service

When you build out these profiles, your marketing efforts become laser-focused. You know exactly who you’re speaking to in your emails, social posts and paid ads.

For help getting started, check out this guide on conducting target audience research.

 

5. Define Your Niche Market

Sometimes “target market” feels too broad. That’s when defining a niche market comes into play.

Your niche is a smaller, super-specific group within your larger audience. Targeting a niche market can give you a huge advantage, especially if you’re a small- to medium-sized business without a giant marketing budget.

Examples of niche markets:

• SaaS companies that cater specifically to healthcare providers
• Custom cabinet makers specializing in luxury lake homes
• HR consultants who only work with manufacturing firms

The more specific you are, the more your marketing campaigns will resonate with your potential customers.

Helpful resource: Harvard Business School’s take on target audiences

 

6. Segment Your Audience for Smarter Marketing Campaigns

Once you’ve defined your target audience, go even deeper by creating market segments based on different factors like:

• Geographic location
• Industry
• Company size
• Purchase behavior

Two common audience segments are first-time customers and repeat customers. Each segment might need a different message or offer. 

Segmenting lets you personalize your marketing campaigns and make stronger emotional connections, which leads to better engagement and more conversions. Read 10 Sure-Fire Ways to Add Personalization to Your Digital Marketing to learn more about segmentation and why it matters.

 

7. Test, Refine, and Adapt

Having a defined target market is just the beginning. 

Market dynamics change. Customer preferences evolve. New competitors pop up.

That’s why it’s so important to monitor your marketing campaigns and adjust your audience targeting as you learn.

Use A/B testing in your ads, try different messaging angles and keep an eye on key metrics like conversion rates and customer acquisition costs. Stay curious and nimble—it’s the secret to long-term marketing success.

Helpful resource: More from HubSpot on defining your target audience

 

Ready to Define Your Target Market and Dominate Your Space?

There you have it: the complete, battle-tested steps to define your target market and build marketing efforts that truly connect.

If you want a team of research-driven, friendly digital marketing experts to help you uncover hidden opportunities, craft a strategy and drive real business growth, let’s talk.

Drive Your Marketing Initiatives With Data-Backed Insights and Strategic Planning

At Keystone Click, we start every project by understanding your brand, your audience and your competition. Our deep-dive marketing research and tailored digital strategies ensure your marketing efforts are grounded in real data, not guesswork.

Whether you need help building your customer profiles, segmenting your audiences or launching targeted marketing campaigns, our expert team has your back.

Ready to align your marketing with your target customers and maximize your ROI? Let’s connect today!

 

Editor’s note: Our team of digital marketing experts is always on the lookout to bring you the most up-to-date and comprehensive information about our industry. This post was originally published in April 2018 and has been updated to reflect current best practices.