Your target customer is “those who are most likely to buy from you”, as defined by Entrepreneur.com. For over a year now I’ve written for this blog, giving marketing advice and ideas. In many of those posts, I’ve talked about identifying your target customer and catering to his or her needs. About how you need to make sure that the content you create, the emails you send out, the advertising that you produce is all created with the target customer in mind.
What I haven’t touched on is how in the world you figure out who this target customer is.
Here are 50 questions to ask yourself about your target customer. Remember, some are going to have a greater impact than others. Some won’t mean anything at all. The real point of this article is to get you asking questions so you can target the right group of people as you launch your marketing campaign.
1. How old are they? Is your product ideal for teens? Senior citizens? Any age?
2. Where are they located? Do they live someplace that’s always sunny? Is there snow in the winter and that’s why they need your product?
3. Is your customer a man or a woman or either?
4. Do they need a certain level of income to purchase your product? Are you marketing to the middle class? The uber rich? Lower income families?
5. Are your target customers married? Do they have kids? Pets that they treat like kids?
6. Do they live alone? With a roommate? Significant other? Their parents? Do they have kids?
7. What do they do for a living? Are they blue collar workers? Do they work in tech? Are they professionals?
8. Do they own their own home? Or do they rent? Still live at home with their parents?
9. Do they want to own their own home? Are they saving for a big purchase?
10. Did they graduate from college? Have they graduated from high school? Do they have a post-graduate degree?
11. Are they a night owl or a morning person?
12. What kinds of movies do they like? Comedies? Romance? Action? Documentaries?
13. What do they like to do on the weekend? Watch TV? Go hiking?
14. What’s a typical day like for your customer? Do they go to work? Are they having to shuttle the kids?
15. Does your customer cook dinner every night? Do they eat out?
16. Would they like to travel? Do they like cruises? Like to fly?
17. Do they prefer to shop online or in a store?
18. Are they religious? Do they go to church on Sundays? Are they atheists?
19. Do they vote? Are they politically active? Could they liberal? Or maybe conservative?
20. Are they environmentally conscious?
21. What are their life goals? Their goals in the next year? The next 5 years? Next 10 years?
22. Do they have career aspirations?
23. What do they need? How could you make their lives easier? What would make their lives harder?
24. Are they family oriented? Do they have a weekly dinner with their mother? Would they rather spend the day with close friends?
25. Are they introverted or extroverted?
26. Where do they like to go out? Do they like to go to coffee shops? Nightclubs? Concerts?
27. Are they skeptics or quick to believe what they hear?
28. Do they frequent news websites? What websites?
29. Are they listening to podcasts? What podcasts?
30. Do they play sports? Enjoy a round of golf?
31. Are they avid readers? What do they read? Books? Magazines? Newspapers?
32. Do they take summer vacations? Travel during the holiday (November/December) season?
33. Are they using social media? Do they have an Instagram account or are they more likely to share what’s going on with them on Facebook?
34. How frequently do they watch YouTube?
35. Are they commuting to work? Do they work from home?
36. Like to read blogs? Newspapers? Magazines?
37. What kind of television shows do they watch?
38. Which radio stations do they listen to?
39. Are they socially conscious? If so, what causes do they support? What kind of charitable giving do they do?
40. How do they communicate? Do they like phone calls? Text messages? Emails? Tweets?
41. What kinds of problems do they face on a daily basis? Monthly basis? Yearly basis?
42. Do they currently use a competitor’s product? What do they like about that product? Which things don’t they like? How is your product better? Or is it worse?
43. Does your customer have a tablet or smartphone that they use to access the internet? Are they more likely to use a laptop or desktop computer?
44. Do they like to research before they buy or are they impulse buyers? Or do they need the recommendation of a friend? A close family member?
45. Do they belong to any social groups? Professional groups? How do they meet new people?
46. Know their fears, what are they afraid of both in the tangible sense (spiders?) and the intangible sense (failure?)?
47. What frustrates them?
48. How do they relax? Do they love massages? Going to the spa?
49. What do they buy now? Where do they shop? What do they look for when they’re shopping?
50. How could make them buy your product or service?
A lot of these questions you can answer yourself, but for some of them, you may just want to ask your current customers. If you do ask, make it fun, such as what show are you most likely to binge watch or what’s your favorite movie?
Also, make sure the survey is short and noninvasive. Current customers are happy with you, but if you ask too many questions or get too personal, they may not be happy for long.
Once you’ve established a great description of your target customer, start to think about what you can do to help them. Think of what things about your product or service would make them happy or help them in their daily life. What will they like about your product more than any other similar product on the market? And if you still want some more help, check out my post Four Unconventional Ways to Connect with Your Target Market.
Good luck.
Written by Erika Towne