As a dive shop owner, creating a good business plan is essential for success. One of the most important parts of planning is choosing the right target audience. This group of people drives your company’s revenue. How can you find your target audience?
What a Target Audience Is
Your target audience is the people who are likely to become your customers. It’s a group of people with certain qualities, circumstances and lifestyle factors that make them a good fit for your business. These people are also known as your target market.
Here are a few examples of target customers:
- Families with plenty of disposable income
- Working parents
- Seniors
- Small business owners
- Tourists
Sometimes, more women than men are likely to support a brand, or vice-versa. A target market can also revolve around economic factors, such as retirees or wealthy individuals.
How To Discover the Target Audience for Your Dive Shop
Finding the right market for your business involves thought, research and data. You need to figure out who is most likely to support your brand.
What Makes Your Dive Shop Special?
Before deciding who to sell to, first you need to know your brand identity. There should be something that makes your dive shop stand out, such as custom tours, one-on-one instruction, luxury services or other amenities.
Who Needs Your Services?
Next, think about what type of people are likely to benefit from your services. If you provide all-inclusive dive getaways, decide which demographic is most likely to want that experience. The same thing goes for diving certification, gear sales and other selling points.
Which Are Your Most Lucrative Customers Right Now?
You don’t need to guess when it comes to your main customers. You can take a look at your company’s sales data for important hints. Point-of-sale systems with dive shop software can analyze trends automatically. You can see information related to booking, online gear sales, dive instruction and other services.
Look for patterns. If you notice that the majority of your customers share certain things in common, you have a good idea of what group is your target audience.
Keep in mind that you’re interested in trends related to the most lucrative clients, not all customers. The goal is maximizing your return on investment, focusing on the people who are most likely to become loyal, returning clients.
Who Are Your Competitors?
One last way to uncover your target market is to look at successful competitors. What type of audience are they marketing their services and products to? There’s a good chance you should try to attract similar clients.
What Kind of Audience Dive Shops Attract
The obvious target market for dive shop owners is people who are passionate about diving. The thing is, this category can include a huge range of people. You need to break it down into smaller groups, such as:
- Language and location: On some islands, the majority of tourists come from a few main countries. If a large portion of your customers speaks Chinese or German, you may benefit by creating web pages in those languages.
- Online customers: You may be making more money selling gear online than from dive certification. There’s nothing wrong with focusing most of your attention on the part of your business that delivers revenue.
- Family status: There’s a big difference between dive shop services for watersports pros and young kids. If you have a great reputation for teaching tweens and teens how to scuba dive, lean into that experience when promoting your business.
One thing you may be surprised to discover is that local clients from wealthy neighborhoods are frequently one of the main dive shop demographics. Don’t focus exclusively on tourists.
Why It’s Important To Identify Your Target Audience
When you know who your target audience includes, you can make your advertising more effective and less expensive at the same time. Instead of trying to advertise to everybody, you focus your attention on one or two main groups.
Depending on the interests of your main customers, you may benefit more from social media marketing, email marketing or online content. By using the right tone in your advertising, you build a stronger relationship with potential customers and boost your online reputation.
Discovering your primary market requires investing time, but the benefits are worth it.
