Being clear on your niche and target market is crucial to your marketing success. This takes research, of course.
Do you know who your customers are? How can you find out? What do they need? When there’s competition, you need to be even more targeted with your niche and your business branding.

Why do you need to research your target market?

• Gather information to identify your target market.
• Find out more about them – demographics, what they need and pain points.
• Analyze information to help with advertising & product development decisions.

Seven tips for big market research on a not-so-big budget< br>
1. Organize informal discussion or focus groups over coffee or lunch.
2. Encourage suggestions & discuss (newsletters, blog posts, in person).
3. Interact with your target niche group at conferences, trade shows and workshops.
4. Ask questions at social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Plurk.
5. Research a range of media for existing products and services .
6. Keep an eye on the competition and how they do things. What works? What doesn’t? What are they overlooking?
7. Be realistic about your business and researching your target market. What works? What could you improve and how?