I was talking to Rachel Miller from Marketing Doughnut yesterday regarding some research she was doing into branding for small businesses. During the interview I did get into a bit of a rant about how some small businesses really overlook some of the most important aspects of running a business.
When drawing up our clients initial website brief we ask lots of tough questions about their business and customers. Ideally we need to understand your business inside out before we can create a single unit of digital marketing material (it’s not just a website…!). And building a great website takes a bit of time and understanding.
Recently we have been working on a website for a restaurant. One of the questions we asked was “Who is your target market?”. And we received the answer that we always dread – “Everyone“.
Now whilst it’s true to say that everyone does need to eat and that no sane restaurant would turn customers away – it’s not feasible for the small business market everyone. Deciding on a target customer is integral to running a business. For a restaurant the following factors all need to be focused on your target customer: the prices, quality of food, menu choices, drinks, decor, table layout, location, service, uniform, marketing – (can you tell that I am a big Gordon Ramsey fan?!).
Knowing your target customer, for me, is one of the most important aspect of running a business. If you know the answer to this questions then all other area’s of your business will benefit. Some companies simply struggle with putting their target market into words, some go on instinct and some just have not really thought about it at all.
So from now on instead of asking “Who is your target market?” we are going to ask “What type of customers do you have?” and “What type of customer would you like more of?”. The answers to both these should help us in understanding how to market the business on line.
If you have not really thought about who your target customer is – then find some time today. Write a list of all the attributes that your perfect customers has (and it’s fine for the list to change over time). Keep the list safe, it will help you when making business choices.
