Tom Rauch

Things that Make Your Target Market Go Hmmmmm…

NOTE: Read “Targeting Your Market” and “Doing the Demographic”

In my previous two posts, “Targeting Your Market” and “Doing the Demographic,” I encouraged you to think about your target market from a slightly different, less-traditional perspective.

Health Condition vs. Health Issue

I believe it makes a lot of sense to think about whether you want to focus on a health issue or a health condition.  Health issues, as I explained, tend to be less specific — a client just feels run down, or they have a pain that their doctor can’t identify.  A practitioner who focuses on a health issue is going to have to do a lot of detective work, ask lots of questions, run their clients through a couple of tests before they can identify the root cause.

A health condition on the other hand, is something that client has (correctly or incorrectly) identified and is now actively seeking to address.  These clients have either been diagnosed and/or confirmed through their own research and intuition that they have a specific and known condition — an autoimmune disease, Lyme disease, lupus.  A practitioner focusing on a condition will still need to do some digging (asking questions, etc.) but they are going to start down a particular path with their client at the beginning of the engagement.  This practitioner may discover that their central challenge is helping their client understand they really don’t have lupus, but something else and/or get them to change a treatment protocol that isn’t helping but has become “safe and familiar” to their client.

So, deciding whether you want to work with an issue or a condition is important, and should reflect your preferences in terms of working with different clients — do you prefer helping people discover the root cause of an unspecified health issue, or do you like working with people who know what they have?  Again,  these are two very different clients.

Demographic profiles: age and gender

In the next post “Doing the Demographic” I pointed out the importance of knowing the demographic profile of our client — especially gender and age range.  I encouraged you to be honest about whether you prefer working with men or women, because marketing to them is very different.  Also, I think it makes a lot of sense to think about the needs and expectations of your target market as way of knowing what age range to focus on.

Writing a preliminary profile of your target market

After reading those two posts, you should be able to write a preliminary profile of your target market that sounds something like this:

I prefer helping men between the ages of 40-48 who are in need of clear, factual information about BPH (Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia) and expect to have a simple., focused and effective plan that helps reduce this health condition’s impact on their lifestyle within a three month period.  They also need and expect on-going support from a well-trained holistic practitioner to monitor the efficacy of their plan which they are now self-managing.

or, you could write a profile that sounds like:

I prefer helping women between the ages of 22 and 29 who are suffering from a range of health issues that center around frequent loss of energy.  These clients need unconditional support and understanding (many of have been told by their doctor that “it’s all in their head”).  They expect to have a practitioner who listens well, is patient, and understands that their issue will be most effectively resolved by strengthening the mind/body connection.

So far so good, right?  You can be even more detailed in this preliminary profile, adding additional needs and expectations (e.g., young women who are preparing to have a family).  Keep in mind that the more needs and expectations you build into this profile, the narrower your market.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing!  But you also don’t want to be so specific that you end up with 10 people in the world who have that health issue or condition!

Final note before we move on:  You may want to be specific in your profile description about how long they have had the issue or condition.  Do you want to work with people who were recently diagnosed with a condition, or have had it for many years?  Same condition, but the clients will have very different needs and expectations depending on how long they’ve had it.

Things that make your target market go hmmmm….

This next step is the most important — and most creative — piece in your analysis of your target market.

You want to come up with a set of facts or insights that this target market you have identified will find interesting.  Interesting enough to click on whatever call to action button you have on your website.

Let me explain, but first I need to back up.

When your potential client (that male between 40 – 48 with PBH) goes searching for information on the web, they are going to be bombarded with information about what they should be doing (and not doing), taking (and not taking), thinking (and not thinking).  Much of the information won’t be relevant to them, or they won’t find it useful or understandable.  Some of it will generally make sense and seem “good enough” to act on.

Your opportunity is helping them see their condition from a perspective they “get” (because its written specifically to them and about them), and goes one better than the “good enough” information that’s already out there.

You want them to say (or think): “wow, somebody understands me…” Maybe its something about their embarrassment about having it in the first place, or that its an “old guy” disease or its affecting their relationship with their spouse or partner.

You also want them to say (or think): “I never thought of it that way before…”

You know, the things that make you go…hmmmm….

People love having their curiosity aroused and satisfied — just like the proverbial cat.  People with health conditions or issues are actively seeking; 1) someone who gets them (not just their condition or issue) and 2) has a unique insight or perspective or process that they HOPED or FELT INTUITIVELY that existed but were worried that didn’t exist or that people would think they are nuts.

Does this make sense?  I hope so.  Because this is what’s going to make you highly attractive to your target market.  They are going to be inspired and motivated to click on your call to action button on your website which hopefully leads to a phone conversation about their condition or issue, which then leads to you landing a new client.

But it all starts with appealing to a very human desire (enabled and facilitated on a massive scale through Internet search engines) to discover new information about a condition or issue that they are actively seeking to resolve.

Think about it as a client yourself: don’t you just love coming across a website posted by a professional, well-trained authority who says (in effect): Hey, you’re not crazy.  I get it.  I get you.  Let’s work together using a plan and a process that’s worked for other people just like you.

Getting your target market to say/think….hmmmm….I never thought of it that way is a key piece in your development of a busy, thriving holistic practice.

Doing the Demographic

Read me first

Have you been to the US Cesnsus Bureau website lately?  Wow.  Talk about a boat-load of data!  I remember using census data about 10-15 years ago in conjunction with mapping software to market analysis for my clients and students.  Fascinating stuff.  Well, for a guy like me who loves turning raw data into (hopefully) useful information.

