Why finding your target audience is so important!
It takes a lot of thought and strategic planning to find a profitable product, that doesn’t have too much competition, yet is in high demand. Once you strike gold and find the product of your dreams you need to figure out exactly who your customers are going to be.
Shocker – Not Everyone Will Be Buying Your Product:
I’ve worked with numerous Amazon sellers, who to my dismay seem to think that entire population needs to buy their amazing “made in China” PL product. Seriously, reality check people – you can’t please everyone! You need to drill down and get specific about who is going to be buying your product.
Creating an ideal customer/buyer persona/target audience will help you with many different things. It will help you run Facebook ads, Google ads. It will help you create landing pages and promotions, and it will help you create a product listing that actually solves a specific customer’s needs.
For example, if you are planning to sell a knee sleeve – do you know how many people are selling knee sleeve????? Ok – IF you have a knee sleeve don’t try and capture everyone who you think needs a knee sleeve – You can’t please Crossfit athletes, basketball players, gymnasts and elderly people all with the same generic knee sleeve. You need to be specific about who you want to target.
Now for Some Product Positioning Advice:
Product positioning is a way to segment the market and create your product offering in a way that speaks directly to a consumer and separates you from your competition. Try and focus on the features/attributes of the product that your consumer will feel are the most important:
E.g. a CrossFit athlete will need a knee sleeve for squats and weight lifting VS an elderly person, who will need a knee sleeve for basic activities like climbing stairs.
1. Consumer Positioning – Your viewpoint as a seller should be “What need’s or problems are we trying to solve? Address buyer concerns in your listing and show how you satisfy your customer’s needs.
2. Competitive Positioning – Using competitive positioning to distinguish yourself from the competition. Mention specific things that make your product superior or different than your competitors. I would not recommend directly bashing a competitor, a good example would be:
“Unlike other brands that use only 300 threads in their cotton sheets, we use 600 threads and 100% Egyptian Cotton”
Bigger is not Always Better
You have now realized that you need to focus on a specific segment ( yay well done!) Don’t make the mistake of going after the largest segment AKA Majority Fallacy. It usually means you will have more competition and it will cost you a lot more money to compete and get your product into your customers’ hands. It will probably be more beneficial to go after a smaller segment that is not flooded with competitors. In fact, many businesses have learned that the smallest segment/niche market is sometimes the most profitable!
Anyway, it’s not just me who says it:
Bill Davidow says, “Segmentation lets David’s slay Goliaths.”
Take some time to play around with segmentation, if you can pinpoint your best and worst customers its well worth the time” Des Machale
And in the words of Theodore Levitt (American Economist & Harvard Business Professor )
