Should you try to market to everyone?

No matter what type of product you sell or service you offer, the more targeted marketing you do will give you a better return. Targeting a specific audience will get you in front of them more often, with a message that will touch them emotionally. If you try to be everything to everyone, your message will become vague and less impactful.

 "The more you can define not only the demographics — like age, gender and household income — but also the type of person (psychographics), including attitudes, tendencies, and preferences, the more you can directly speak to your audience. Owning a specific market's mind share is the key."
 
These are two methods to identify your target.

First, create a fictional buyer whose needs your product meets perfectly.

 It has been trendy to create "buyer personas." A buyer persona is a character who represents your target customer or client. Creating a fictional person with specific wants, needs and desires makes it easier to design marketing campaigns that these ideal customers will respond to.

 Second, think about your best clients, most profitable customers or most reliable donors.
Ask yourself:

• Who has bought before and returned to buy again?
• Which client has been the most profitable or referred their friends?
• Which donor has given when you really needed them and brought others to the table?

Now look at these people and figure out who they are, so you can find more like them.

• Are they male or female? How old? Married or single?
• How educated are they? What do they do for a living?
• What's their outlook on life — are they optimistic? Realistic?
• Where do they get their news? What do they do for fun? What do they care about?
• Why do they do business with you? How would they describe your company?