It’s Called a Target Market Because There’s a Bullseye

If you’ve never heard the term target market, it means a specific segment of the population to whom you sell your offerings.

Common marketing wisdom is that the more specific slice of people you direct your messaging toward, the more success you’ll have growing your business or project.

“The riches are in the niches,” as it were.

Or, as Seth Godin says, “When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.”

Niching and target market can be triggering topics for small business owners and movement builders.

You don’t want to exclude people who could benefit from your offerings or support your cause.

You don’t want to turn people away.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about how to get the point across that it’s not alienating to be specific-that it’s actually galvanizing, not just for you but for your audience.

Broad City has been my go-to analogy around this for a while, but a handful of my clients haven’t seen the show.

So, I’ve been trying find something more universal.

If you do know (and, obviously, love) the show, think about it:

If Broad City were geared toward “gen pop” what would the show even be?

Its magic is in its specificity.

Do only feminist, queer-adjacent women watch it?

Nope. It has mass appeal.

But it’s as good as it is because it has a point of view.

It knows who it is and it speaks directly to its people.

If you’re not familiar with Broad City, think about any show or fashion line or band or grocery store you’re deeply committed to.

If you reflect for a bit, you can probably identify a very specific target market and it’s probably someone just like you.

So, here’s a more universal analogy: darts.

I do not play darts, but I know that you’re supposed to hit the bullseye when you do.

Does that mean that the dart won’t land somewhere else on the target? Nope.

And if it lands somewhere else, does that mean you don’t get any points? Also, nope.

A target market works the same way. You need a bullseye.

You need an idea of a very specific person you want to serve so that all of your messaging, images, offerings, etc. speak directly to somebody’s heart and needs; so that your messaging has direction and purpose.

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” — Les Brown

Inevitably, in innumerable concentric circles around that bullseye, your efforts will create rings.

Many of those rings won’t even be directly created by your marketing. They’ll happen from word-of-mouth.

Serving your gifts with excellence and generosity to the right people will create a buzz.

You will reach more people than just those in the center of your niche.

But you need to know where the bullseye is so that you can aim for it and land somewhere on the board.

Otherwise, you’re just shooting at walls.

Originally published at https://www.rebeccavandamm.com on January 11, 2022.