(If you want to get a really comprehensive view and definition of “demographics,” click here to see what demographic data the US Census Bureau collects.)

Gender: your first cut

When targeting a market, I like to begin here, at the “top level” of a market using the most reliable data I can find (usually census information is very accurate).  So I”ll first think about the age and gender of the people I want to serve.  For me, I like working with both men and women, but most of my clients tend to be women, probably because most of the holistic practitioners who work in private practice are women.  In corporations, when I do leadership coaching, I usually end up working with men (because — for a variety of reasons, not all of them clear or fair — men tend to be over-represented in senior management positions).

Sometimes the market is defacto skewed towards one gender or another which is something to keep in mind because marketing to women is very different than marketing to men.  (Explaining those differences is beyond the scope of this post; I’ll write another post on the subject later).  But — for now — you do need to decide which gender you are MOST comfortable working with on an on-going basis.  If the market you are trying to reach is outside your “gender comfort zone,” don’t fool yourself into thinking you’ll figure it out later.  Be honest.  If working with men in your discipline isn’t all that comfortable, than just say so, and market to women.  Bottom-line: select a market (or market to a segment of a market) to the gender you are most confident working with, based on the results you’ve gotten with them, and where you believe you add the most value.

Age range: your next cut

Age is important too.  Full-time, professional marketers have age ranges that they use to bracket a market.  One of the most lucrative markets right now is men between the ages of 18-34.  Why it cuts off at 34 is a bit of a mystery to me, but I suppose they had to have some upper-bound to make the range meaningful.  Don’t fall into the trap of saying (or believing) you can help “anyone at any age” with a specific health condition or issue. People have different needs at different ages.  They value different things, they have different self-images and goals and expectations for their lives.  They are approaching different significant life transition points; they see their past differently and are looking forward to a different future.

I would also recommend you don’t define the age-range of your target market too broadly (18-34 seems to me too broad for the kind of work holistic practitioners do) or too vaguely (“middle age” or “boomers”).  In fact, I think it makes A LOT of sense for a practitioner building their business to focus more narrowly than broadly.  Here’s why:  think of our target market in terms of their needs and expectations when defining your age range.  Answer this question:  What (not “whose”) needs and expectations have you served best in the past?

Focus on needs and expectations

For example, have you been able to help people who needed lots of information about their condition or issue to help with their healing process?  These people may have also expected you tell them exactly what they need to do throughout the engagement.  Other practitioners may have experienced just the opposite: they have been most successful with clients who don’t need much information, but they do expect to get options so they can make the final choice.

Then ask yourself: where are these needs and expectations most likely to be found? in which age group?  Teens for example are the ones most likely to need a lot of information and told exactly what to do.  People in their middle years (40 – 50) like options.  If you are someone who likes giving lots of instructions and plenty of information, you might want to consider marketing to a younger crowd.

Up next: beyond demographics

Demographics are good for a first cut of your target market, but marketing through demographics alone isn’t good enough.  You have to take those numbers and massage them further, which I’ll show you how to do it my upcoming posts.

Targeting Your Market

You know that “finding a niche and serving it well” is a key ingredient in making your business successful.  Wildly successful.

There are a lot of reasons why targeting a specific segment in a market makes sense:

1.  When you focus, communication is so much easier.  You can use more specific, targeted words, images,and experiences to get your story out.  If you are target middle-aged, over-stressed middle managers who work for mid/small sized technology companies, you can speak their language — directly, specifically, engagingly.

2. Serving a targeted market allows you to develop routines and processes that don’t need to be reinvented for each new client.  If, for example, you create a program that helps busy Mom’s keep track of their diet plan — and that’s the market you are focusing on — you can use that system for each new Mom you take on as a client.  But if you are trying to serve busy Mom’s AND stressed middle managers AND teens with body image issues AND people with easting disorders — well, you’re going to have re-tool your system for each of those clients, because they have very different needs and expectations.

3.  Better to be a big fish in a small pond, especially as a solo practitioner.  By focusing on a target market, you can be one of the top recognized authorities in your field.  You avoid competing with the “superstar” health experts who are doing a great job educating the public about health choices through powerful media channels, but they also tend to drown out other practitioners who lack their marketing muscle.

So a target market helps you get your message out, build efficiencies into your program, and become a recognized authority in your field.

What’s less obvious is how you find a target market in the first place.

Here’s how to get started:

Begin your first cut of  market segmentation deciding if you want to deal with  health issue or condition.  Let me explain the difference.  A “health issue” is something like stress or a lack of energy or a general feeling that health issues have been neglected.  Many times people won’t have a health condition (more on that in a second) but just feel they need to be doing more to live a healthier life.  A health condition on the other hand is very specific: metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, Type II diabetes, fybromyalgia, another autoimmune disease.  This person has been diagnosed (correctly or incorrectly) with a specific condition that you help them heal holistically.

Now, it may be that your client with the “health issue” (general, non-specific) does have a specific health condition (insulin resistance/pre-diabetes) but either they don’t know that, or they are in denial about it.  In other words, they have no accepted that condition as part of their personal identity.  Someone with a condition that has been diagnosed — and they accept that diagnosis — becomes (in varying degrees depending on their personality) part of who they are.

As you can see, deciding between a health issue and a health condition is important.  A client with a health issue is going to need a different approach than one with a health condition.  People with issues tend to need a lot of education before they buy a product or service.  People with conditions, on the other hand, tend to be more focused consumers and are more likely to compare and contrast their choices more systematically.

Both types of practices are extremely rewarding.  But its tough to both when either you are just starting out as practitioner, building your practice, and its just you alone running the business, or both.

Up next: Doing the Demographic!