It’s without a doubt that every company has its target market for its products or services. Even a run of the mill general company like Coca-Cola has its target market. Products like diet coke are targeted towards the more “healthy” and aware millennials. But get this, diet coke contributes to higher net profits than the classic coke! Identifying a target market is crucial for your business. So what exactly is a target market?
What is a Target Market?
A target market is a niche group or rather a select group of people that are most likely to consume the product or use the services. Having a target market makes sense because you only have so much budget to devote to your marketing strategy. Marketing to your target market is not cheap but very efficient. Results and revenues start rolling in sooner than a more general marketing strategy.
The clearer your market segmentation, the better your strategy of how to reach your prospects. For starters, you can have a broader segmentation, eg. Millennials or single parents but soon you have to narrow down on your target group. You can target everyone but you cannot sell to everyone.
Choosing A Target Market Strategy
Yes, we know that choosing a target market but surely there must be some sort of basic guidelines right? Well, there are a few guidelines that can serve as a skeleton for your strategy.
- The long term potential of your target market.
- The purchasing power of your target audience.
- The biggest player in your target market.
- The advantage of your product in the target market.
Now that we have a decent idea of what is a target market and the strategies revolving around it, let’s have a look at one of the most common and profitable target market. Corporate Employees.
Reasons Why Corporate Employees Make an Excellent Target Market
In 2018, there are about 128.57 million corporate employees in the USA alone. In short, this is one of the largest target markets you can think of. But let’s delve a bit deeper, shall we?
Data-Driven Target Market
One of the best things about corporate employees is that this target base is a verified one. What does that mean for your target marketing strategy? It means that you have a lot of information regarding the market you are targeting. This makes life a lot easier as you can match the persona of your ideal target with the average of the demographic(since you have a lot of data at hand).
The ultimate aim of any marketing strategy(or rather any strategy) is to maximize both the ROI(Return on Investment) and conversion rate. Having a verified customer base ensures just that. It improves the quality of your traffic. This further minimizes your cost by improving the conversion rate.
High Purchase Potential
One thing that is true about all corporate employees is that they have great potential for periodic purchase because they are salaried professionals. Since we have a great deal of data regarding the target market, we can estimate the location, period and value of the compensation of your ideal market.
Take an example of a company that offers micro and mini loans to a salaried professional who can target their marketing endeavors towards the end of the month(when pockets of most people become dry). In the same way, an online food delivery platform can run its marketing campaign more aggressively at the beginning of the month when people are not usually stingy.
Products and services that flirts with borderline luxury definitely benefit from marketing endeavors focussed on salaried professionals.
Support From Employers in the Form of Employee Benefits
It’s an open secret that disengaged employees are one of the biggest problems in today’s corporations. Disengaged employees perform well below par and often end up leaving thereby shooting up the attrition rates.
One of the most common and effective ways to improve engagement at the workplace is to introduce employee discount programs.
What is an employee discount program you ask? Employee discount programs provide employees with discounts on a wide variety of products and services. Being involved in an employee benefits platform gives your brand a great exposure to thousands of verified customers. Take an example of Vantage Circle, a comprehensive employee engagement platform. With more than a million corporate employees registered, a platform like this is ideal for brands to target market corporate employees. This support can lend you a great hand to efficiently carry your marketing strategies
Word of Mouth Marketing
Word of mouth marketing has been one of the most powerful and efficient ways of marketing. It is the best way to earn customer trust. According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers prefer a recommendation from friends over any other form of review or marketing.
By offering a great benefit, employee discount or provide great value on a product or service you automatically fuel the fire to your word of mouth marketing endeavors. Since colleagues tend to spend on average 9 hours of the day with each other, this form of marketing jumps up in relevancy points than any other target group.
If you offer a great deal or a great product(holds true for equally bad reviews) you can be sure of the fact that it will be discussed during lunchtime.
Distinctive Buyers
The best part of targeting corporate employees is that you are dealing with a group of distinctive and goal-oriented buyers.
The reason they are a great group to sell superior products because they are smart, aware and more likely to understand the nitty-gritty of your product that makes it stand out from the rest. Its a known fact, it is easier to sell superior products to a more educated section of people.
And of course, this target market ticks all the boxes of a viable buyer. Decent credit? Check. Capital for Downpayment? Check. Fixed Income? Double Check.
Finally
Identifying a perfect target market is crucial for any marketing endeavor. Most importantly every stakeholder is in a win-win situation when you successfully target corporate employees for marketing, the brand, the employer and the employee. But the most important part of target marketing is research. Do not skimp out on that.
corporate employees – DepositPhotos
