# Target Market Selection

Choosing the right target market is the single most important decision in your marketing plan. Get this right and everything downstream — your message, media, offers, and sales process — becomes dramatically easier. Get it wrong and no amount of clever copywriting or ad spend will save you.

## The PVP Index

The PVP Index is a scoring framework that helps you evaluate potential target markets across three dimensions. Rate each dimension from 1 to 10 for every market segment you are considering.

### Personal Fulfillment (P)

How much do you enjoy working with this market? Do you find the problems interesting? Do you like the people? Can you see yourself serving this niche for the next 5-10 years without burning out?

**Score 1-3:** You dread working with this market. The work feels meaningless.
**Score 4-6:** It is tolerable. You do not hate it, but you are not energized by it.
**Score 7-8:** You genuinely enjoy the work and the people in this market.
**Score 9-10:** This is your calling. You would do this even if you were not paid.

### Value to Marketplace (V)

Does this market have a painful, urgent problem that they are actively trying to solve? Do they recognize the problem? Are they looking for solutions? The best markets have a problem that keeps them up at night.

**Score 1-3:** The market does not recognize the problem or does not consider it important.
**Score 4-6:** They know the problem exists but are not actively seeking solutions.
**Score 7-8:** They are actively searching for solutions and willing to pay for them.
**Score 9-10:** The problem is urgent, painful, and they are desperate for a solution right now.

### Profitability (P)

Can this market afford to pay you? Is there enough margin in the solution to build a profitable business? Are they accustomed to paying for solutions in this category?

**Score 1-3:** The market has no budget or is extremely price-sensitive.
**Score 4-6:** They can pay, but margins are thin and price negotiations are constant.
**Score 7-8:** Good budgets exist, they are accustomed to paying, and margins are healthy.
**Score 9-10:** Premium pricing is normal, budgets are large, and price sensitivity is low.

### PVP Scoring Table

| Market Segment | Personal Fulfillment (1-10) | Value to Marketplace (1-10) | Profitability (1-10) | Total (/30) | Rank |
|----------------|------|------|------|-------|------|
| Segment A      |      |      |      |       |      |
| Segment B      |      |      |      |       |      |
| Segment C      |      |      |      |       |      |
| Segment D      |      |      |      |       |      |
| Segment E      |      |      |      |       |      |

**Decision rule:** Pursue the segment with the highest total score. If two segments score within 2 points of each other, favor the one with the higher Personal Fulfillment score — you will need sustained energy to dominate a niche.

## Ideal Customer Avatar Worksheet

Once you have selected your target market, go deeper. Create a detailed avatar of your single most ideal customer within that market. This is not a demographic profile — it is a complete picture of a real human being.

### Demographics

| Attribute | Description |
|-----------|-------------|
| Age range | |
| Gender | |
| Income level | |
| Education | |
| Job title / Role | |
| Company size (if B2B) | |
| Industry | |
| Location / Geography | |
| Family status | |

### Psychographics

| Attribute | Description |
|-----------|-------------|
| Core values | |
| Biggest fears | |
| Deepest desires | |
| Frustrations with current solutions | |
| Identity / How they see themselves | |
| Aspirational identity / Who they want to become | |
| Decision-making style | |
| Information sources they trust | |
| Brands they admire | |
| Communities they belong to | |

### Pain Points and Desires

| Category | Current Pain (Before State) | Desired Outcome (After State) |
|----------|---------------------------|-------------------------------|
| Functional | What practical problem do they have? | What practical outcome do they want? |
| Emotional | How does the problem make them feel? | How do they want to feel instead? |
| Social | How does the problem affect their status/relationships? | How would a solution improve their social standing? |
| Financial | What is the problem costing them? | What would solving it be worth? |

### Watering Holes

Where does your ideal customer spend time, both online and offline? These become your media channels in Square 3.

- **Websites they visit regularly:**
- **Social media platforms and groups:**
- **Podcasts they listen to:**
- **YouTube channels they watch:**
- **Newsletters they read:**
- **Conferences they attend:**
- **Professional associations:**
- **Physical locations they frequent:**
- **Influencers they follow:**
- **Books they read:**

## Niche Selection Framework

### The Narrowing Principle

Most businesses resist niching because they fear missing opportunities. The opposite is true. Here is the narrowing sequence:

1. **Industry** — Start with a broad industry (e.g., "healthcare")
2. **Sub-industry** — Narrow to a segment (e.g., "dental practices")
3. **Sub-segment** — Go deeper (e.g., "cosmetic dental practices")
4. **Geographic or size qualifier** — Add a boundary (e.g., "cosmetic dental practices with 3-10 dentists in metro areas")
5. **Psychographic qualifier** — Add a mindset filter (e.g., "...who want to be seen as premium, not discount")

### The "Too Narrow?" Test

Ask yourself these four questions. If you answer "yes" to all four, your niche is viable:

