Marketing Mistake: Not identifying your Correct Target Market

Marketing Mistake: Not identifying your Correct Target Market


You put in the long hours trying to perfect your product or service, but what if you were selling to the wrong customers all along and you could have had better results for your business by now?

You can have the best product or service and a more attractive offer than your competitors, but at the end of the day, you may be presenting your business to the wrong market. The biggest mistake any business owner can make is to incorrectly identify their customers or clients.

That can also have a huge impact towards their digital marketing tactics. If you are a small business owner, you cannot afford to make this mistake otherwise it will definitely drive you out of business!

No one can afford to target everyone or invest in marketing efforts that are seen by the wrong people. Believe it or not but 85% of 30,000 new product launches failed due to poor market segmentation.

So why are so many businesses making this mistake?

Targeting a broad market

Many business owners are trying to capture everyone as their target market. Unfortunately, not everyone is interested in certain product or services. They are wasting their time and money on targeting those who are not interested in purchasing, where they could be investing more on directly marketing to those who are interested.

Struggling business owners should concentrate on segmenting down their overall market to a more specific customer base. This way they can obtain a better understanding of their customer’s needs and are able to easily align their marketing efforts and messaging strategy.

Wrong Place, Wrong market

Business owners are targeting their potential customers in all the wrong places, which consequently affects them targeting the wrong market. There are businesses who are targeting their market too broadly through digital marketing strategies, for example using broader keywords phrases or not specifying their business location.

Businesses need to research their market by identifying their geographic, demographic, psychographic and behaviouristic characteristics. They should focus on where majority of their market are situated and determine their marketing through digital strategies such as local SEO strategies which will easily target nearby customers.

Incorrect digital marketing strategy

Many businesses are either strategizing their digital marketing incorrectly or not effectively. This may be because the digital marketing strategies they are integrating do not align with their targeted market, for example certain social media channels have an impact towards certain consumer markets, where there are those who do not use social media at all.

Business owners need to identify certain channels their target market is most active on, the specific days, the keywords they use etc.

If you are a business owner, you need to ask yourself:

  • Who do you market to?
  • Who should you market to?
If the answers to these questions are different, then you must be targeting your customer incorrectly. These questions are critical to the success of any businesses strategizing their marketing. Having a well-defined target market is now more important than ever.

For SME start-ups, it takes a lot of market research and trial and error in the beginning phase. Not being able to identify your target market properly is one of the biggest advertising mistakes and marketing errors. So, do your market research!


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