Interacting with Your Target Audience

Knowing your target audience is a critical element in a small business. By understanding what their needs and wants are, you can improve your service or product. What better way to meet people than to venture out into the world and find them! Do you know where to look?

If you’re selling something that targets women, don’t forget a very important day: International Women’s Day is March 8th and a lot of communities will hold vendor fairs. If you stay current with the event news in your area, you can sign up and be prepared to meet and greet your audience. Of course, you always need to ask yourself when meeting potential clients in this type of atmosphere: what’s in it for them? A colorful banner and a friendly smile is a good start to a vendor fair booth, but we all know the goodies are what get attention.

Try to find something even better than the standard business card to hand out. Find something that you can easily take to the event that not only has your contact info, but people are likely to hang on to it because it serves another purpose. For example: a massage therapist has a booth at a women’s fair to advertise her services. She hands out a stress ball with her name and salon number to her targeted audience; it’s relevant. What are other cheap products? Magnets, key chains, pens, notepads and more. They don’t have to be useful AND related to your business, but useful to the target audience means less likely to be forgotten or pitched.

How much can you prepare ahead of time if you’re going to be at a certain event or function? Well, you can never be too prepared! If you’ve signed up to be a speaker or rent a booth at an event, don’t sit by and let the event organizers do all your advertising for you; take matters into your own hands. Perhaps you’re doing newsletters on a regular basis and have an email list built of both clients and potentials; send an announcement out to let them know when and where. Also, toss in some promotional deal that makes the event stick in their mind. Something like: the first 50 to stop by the booth get a coupon for 25% off. If someone was on the fence about your product, a coupon could sway them into giving it a try.

Remember: it’s an important part of your small business design to know your target audience. When you can’t speak to them in person, be online looking at forums and blogs relevant to your business. Listen to what people say. Take the time to get to know them and you’ll be able to provide a better service or product.

Small Business Design Resources