Knowing your target audience is critical: Your ads won’t work if they don’t appeal to what your potential customers want or need.
Research and find out as much as possible about the people you want to sell to. For example, if you run an independent bookstore (remember those?), it’s easier to sell books, magazines, and newspapers to people who already read voraciously, so you need to find those folks and figure out as much as you can about their reading habits and preferences.
If you’re selling running shoes, find out who the avid athletes are in your community and how old they are, how often they run, where they work out, who they listen to for advice on running gear, and what they’re not getting from competing shoe stores.
Your market research can take many forms. If you oversee the advertising for
a new business (or you want to go after a new type of consumer for your
business), you can start by checking out some basic demographic information.
The best research comes from primary sources — in other words, you should call around for information. For example, if your business is foreigncar repair, you should find out how many foreign cars are in your city or community. The simplest way to find out is to check the Yellow Pages for dealerships that sell foreign cars. Call those dealers and ask for information.
Let them know that you’re not interested in competing with them; you just
want to offer a service. They may be more than willing to give you the information
you want and to refer business to you. Of course, you should first make sure that companies you call don’t offer similar services, because then you would be competing with them! You may also be able to find information in publications, which may track demographics, sales information, trends in your industry, and other useful consumer information.
For example, an auto publication may track the number of Jaguars sold in the United States and in specific regions or cities.
Finally, you can get some useful information from your potential customers,
especially those in your primary target market — that is, the people you most want to buy from you. Conduct an informal poll by asking potential customers what they’re looking for that other businesses don’t provide. In the foreign-car example, you would contact people you know who own Jaguars or Mercedes and ask them what type of service and price they’re interested in. Similarly, if you’re opening a toy store, ask parents where they shop and why, and find out what products, services, or price levels they wish they could find at the stores they shop. You want to differentiate your business from your competition (in a good way) by targeting customer needs and attracting business! (See the following section for more on separating your business from the competition.)
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