In order to intuitively understand your target audience and market, identify its specific characteristics, traits, preferences, interests, needs and goals to which you can effectively tailor your products and services. 

The snowball effect can assist in expanding your target audience and market as their word-of-mouth communication and online networking tends to be more beneficial that paid advertising.

Think of your focused marketing as being similar to launching a beta product or service for a specific audience, so that the majority of the initial offerings solidly resonate with your audience but will still allow for future development and expansion. 

Focus marketing is also comparable with initiating a pilot study designed to “test the waters” prior to engaging in a significant investment of time, effort and money that ultimately result in delays and possibly missed opportunities.

Carefully consider your strategic use of distribution channels that align with places where your audience congregates; the identification of the social media platforms and/or geographical (in-person) locations that are most likely to consistently engage your audience is an example of one strategy. 

What channels are best suited for the distribution of your products and services while being least likely to be negatively impacted by supply chain issues (manufacturing and shipping) as well as technological glitches (power outages, software “bugs,” crashing websites, etc.)?

Social media functions as much more than a promotional tool as it also serves as a means of  being able to meaningfully and consistently engage with your audience to build a community in which each member feels valued as they continue to share their narratives, stories, experiences, and insights. These interactions become a reciprocal connection or a dialogue, as well as being a bidirectional learning experience for you and your audience.

Your demonstration of resilience and flexibility allows you to efficiently respond to your audience’s comments and feedback regarding likes, dislikes and needs-improvement as you continue to iterate and improve your products and services.

By engaging in such an adaptive capacity, your relationship with your audience will continue to evolve while simultaneously continuing to reassure the members of your community that you value and appreciate them.

Dr. Mary Ann Markey