Part 1: The target Group and their Water holes

You put months or even years of work into your product until it is finally finished and then sales are missing? Many founders have ingenious products and yet nobody notices them. The customers who keep the business going and are so essential are missing. But how can it be that supposedly grandiose products are not bought?

It could be so nice. You have developed a product or service and your customers buy and buy. The sales are right and your marketing expenses are lower than expected. For just one euro, a multiple of income is generated because you can target your advertising directly to the right target group.

Know your potential customers

Only those who know their specific target group can efficiently advertise. That is why it is the first and most important step to analyze them. You can ask yourself the following questions:

• Who is my ideal customer?
• What does he or she look like?
• What does he or she do for a living?
• What kind of preferences does he or she have?
• What interests, hobbies, favorite activities does he or she have?
• How can I contact him or her?
  …

From these questions and every further question you can gradually build the persona of your ideal customer.

Where does your target group discuss?

If you now know “who” your target group is, the second step is to find out the watering holes of your potential customers. Water holes are the places where your target group is or even looking for solutions to problems.

Water holes

The term water holes comes from the safari. If you want to see as many animals as possible on your tour through the savannah, you have two options:

First, you can lie in wait and wait for a bunch of animals to come by or you’re looking for a water hole. So a small place where animals can quench their thirst. Sooner or later some animals will come and drink here, as it is natural for them to stay here.

It is clear that you are more likely to come across animals at an oasis. So you will reach more people at the waterhole of your target group who correspond to your potential customers.

What are the “Water holes” of your Target Group?

This is very specific and different for each target group. But the following example should explain it.

For example, if your product is a new fishing line that can no longer get tangled and therefore really solves a problem that has been persistent until now, you can start looking for water holes.

For example, you could search online for fishing forums, join Angling Friends Facebook groups, or stop by your local fishing club or dealer. These are all places where anglers could be.

Online and Offline Water Holes

So you are looking for all the places that are typical for your target group. Look for suitable Facebook groups, blogs, forums, websites or YouTube channels as online examples. But offline there are also many possibilities and you can address people directly and thus gain a more authentic impression of serving potential customers.

Some classic water holes are clubs, niche shops, or specific places like a skating rink if you want to sell a skate board, a fishing pier to repeat the example above, or a fitness center if you want to sell a new protein. You can also quickly get in touch with potential customers at trade fairs or similar events on your topic.

Now that you know who and where your target group is, the second part shows you how you can win real customers from potential customers.

The target group also plays a major role at the Tech Startup School. That is why we also use the lean start-up approach to better address the problems of our potential customers. If you find this approach interesting, take a look at our participant insights here.