How to identify your target market
Who is your target market? And how much do you know about them?
Identifying your target market is absolutely essential. After all, if you don’t know who your potential clients are, you won’t know how to get in contact with them, or what to say to persuade them to choose you. And, crucially, you won’t be able to tailor your services to meet their needs.
Have you got a spare twenty minutes? Try this…
Step one
Write down the service that your private practice will be offering. For example, psychotherapy or chiropractic treatment. Then, break this down into specific areas, for example medico-legal reports or chiropractic treatment for sports injuries.
Step two
Think about the types of customer that may need your service, starting with the end user – the person who will benefit directly from your service. Find out and write down more about them – are they male or female? How old are they? What is their occupation – are they management level, skilled, unskilled, or unemployed? Will they pay for their own treatment, or will someone else (such as an insurance company or their employer) pay for them? How might they go about finding someone who can help?
Step three
Who else, other than the end user, could be your customer? Who might give you referrals? This could be your local GP, a rehabilitation company, another private practice, a large company, a health club, an insurance company, a solicitor, or a private clinic. These are all people who you should get in touch with.
Step four
So – you’ve just defined your service and then used that to identify your target market. However, it’s not as easy as all that. More often than not, you have to understand your market before you define your service.
This is particularly important for the world of private practice, because your clients are likely to live no more than twenty miles away, particularly if you live in an urban area. For example, if you’re planning to offer counselling for the unemployed, but live in an area of particularly high employment, you won’t have much of a target market.
So, consider the demographic of where you live and work. Ask yourself the same questions about them as in Step two above, and use the answers to inform and influence your service offering.
Now what?
You will now have a good idea of your target market, or, even better, several target markets. Ask yourself the following questions and write down your answers – this is all useful market research that shouldn’t be wasted.
Which part of my target market will be most profitable to my private practice?
Will individuals be more profitable, or businesses / organisations? Which of my services will generate the most income? Capture it now. When you are reviewing things next year you will have a record.
What problems do my target market have?
Are they likely to suffer from workplace stress, specific injuries or conditions? How can you tailor your service to meet their needs?
What will my target market want from my service?
Will they want someone who can offer them the cheapest price? Are they looking for the greatest expertise, or the most experience?
Answering these questions will help you to understand how to market your services better – and, if necessary, adapt your services to better suit their needs. It will also act as a good record that you can look back on when you carry out an annual review of your services.