1. **Are there at least 5,000 potential customers in this niche?** (For B2B, even 500 can be enough)
2. **Can I reach them through specific channels?** (They gather in identifiable places)
3. **Do they have a specific, named problem I can solve?**
4. **Are they willing and able to pay for a solution?**

### Narrow vs. Broad: Comparison Table

| Dimension | Broad Targeting | Narrow Targeting |
|-----------|----------------|------------------|
| Message specificity | Generic, speaks to no one deeply | Specific, feels personally written |
| Competition | Competing with everyone | Few or no direct competitors |
| Pricing power | Commodity pricing, race to bottom | Premium pricing, perceived specialist |
| Customer acquisition cost | High — large audiences, low conversion | Low — small audiences, high conversion |
| Referrals | Rare — you are forgettable | Common — you are the obvious specialist |
| Content creation | Difficult — topics are generic | Easy — you know exact problems and language |
| Ad targeting | Expensive, broad, wasteful | Precise, efficient, high-relevance |
| Sales cycle | Long — must educate and differentiate | Short — they already see you as the expert |

## Common Targeting Mistakes

### Mistake 1: Targeting by Demographics Alone

Demographics tell you who someone is on paper. Psychographics tell you why they buy. Two 35-year-old male homeowners in the same zip code can have completely different motivations, fears, and buying behaviors.

**Fix:** Always layer psychographic and behavioral data on top of demographics. What do they believe? What do they fear? What have they tried before?

### Mistake 2: Defining Your Market as "Everyone"

"Our product is for everyone" is the most expensive sentence in marketing. It means your ads reach millions of irrelevant people, your copy resonates with no one, and your sales team wastes time on unqualified leads.

**Fix:** Pick one niche. Dominate it. Then expand to the next niche. Sequential domination beats simultaneous dilution every time.

### Mistake 3: Choosing a Market You Cannot Reach

A niche is only viable if you can actually put your message in front of the people in it. If your ideal customers do not gather in identifiable places (online or offline), you will spend a fortune trying to find them.

**Fix:** Before committing to a niche, verify that you can identify at least three specific channels (publications, groups, events, platforms) where they concentrate.

### Mistake 4: Ignoring Personal Fulfillment

Choosing a profitable niche you hate leads to burnout, low-quality work, and eventually failure. Marketing is a long game. You need the energy and genuine interest to show up consistently.

**Fix:** Weight Personal Fulfillment heavily in your PVP scoring. A slightly less profitable niche you love will outperform a lucrative niche you resent.

### Mistake 5: Niching on Product Instead of Market

"We sell accounting software" is a product description, not a target market. The same software might serve solopreneurs, mid-market manufacturers, and enterprise retailers — but the marketing for each is completely different.

**Fix:** Define your niche by who you serve and what problem you solve for them, not by what you sell.

## Exercises

### Exercise 1: PVP Index Scoring

List five potential market segments you could serve. Score each on Personal Fulfillment, Value to Marketplace, and Profitability (1-10). Total them up. Which segment wins? Does the result surprise you?

### Exercise 2: Avatar Deep Dive

Pick your highest-scoring segment. Complete the full Ideal Customer Avatar Worksheet above. Do not stop at demographics — go deep into psychographics, pain points, and watering holes. If you do not know the answers, that is a sign you need to talk to more customers.

### Exercise 3: The Narrowing Sequence

Take your chosen segment and apply the 5-step narrowing sequence. At each level, ask the four "Too Narrow?" test questions. How narrow can you go before a question becomes "no"? That boundary is your sweet spot.

### Exercise 4: Competitor Audit

Search for businesses that currently serve your chosen niche. How many are there? How specific is their marketing? If the market is saturated with specialists, consider narrowing further or finding an adjacent niche. If there are no specialists, you have found a potential goldmine — or a market that does not exist (verify with the PVP Index).

### Exercise 5: Customer Interview Script

Contact five people in your chosen niche and ask:

1. "What is the biggest challenge you face with [problem area] right now?"
2. "What have you tried to solve it? What worked? What didn't?"
3. "If you could wave a magic wand and fix one thing about [problem area], what would it be?"
4. "How much is this problem costing you (in money, time, stress)?"
5. "Where do you go for advice and information about [problem area]?"

These conversations will refine your avatar, validate your niche, and give you the exact language to use in your marketing.

## Checklist: Target Market Selection Complete

- [ ] Scored at least 3 market segments using the PVP Index
- [ ] Selected the highest-scoring segment as primary target
- [ ] Completed the full Ideal Customer Avatar worksheet
- [ ] Identified at least 5 watering holes where the target market gathers
- [ ] Applied the narrowing sequence to find the optimal level of specificity
- [ ] Passed the "Too Narrow?" test on all four questions
- [ ] Conducted at least 3 customer interviews (ideally 5+)
- [ ] Documented findings in a format the whole team can reference
- [ ] Written a one-paragraph description of your ideal customer that anyone on the team could read and immediately understand who you are targeting
