Strategic Marketing: Questions For Identifying All Potential Market Segments
For the purpose of generating all of the potential segments you could market to, the question you will be asking yourself is:
What are all of the possible types of clients that could benefit from my services?
Here are some "idea stimulators" to help you fill your paper with potential segment ideas.
1. What do you do well?
Perhaps you're offering a number of different services right now but you do a much better job of providing some rather than others. For those services you provide particularly well, who can benefit from them?
2. Of the things you do well, what do you enjoy doing the most?
Are there certain services you enjoy providing much more than others? Are they financially rewarding? If so, who can benefit from them? If you're going to spend 40 hours or more working each week, you might as well do what you really enjoy the most.
3. What are the individual characteristics of your clients?
Are they primarily male? Primarily female? Between the ages of 25 and 50? Professionals? Consumers? … etc.
4. What are the geographic characteristics of your clients?
Are they local, state-wide, regional, national, or international?
5. What is the industry type of your clients?
This category offers a variety of "idea stimulators." For example, you can't just say "manufacturing". What specifically does your Ideal Client manufacture – computers, automobiles, canning equipment, and so on?
Also, what is the size of the client within the industry type. For example: Small manufacturers of specialized computer chips, medium-sized manufacturers of computer chips, large corporations that manufacture computer chips.
6. Do your clients have specific job titles or job descriptions?
Who do you do business with? The CEO? A middle level manager? The Vice President of Human Resources?
If you're a professional speaker, it's fairly obvious that you'll need to market to meeting planners. But if you also want to do private training at a corporate level, do you need to target the Director of Human Resources, the Training Manager, or a specific department head?
7. What is your client's purchasing history?
Let's say you're a computer consultant specializing in spreadsheet software for personal computer networks. Your clients would have to use one of the spreadsheets your expertise covers and be working in a network environment you know inside and out.
8. What market conditions cause people to become your clients?
Perhaps you're a financial planner who specializes in maximizing income for retired people. At what age do your clients start needing your services: Ten years before retirement, at retirement, or a few years after retirement?
Or, maybe you're a financial planner who specializes in estate planning for young families. What conditions turn people into potential clients for you – a marriage, birth of children, or some other event?
If you're a management consultant who specializes in helping employees who have been terminated find new jobs, what conditions create clients? Companies that have merged and now have too many employees for the same positions? Corporate downsizing?
9. What is your client's purchasing level?
At what level does your client purchase? For themselves? For a corporation? For a distributor? For a consumer group? Each level has its own specific needs that should be focused on when you're ready to create your marketing.
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