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Your Market
Segment Strategy
In
developing your
market segment strategy, there are four key issues to consider:
- market
segment
- specific
needs that
you can satisfy
- strategy
for
satisfying needs
- communicate
your
ability to satisfy these needs

What
Is Your
Market Segment?
A
market segment:
- is
distinct from
other segments
- is
composed of
clients who have common needs
- can
be reached by a
effective marketing communications
To
all intents and
purpose, a market segment is the same as a market niche.
This
means that to
identify your market segment, simply follow the same process that you
would follow in identifying your niche market.
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What Needs Can You Satisfy?
The foundation of your market segment strategy is identifying
specific needs in the segment that you can meet using your own
resources or drawing upon other resources available to you.
By carefully and thoroughly researching your market segment, in
addition to identifying what the segment needs and wants, you can
also learn what it will take to satisfy this market.
Having completed your market segment research, the next step is to
complete a self-assessment.
This will help identify which of your
resources can be applied to satisfy the needs and wants that you have
identified.
Your resources will include your own talents and skills as well as
those of your network contacts and referral partners.
This
combination of resources will become your personal brand...a
statement of what distinguishes you from the competition.
Your ability to satisfy clients' needs and wants will become your
brand promise...a statement of the
benefits that clients will enjoy
as a result of hiring you.
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What
Is Your
Strategy For Satisfying These Needs?
This question addresses the actual service delivery component of
your strategy.
It helps you define how you will apply your unique combination of
your own...plus other people's ...resources to satisfy clients.
Options could include:
- doing everything yourself
- delegating specific tasks to paid staff
- contracting or sub-contracting specific tasks to
others
- referral to others
Regardless of which option you choose, there are two critical factors
to keep in mind.
1. Meet Or Exceed
Clients' Expectations
Most competent businesses can meet clients' basic needs and wants.
But that seldom good enough to generate repeat business and encourage
clients to refer others to you.
The best way to generate repeat business and referrals is to exceed
clients' expectations.
And the best way to exceed clients' expectations is to provide the
best quality client service that you
possibly can.
That will ensure the ongoing sustainability of your market segment
strategy.
2. Continue To Improve
In today's quickly changing market, few things remain the same. The
techniques that you used to satisfy clients yesterday, may not work
tomorrow.
The best response to continue to get better at everything you do.
By
applying the continuous improvement strategies on
a ongoing basis,
you will also help ensure the ongoing sustainability of your market
segment strategy.
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How
Will You
Communicate Your Ability To Meet These Needs?
You may have developed the best market segment strategy but if
prospective clients don't know about how you can help them, nothing
will happen.
This component of your market segment strategy has two
purposes:

- to help prospective clients understand how
you can
help them
- to encourage prospective clients to contact
you to
learn more about
specifically how you can help them
It really doesn't matter which marketing communications tools you
use, they serve these same two purposes.
Like targeting a market niche, targeting and serving market
segment will simplify your real estate marketing and help you achieve
your desired
results.
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Developing and Applying Your Strategy...Effectively
If you are more comfortable taking action than working through
a planning process, developing your segment
stragtegy might pose a daunting
challenge.
Any reasonably intelligent person...including
you...can effectively research his or her
market.
It might be difficult starting the planning process and even
developing or applying your market segment strategy.
If you experience difficulties with any or all of these
issues, Personalized Achievement Coaching
might help you.
Available on demand, this coaching will focus on addressing and
resolving specific issues as they arise ... much like help
desk support for computer issues.
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