With so many different channels and messages floating around in today’s cluttered market, it’s easy for your brand to get lost in the mix.  That’s where niche marketing comes in. Your niche market, or target market, is represented by your ideal client or client prototype.  These customer prototypes could be characterized by a variety of factors including age, gender, location, etc.  So how do you find your target market? Start with this quick exercise. (And don’t forget to write all of your ideas down!)

1. Grab a couple of highlighters in a few different colors and make a list of your current clients using a black pen.

2. Highlight in one color the clients that you love. These are the clients that are with your company for the long term; the clients with whom you’ve built a solid relationships.  They read your monthly newsletter, anxiously await new products or services and use your current products or services to their fullest.

3. In a different color, highlight the clients that give you more problems. These clients are harder to deal with and are the clients you constantly have to win over.  Nothing seems to be good enough for these customers and you dread their every phone call.

4. Once you’re finished, look at the “Clients you Love” group. Find common traits between these clients. Look at:

• Gender
• Age
• Location
• Employment Status
• Which products they use
• Who their customers may be (if they are business owners or entrepreneurs)
• What makes you enjoy working with them

Do the same for the “Clients you Loathe” column.  Now you’ve identified your target demographic and the customers to avoid.

5. Now that you’ve gotten to know your ideal customer, create a customer profile. Give you ideal customer a name and humanize him or her by giving him/her a personality.  Once you’ve identified your client prototype, get creative and find ways to reach these loyal clients and their peers (i.e. your potential customers). Identify what their concerns may be, what media they use, what other products or services they may be interested in. Use this information to find ways to capture their attention and increase your sales.

6. Find ways that your business can help. Look at your ideal customer’s needs and how your business can fill them.  Ask yourself the following questions:

• What are my ideal client’s needs?
• What products/services do I have that fulfill those needs?
• What sets my business apart from my competition?
• What “extras” can I offer my clients?

This quick exercise can give you an enormous amount of insight. (Don’t have a lot of time? For a 60-second excersise click here.) Once you’ve found your target market, there are many ways that you can widen your scope and bring your product to potential customers around the country, and even the world.  Stay tuned for the Perks Consulting team’s tips on how to take your brand on the road.