What Is a Target Market and How to Find Yours

If you want to identify your specific target market, it’s essential to first understand the five different market segments.

These market segmentations include the following:

• Demographic segmentation
• Firmographic segmentation
• Geographic segmentation
• Psychographic segmentation
• Behavioral segmentation

Let me break each target market segmentation down for you!

Demographic Segmentation

First up is demographic segmentation. This is a key element in finding your target market.

This targeted advertising strategy involves dividing your consumers into specific groups based on key characteristics, such as:

• Age
• Ethnicity
• Income level
• Education level
• Household size
• Gender identity
• Sexual orientation
• Geographic location

This type of segmentation is beneficial for businesses offering products or services that cater to a specific age group or gender.

For instance, if you’re selling beauty products, you might find that your target market is primarily women between the ages of 25 to 45.

This way, demographic segmentation can help you better understand your audience and deliver personalized marketing efforts that drive engagement.

By analyzing these demographic factors of your target market, you can design and execute effective marketing campaigns that resonate with their unique needs and preferences.

Firmographic Segmentation

Next is firmographic segmentation. This is a method that could potentially be a game-changer for your business.

This type of market segmentation separates customers based on factual characteristics like:

• Size
• Industry
• Location
• Performance
• Status or Structure

It’s a great way to understand your customers better and tailor your marketing efforts to match their needs and behaviors.

For instance, if you’re targeting small businesses, you’ll want to craft marketing messages that speak to their budget constraints and highlight the benefits of your product or service for their operations.

By using firmographic segmentation, you can cluster similar customers together and customize your marketing and sales efforts while also saving time and resources that maximize the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

Geographic Segmentation

Additionally, geographic segmentation divides a more significant market into smaller, more manageable subgroups based on their physical location.

This market segmentation can include factors such as:

• Location City
• Location County
• Location Country
• Location Neighborhood

The idea behind this approach is that people’s geography can affect their needs, preferences, and behaviors.

For example, people who live in urban areas may have different purchasing habits than those who live in rural areas.

However, it’s important to note that geographic segmentation isn’t limited to country or region and can also be broken down by city, neighborhood, or zip code.

By understanding where their potential customers are located, businesses can tailor their marketing strategies and reach out to them effectively.

Psychographic Segmentation

Now, let’s talk about psychographic segmentation! This type of segmentation can be a bit more challenging and complex to execute, as it requires a deeper understanding of your target market.

This approach to finding your target market delves into your customers:

• Lifestyle
• Opinions
• Attitudes
• Aspirations
• Personal values
• Religious beliefs
• Political leanings

In contrast to demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation helps businesses further understand individual consumer buying decisions.

For example, consumers with a strong interest in environmental issues and who tend to buy eco-friendly products may fall under a psychographic segmentation called “conscious consumers.”

This is because psychographic segmentation deeply examines the motivations behind consumer buying behaviors; and can reveal insights about how they like to communicate, what influences their purchasing decisions, or how they spend their free time.

By using this market segmentation in your marketing strategy, you can connect with your target market personally and build stronger, more meaningful relationships with them.

Behavioral Segmentation

Lastly, behavioral segmentation is a marketing strategy that divides consumers into groups based on their behavioral patterns.

This segmentation technique helps companies personalize their products and services to customer groups based on the following:

• Occasion
• Brand loyalty
• Benefits needed
• Usage frequency

This approach allows businesses to better understand their customers and tailor their marketing efforts to meet their needs and preferences.

For example, you might target customers who frequently purchase your products with loyalty programs or special discounts.

Alternatively, if you notice that certain customers only use your products for specific purposes, you can create content or marketing materials that cater to those particular use cases.

By analyzing customers’ attitudes, responses, and behaviors, companies can target them more effectively and develop products and services that meet their specific needs, ultimately building stronger relationships.

How Can You Apply These Market Segmentations? 

Think through each of the segmentations above and drill down into who your target market is. Some of them the segmentations are harder than others. 

However, sometimes this can get tricky!

Return to our example above (girls 8-12 running shoes). Who are we targeting? The kids or their parents? 

Action Steps:

1. Make a list of the segmentations above that apply to your target market.
2. Check the boxes off each segmentation that you can answer (and remove the ones that don’t apply).
3. Continue research around the ones you’re unsure of.