Let’s say that you are in the weight loss market. It’s a big market, worth some $60 billion per year and is very profitable for a lot of businesses. And that’s the problem. A lot of businesses are involved in this industry.You may have some great products and services but how do you get your business noticed in a crowded marketplace?Segment Your MarketRather than concentrating on a huge market, like weight loss, use a market segmentation system. This where you target your marketing to a smaller sized, specific segment of that large group. For example, your marketing initiatives and tactics are targeted to single women over 40 years old, or another more specific group.Your Customer AvatarTo establish your target market you need a very clear idea of your ideal customer. This potential customer is known as your customer avatar. How old are they, where do they live, what are their likes and dislikes? What are all of the characteristics that make that individual your dream customer.When you focus on a smaller sized target market rather than a general market, it is much easier to connect with an individual. Always remember you are marketing to one individual at a time, not a group. Target your marketing to a smaller subset of a larger group and your marketing efforts have a much better chance of giving you the results you want.Should You Ever Change Your Target Market?If your marketing efforts are not providing results, may need to change the focus or target market of your business.Sometimes, despite the fact that you have done a lot of research, you end up marketing to the wrong group of people. Your target market may not want to spend any money on your product and service and may just be looking for free advice. That’s when you need to refine your market and look for a segment of people who have expressed a serious interest in spending money.Analyze Your Marketing TacticsAnother situation could be that your target market is just fine, and you just need to change your strategy and marketing techniques. For example, your audience may not be responding to your social media messages but may be more responsive to email?At other times, if you’re not achieving the success you’re looking for after a lot of time and effort, it may be your target market that needs changing, and not your marketing itself.
Is a Lack of Management Confidence Hurting Your Business Performance?
Recently when I was talking to someone about management confidence they asked What difference does confidence make to business performance? Good question. In this article I’m going to answer that question and highlight why management confidence is a critical issue – not just for the business owner or manager, but for the businessLet’s begin with what confident managers actually do. In short, confident managers take actionThey use a planned and structured approach to doing things like;
• Identifying, writing and agreeing performance objectives
• Discussing how the objectives contribute to the business goals
• Monitoring and measuring performance so that they can provide ongoing, regular and specific feedback on performance
• Identifying and acknowledging outstanding performance, and taking action to deal with areas for improvement
• Discussing the employee’s development aspirations and objectives
• Discussing the employee’s job satisfactionBecause confident managers take action, confident managers get resultsSo how does this confidence and action impact business performance? There’s a whole body of research that tells us that employees who are effectively managed are more productive, and teams that are effectively managed are more profitable. Research also shows us that one of the key reasons for lost productivity – and one comprehensive piece of research suggests that in the UK and US at least 18% of time spent at work is unproductive – is because of poor employee supervision. And of course this is not taking into account the negative impact that a lack of effective management has on employee satisfaction and engagement. In short confident managers take action to manage effectively and effective management positively impacts business resultsOf course confidence also impacts the manager themselves
So how does this confidence impact the manager? Let me ask you a question. As a manager, who would you prefer to work with and manage:A) A group of people who are clear on what’s expected of them, who get the feedback they want and need and who are consequently willing and motivated to perform wellOrB) A group of people who don’t know what’s expected of them, who don’t know if they are performing well or not and who consequently just don’t care?I know it’s a stupid question, but I want to illustrate the importance of the management role because effective management of people is both a critical commercial issue – because it’s about the business results – and a satisfaction issue, for both the employee and the manager So, how do managers get to be confident? In any field, in any area, the way we build confidence is by taking action and getting results, reviewing those results and then taking action again. By way of illustration I’d like you to think of something you are confident in. It might be that you’re a confident driver, tap dancer, parent, it may be that you are confident in the technical aspects of your job, for example you might be a confident auditor. Now I would like you to think about how you became confident in that areaI’ll bet my bottom dollar that you built that level of confidence by taking action, by reviewing what you did and then by taking action againAnd of course it’s by taking action that managers sky rocket their management confidence