Why Is Marketing Important To A Business? Who you are talking to?

By Brenda Blindenbach

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Many small business owners who take a holistic approach to business struggle to grow their business because they have not asked and answered the question why is marketing important to a business?

Answering this question will make them realize that they must be clear on who they are trying to reach and communicate with. More often than not they are tying to be everything to everyone and end up serving no one.

If you fall into this category you need to understand that people purchase products or services for three basic reasons:
• To satisfy basic needs.
• To have their problems solved.
• To make themselves feel good.

No matter how good your service or product is not everyone wants it. That is why you need to find out if there is a market out there for what you have to offer.

So it’s really important that you are crystal clear on you who you will be communicating your message to because it helps you design your offerings in your marketing.

The words ideal client, tribe, specific audience, target market, and niche are often used interchangeably. However there is a difference between the terms niche, and target market. Let’s begin by defining some terms.

Here is a good working definition of target market and niche.

Niche is your target market (who) combined with the problem you are solving or the need you are fulfilling (what)

Your “who” is your target market.

When you combine your “what “with your “who” you have your niche.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to gain clarity on who you want to work with.
1. Where do they live –local, regional, national?
2. What industry are they in?
3. What is their pain/ struggle? What is top of mind for them?
4. What services/ products do they spend their time on?
5. Can they pay for your services and offerings?
6. What kind of significant life experiences have they had?
7. What kind of education/training do they have?
8. What do they do for fun?
9. Where do they hang out?
10. Who needs to hear your message?

When you are absolutely clear on who your niche and ideal client is you will be able to communicate exactly what you have to offer them when you are marketing to them, no matter if it’s in a brochure, website, sales page, when networking, video etc

If you target too many types of people you are actually coming from a lack mind set. E.g. If there are 3 different types of people who have 3 different needs, your message will be diluted to fit the needs of all 3 types and they won’t know who you are talking to. They will be confused. There’s a saying that goes “A confused mind never buys”

Your message has to be so clear that your prospective clients say to themselves “boy she really knows what I’m feeling and what I’ve been going through”, “she’s been there herself”

Your goal is to make it so clear, that you, your service or product can solve their problem so it’s going to be easy for your ideal clients to self select.

The other thing to remember is that you can’t create a compelling message until you are clear on who your target audience is.