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One of the most common mistakes ecommerce newcomers make is not having a target market. Sure, it would be great if you could sell to EVERYONE but sales always increase when you target a specific market.

If you are like most small ecommerce store owners, you probably have a very tight (or non-existent) marketing budget so it’s important you focus your marketing efforts on a particular niche. It is better to hit a small target market hard than spread your efforts thinly across everyone.

Use the tips below to help you identify your target market:

Ensure you can relate to your customers

If you sell fishing rods and tackle, it’s important you understand the lifestyle and behavior of people who enjoy fishing as a hobby. If you fish yourself then great, you already know what appeals to your target market because you are one of your target market!

However if you sell product that you don’t have a passion or interest for then you need to spend some time getting to know the people who buy and use your products.

You don’t have to enjoy the hobbies / work that your customers do, you just need to know how to provide the best solution for their problems.

Narrow the demographic as much as possible

Try to identify the following:

  • Age Range
  • Gender
  • Nationality
  • Location
  • Income
  • Academic Level
  • Technical Capability
  • Family Size / Role in Family
The more specific you can be, the better you can target your marketing to your niche. And if you can dominate your niche you will make more money to spend on marketing to a wider market.

Don’t make assumptions

You are (at least you should be!) an expert on your products but don’t assume that because you know your products so well that you know your market very well also. You might assume that those interested in fishing are mainly male outdoor types but what if there is a growing fishing trend amongst bored housewives? Ok this might never happen but you get the idea.

Study your competitor’s marketing strategy – With more and more marketing being done online these days it’s a lot easier to analyse, and copy, your competition’s strategy. But copying will only get you so far, if you want to really excel you’ll need to come up with some original ideas.

Summary

Once you have narrowed down your target market as much as possible, start focusing your marketing efforts through channels that your target market have an interest in. Are they avid Facebook users? Addicted to email? Perhaps they love apps? Find out and get targeting.

Happy Selling!

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