Determining your target market is crucial to succeeding in your marketing efforts. Without this market being clearly defined, you might just as well throw noodles at the wall to see if they stick.

What Is A Target Market?

A target market is the specific group of consumers you try to reach with your marketing efforts. In this industry, they are the people that are most likely to book a stay at your location. Mostly, these people share common characteristics such as demographic information and behaviors.

The better you understand your target market, the easier it will be to get a return on your investment for your marketing efforts. The most streamlined way to do this is clearly defining your target market through research. This can’t be done based on what you feel your target market should be.

Additionally, don’t be afraid to be too specific. In this case, the more specific, the better. Remember, this is all about determining the people most likely to buy your product.

Think of it like throwing darts. You could aim at the board, hope for the best, and land on a 1. Or you could narrow your view, aim for the bullseye and hit it right on the mark. Which would you emulate in your marketing efforts?

How To Determine Your Target Market

Now, let’s get down to it. Where do you start? What resources do you have at your disposal?

Let’s start by looking at Google Analytics. Google Analytics is your best friend in this case. This feature allows you to do most of the heavy lifting of your research in one place. On this interface, you’ll be able to see historical demographic and behavioral information and how that data correlates with generated revenue. In other words, you’ll be able to see revenue generated by gender, age, country, state, city, interests, and so much more.

*A quick note on Google Analytics: Universal Analytics will be replaced by Google Analytics 4 on July 1, 2023. Therefore, you must switch before the cutoff date to continue tracking data. Learn more about this in our previous blog post, “Google Analytics 4: Making The Switch.”

Once you’ve compiled your top 3-5 in each category, move on to your reservation software provider. Here, you’ll get additional information on consumer location based on bookings you’ve received. Once compared to your gathered Google Analytics data, this locational information should at least be similar, if not exact. In the event that they don’t match up perfectly, that’s okay! It just gives you more information to deepen your data pool.

Once you’ve thoroughly reviewed and compared both sets of information, compile them in one spreadsheet and determine your final rankings. You’ve now determined your target market!

Now, remember that this data can change over time, especially within the year, as there are high and low business periods throughout each given year. So, we recommend repeating this process every quarter to keep your target market current.

We’re Here To Help

Here at InsideOut Solutions, we’d be happy to help you determine your target market. Reach out and we’ll get the process started! Remember, when in doubt, reach out. We’re happy to help.

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Please reach out if you have any additional questions about determining your target market. We’re here to help.