How to Tap Into Your Target Market

A good mate of mine, Mark Beitz, is the managing director of the Bartons automotive group. If you’re at all familiar with the line of dealerships, you probably know just how vastly they’ve scaled and expanded their business.

Last week, Mark and I sat down for breakfast and naturally, we couldn’t help talking shop. I asked if he had any new plans in the works for yet another expansion, thinking I already knew his answer, but he actually surprised me!

Instead, he told me he thought his target audience wasn’t looking for another dealership.

One thing Bartons does extremely well is they tap into their target market and give them exactly what they need (and nothing they don’t). So I dug a little deeper to learn exactly what he meant, and how he got there.

I just had to sum it up for you, because there’s a lot we can all take away from this answer.

To give you the full picture, Bartons deals with a whole intersection of businesses that are relevant to anyone with a drivers’ licence.

How can they possibly do business with such a vast target market? I had the same thought.

As it turns out, a key demographic Mark and his team cater to is based on age. They’ve done the research and the maths – their target buyer is about 45 years old. To make things even more direct, Mark’s team looks at two segments, 20-40 year olds and over 40-year-olds.

Have you got an idea of how old your target buyer is?

Because they know the age brackets of their target buyers, Bartons’ marketing team also knows where to find them. 

His first expert tip is that not everything needs to be digital! If you’re a business catering to people over 40, you’re more than likely going to find them offline in more traditional sources like your local newspaper. It all comes back to meeting your customers where they’re at. 

Don’t lose sight of the fact that not everyone lives in today’s overwhelm of online mediums!

Another revelation Mark shared with me is that they’re still sending good old fashioned snail mail to their customers! People in their target market appreciate that sort of communication, it’s uncomplicated for them and it’s earnest.

Now let’s look at the flip side. 

When Bartons’ marketing team is aiming for their younger audience, they know they’re not going to connect with them in the newspaper. Where do they turn instead? Paid streaming services. Again, they’ve done their research! It’s not just social media in general anymore, it’s specific platforms that work for their specific market and their goals. Sure, they can raise brand awareness with Instagram but are they actually going to sell cars on the platform? Probably not.

So when you start mapping out your next marketing strategy, start with the very basics. Who are you talking to? Where can you find them?

A great way to figure all this out is by looking at what’s right in front of you – your customers! Consider introducing a customer interview or questionnaire to help you figure out who’s buying from you already. This is a pretty solid indicator of who’s likely to buy from you next.

Be wary that doing a couple interviews once in a while won’t really give you the data you need. This is a new process that will take time to implement, but trust me, it’ll pay off in the long run!

When you take the time to do your research (your due diligence, I would say) your marketing budget goes a whole lot further!