{"id":31213,"date":"2021-11-23T10:21:13","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T17:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.xpressdocs.com\/s\/?p=31213"},"modified":"2023-12-15T21:19:22","modified_gmt":"2023-12-16T04:19:22","slug":"3-questions-to-identify-target-market-sf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xpressdocs.com\/s\/blog\/3-questions-to-identify-target-market-sf\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Questions to Help Identify Your New Franchise\u2019s Target Market"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>3 Questions to Help Identify Your New Franchise\u2019s Target Market <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>You\u2019ve opened the doors of your new franchise \u2013 congratulations! Now it\u2019s time to start marketing, i.e., getting the word out about your business to your community. However, before you start spending your marketing dollars willy-nilly, have you stopped to consider who you want to market to?<\/p>\n<p>Before you say \u201ceveryone,\u201d just know that keeping your audience as broad as possible is not necessarily a recipe for success. The key ingredient to a successful marketing plan is identifying your target market, and yes, you have one! A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/terms\/t\/target-market.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">target market<\/a> is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>a group of people<\/li>\n<li>with some shared characteristics<\/li>\n<li>that are potential customers for your products<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To start the process of finding these people, you have to be a little introspective. These questions should get you on the right track. Start by determining:<\/p>\n<h4><strong>1) Who is already buying from you?<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>To identify the types of people you should market to, the easiest place to start is by analyzing who has bought from you already. Examine your list of customers and define what characteristics, or demographics, they have in common, such as age, gender, location, income level, profession, hobbies, and interests.<\/p>\n<p>Hold on, you say. I\u2019m the owner of a brand-new franchise, and I haven\u2019t exactly built up a huge pool of customers yet. Well, you\u2019re in the perfect position for a little field research. Pay attention to the types of customers walking through the door at your company\u2019s other franchise locations and keep an eye on who is purchasing from your competitors, too. Do you notice more men, women, or families at these establishments? Are they a certain age? Are you trying to attract the same customers as your competitors, or can you identify a niche market your competitor is missing?<\/p>\n<h4><strong>2) Who is looking for you?<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>A helpful way to identify your target market other than by demographics is based on purchase intention, or those in your community looking for your services. What makes people seek out your franchise, and what makes them alike?<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s say you offer lawn and landscaping services as part of a home services franchise. Consider what needs you are filling for your customer, and what purpose they have in coming to you. Your customers probably don\u2019t live in an apartment or a dense downtown area. At the very least, they own a lawn, and they need help maintaining it. Perhaps they are a homeowner in the suburbs with little time to mow and weed, and they have disposable income to afford lawn services.<\/p>\n<p>What can you extrapolate about your target market\u2019s age and potential professional level from these assumptions? If you\u2019re looking at two neighborhoods in your city to send out a direct mail campaign, and one has more apartments, in which neighborhood would you focus your efforts?<\/p>\n<h4><strong>3) Who is <em>not <\/em>going to buy your offerings?<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Sometimes, the quickest way to pin down who your customers<em> are<\/em> is by figuring out who your customers <em>aren\u2019t.<\/em> If you are the owner of a home healthcare franchise, you are probably not going to (or want to) attract young couples or college students. So don\u2019t spend time trying to market to this group of people.<\/p>\n<p>Find out who you need to market to instead (such as middle-aged folks needing assistance caring for an elderly relative, or senior citizens looking for some help at home) and find out what advertising mediums these people read and watch. Don\u2019t worry about the latest trends in marketing to Gen Z if you know they\u2019re not in your target market. What are the tried-and-true mediums you can use to attract <em>your <\/em>type of customer?<\/p>\n<h4><strong>So How Do I Find These People?<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>So, you\u2019ve identified that your target market is homeowners between the ages of 35 \u2013 55 who live in the suburbs. Great. How do you go about contacting them? Start your research. Look online for studies about your target market and what others have done to reach them. Search for the social media sites they frequent, publications they read, and channels they watch.<\/p>\n<p>When you\u2019re ready to set up a campaign for your target market, Xpressdocs can help. We have solutions like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xpressdocs.com\/s\/mailing-list-services\/\">mailing list services<\/a> to pinpoint your direct mail campaigns based on customer demographics, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xpressdocs.com\/s\/marketing-automation\/\">marketing automation<\/a> to make frequent touchpoints a cinch. With over 20 years of experience as a marketing partner for franchises, we assist you with all of your marketing efforts, all from one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xpressdocs.com\/s\/brand-management-platform\/products\/\">platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a class=\"fasc-button fasc-size-medium fasc-type-flat fasc-rounded-medium\" style=\"background-color: #123161; color: #ffffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.xpressdocs.com\/s\/contacts\/\">Contact Us<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>3 Questions to Help Identify Your New Franchise\u2019s Target Market You\u2019ve opened the doors of your new franchise \u2013 congratulations! (&#8230;)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":29568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[317,373],"tags":[299],"class_list":["post-31213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-franchise","category-customer","tag-franchise-marketing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xpressdocs.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xpressdocs.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xpressdocs.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xpressdocs.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xpressdocs.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.xpressdocs.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31214,"href":"https:\/\/www.xpressdocs.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31213\/revisions\/31214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xpressdocs.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xpressdocs.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xpressdocs.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xpressdocs.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}