How to qualify prospective customers

You obviously want as many people as possible to know about your business. The more potential customers you want to reach, the more time and money it’s going to cost you. Qualify your business' target audience so you can best serve and advertise directly to your real customers. By identifying and marketing to your target audience you are choosing where to spend your time and money. It will help you save on your marketing budget. Focusing on a selected group who might be interested in your business will allow you to communicate and engage with that segment more closely.

Your target audience is the group of people that you have identified as the intended recipient of an advertisement or message from your business. Your business might appeal to a large group of people but it doesn’t make sense to try to market to everyone.

To qualify people who are your target audience, you first need to answer these questions

• What are you selling and what makes it so unique? What is your unique value proposition? For example, what makes your product or service different from what people can buy from your competitors? Think about who might be interested and who may benefit from having access to what you offer. Figuring out your selling point is the first step in identifying your ideal target audience.

• Think about what information you need to know and why. What do you need to know about your potential customers in order to reach them? Who are you looking to sell to? Are you selling to singles? To families? To the environmentally conscious? You will need to know who is looking for the products and services you offer.

• Why should people buy the product or service from you? Are you open very late at night so that customers who work long hours can call in? Do you offer a free delivery service or special menu or package deals?

The next step is to create a framework so you can effectively manage your target audience as you move your prospective customers through the marketing funnel.

• Focus on your primary market. Many business owners fall into the trap of believing that their products or services are “for everyone”. Its easy to think that anyone would be interested in or need hour business. But even if your appeal to a broad market of diverse consumers, you need to identify who your ideal consumer is. After you’ve identified who is your primary market, your advertising should match that focus.

• Research your market. Knowing your target audience is critical. Your advertising won’t work if it doesn’t appeal to what your potential customers want or need. Research and find out as much as possible about the people you want to sell to.

• Create a tracking system. Before you begin marketing to your potential customers, make sure you know how you are going to track sales, interactions, requests for information, and more. All of these touch points are important to record. It’s important to see how your current and potential customers evolve. This information will help you identify trends, patterns, and possible areas of improvement that will continually help your marketing efforts as your business matures.

You can look around for information from your industry group, your team, your customers and your competitors. Your market research can take many forms

• Demographics - If you manage the advertising for a new business or you want to go after a new type of customer for your business, you can start by checking out some basic demographic information. The best research comes from primary sources. These sources can help you pull together information about your industry, the market, your competition and the broad potential customer you have already identified. The best part is that someone has already done the work and in many cases, the information won’t cost you anything.

• Publications - You may also be able to find information in publications, which may track demographics, sales information, trends in your industry, and other useful consumer information.

• Potential customers - Conduct an informal poll by asking potential customers — especially those you've identified as your target audience — what they’re looking for that other businesses don’t provide.

• Primary research - If you’re unable to identify secondary data that is useful for you and you have the budget to do so, you may want to conduct primary research. This could involve surveys, interviews or even focus groups. Though primary research can be expensive, it could allow you to get answers to questions specific to your business.

Differentiate your business from your competition, in a good way, by targeting customer needs and attracting business. It’s not enough to just say who your target audience is. Find out what websites they visit and what social networks they most frequently use. Do they regularly check their email? What apps do they have? The information you put together for your customer profile and knowing where your audience hangs out online or how they use technology, will determine the most effective way to deliver your 'call to action' message. The Business Minder is a business consulting and management service and operates in ASEAN countries with clients in Singapore, Malaysia and Bali Indonesia.