How do I define my Target Market ??

[alison640]

I am really struggling to define who my target market/audience are, being a bookkeeper/virtual assistant, my target market/audience is all SME's, I need to narrow this down, any suggestions/help?

[Chris Ashdown]

Within 5 miles of my address, with turnover smaller then £2.5 million, with less than 250 invoices per month, specialising in window cleaners, scaffolding companies etc

[oldeagleeye]

A friend of mine who is a stocktaker adapted an ordinary cash flow forecast prog like Works and targeted publican's with advice on pricing and what difference knocking off a few pence here and there or adding somewhere else would have an effect on overall profit and some of the results were quite amazing and now he earns an extra £25 quid every time there is a price change or the landlord wants to run a promotion. Just for a few min's work. Seems to me a proactive book-keeper could do the same instead of just ticking numbers..

Good Luck

Chris. You left Plumbers off your list.:D

[Be Known PR]

.........my target market/audience is all SME's, I need to narrow this down, any suggestions/help?

The first thing to do is recognise that it is not all SME's because many of these will already employ PA's or have established relationships with accountants.

I think you need to be targeting businesses that are not neccessarily office based and who therefore need to outsource their books etc. Mechanics garages, builders, consultants etc.

You also need to become sharp at working out who is too small to be able to justify the expense. For example, I was chatting to the builder who has just done work on my house. Both of us run our own businesses and both of us rely on our wife to do our admin and book keeping (both women do it reluctantly). I am a sole trader with a small turnover, he has a ltd company with a much higher turn over. Whilst both of our wives would love us to take the work off their hands, I would struggle to be able to justify it, where as he could decide that it is money well spend to keep his wife happy.

[alison640]

Do not want to offend. I think a lot of SME's misunderstand the benefits of outsourcing to a bookkeeper being the time element and experience. I would not build my own house, I would call in the professionals (apologise if both wives are qualified bookkeepers). I always maintain that, for example, if I built a wall the progress I would make in a day would possibly take a professional builder 2 hours tops to do, not to mention the money I had not earned wasting my day doing something I am not good at !!! Just an example

[Cartoon Logos]

Do not want to offend. I think a lot of SME's misunderstand the benefits of outsourcing to a bookkeeper being the time element and experience. I would not build my own house, I would call in the professionals (apologise if both wives are qualified bookkeepers). I always maintain that, for example, if I built a wall the progress I would make in a day would possibly take a professional builder 2 hours tops to do, not to mention the money I had not earned wasting my day doing something I am not good at !!! Just an example

This is very true.

Simply pop this message on your website and in your marketing materials.

Ie

Is your time worth more than £12 an hour?
(or whatever your rate is)

YES?
Outsource your office admin. and book keeping to me
So you can get on with making money!

[alison640]

Thanks for input, I know how to sell the benefits of my services, but I need to narrow down who I target.

[Jen at My Marketing Team]

I agree with David. I weould look at narrowing it down by turnover, number of employees. (You can do a first cut based on who your typical existing customer is), and also by trade(s). That way you can really focus your marketing and make any copy you write really personal. So by targeting tradespeople for example, or professional service providers, you can look to place articles in publications which target them. You can make any ad copy relate specifically to them. And really personalise your direct marketing.

If you have any experience in any particular sector, this is a good place to strat as that can bolster your credentials. (I used to practice reflexology - still do a little bit - and so I found it easy to target complementary therapists as I understood their challenges and could push my personal experience.)

It can be a case of trial and error, but provided you always measure, you will always learn valuable lessons for the future. Using web technology - web polls, social media (facebook, twitter, linked in, forums - like this one!) can be a very cheap and quick way of testing the ground. You can ask you fans/connections/followers/members questions to try and narrow down your target market. (I guess you already are on here!)

And at the end of the day, by using technology to engage with your potential or existing customers is a great way to drum up new business now and in the future!

Good luck Alison!
Jen

[Be Known PR]

Do not want to offend. I think a lot of SME's misunderstand the benefits of outsourcing to a bookkeeper being the time element and experience. I would not build my own house, I would call in the professionals (apologise if both wives are qualified bookkeepers). I always maintain that, for example, if I built a wall the progress I would make in a day would possibly take a professional builder 2 hours tops to do, not to mention the money I had not earned wasting my day doing something I am not good at !!! Just an example

Hi Alison,

I completely agree with you on this point, as the same issue arises with people handling their own PR.

However, the question about target market is not so much about 'who needs your services?', but 'who should you market to?'.

Successful marketing is about finding the most efficient way of using your time and budget to maximise your returns. Therefore you need to sift out the people who may need the service but can not justify the expense or who may only have a tiny budget for occassional support, and focus on those who are more likely to give you a higher more regular income.

Going back to my example. Yes, in an ideal world I would use your services, but the reality of me doing so on a day to day basis at the moment are very slim. For the every day admin of book keeping and invoicing etc for my handul of clients, my wife (a part time teacher, so no, not qualified) will have to do. It would therefore be a waste of your resources targeting me and those like me. My builder on the other hand, with the right convincing and his big commercial contracts, is much more likely to give you a return for your efforts.

Hope this makes sense.

[KidsBeeHappy]

Draw a picture of your perfect customer. Create a business profile, business set up, structure, turnover, market etc that they deal in.

[Call Tracker]

You can define this further by testing a small mailing to a selected market to see the response you get. If the response is positive for this market widen it then move on to another market and do the same. I would suggest that you use geographic location and businesses that consist of less than ten employees. Your message should be that by employing your services they will save more money.

[alison640]

All very helpful comments, thank you

[stephenfr]

To define the target market one neeed to have proper survey of the market

[alison640]

How do I survey the market?