How to determine my exact target market?

I created a digital fitness product, and have a good idea of the gender and rough age group that it would appeal to but how do I ensure this is correct and really get detailed demographics for my target market?
I can't talk to everyone and ask if they are within the age group for this product and "by the way how much do you earn" to get an idea of the income class I should be targeting. Also, it's very hard to get people to take online surveys.

Any advice? Thanks.

P.S. People are saying "read reports" but where are these reports and how can they help?

 

Try Quantcast dot com for demographic info of similar products.

 

You should go into Facebook and set up a advertising campaign and you can get some demographics there without running it / paying for it. Figure out how many people "liked" fitness, etc... When it returns the total number, you can uncheck things like male or female, college or no college, etc.. It will return a number. You can also target United States or the world. Don't dig too far into the weeds about financials of your customers, make a general assumption and go from there. So what if they make 35K or 50K a year - if you are just starting out you get your product made for X, it sells for X regardless of what they make. They are either going to buy it or not. In this stage of your business you figure out things like what technology do they use, what they do on social sites, figure out a better way to target - annual salaries is very WIDE scope wise.

 

I would let people use the product and in return conduct a one minute survey via Google forms for them to fill out before or after testing the product. You could condition the salary question by putting it into a range scenario (i.e. $30,000 - $35,000). They would get to try the product, as their incentive to take the short survey.

 

You've received some great advice here! I just want to add to that to get you thinking...

You probably created the product out of need (unless you bought the idea from someone else). When you created the product, who did you think about using it? Is it people like you? Friends, family, customers? You can have a primary market, the person you envisioned using the product when you thought of the idea. And then, you can have a secondary market, the person(s) who will use the product as well, but they are not your first choice.

You probably don't have the budget to conduct market research on a level to run with the big dogs, but you know who can be a great resource? Friends. Think about a person who you know that is smart and you trust their advice. Also, ask a person who you feel is your target market what they think. By the fact you didn't share a lot of details here, I take it that it's "top secret."

You have to start somewhere. Also, you can tweak any campaign, so where you start is not necessarily where you will end up. For example, take Marlboro cigarettes (sold in the U.S.): Most people don't know that these cigarettes were first targeted to women (imagine that!). Then later, came the "John Wayne Cowboy" type of man. But that wasn't until later.

Good luck to you!

 

Thank you for posting this reply. I was able to grasp some principles and questions that i never really had thought of before. It is true you do have to start somewhere. Its stepping into the unknown where we will find success or failure.

 

You can think of organizing a FREE CAMP camp kinds of thing.
Here you can invite people, teach them the benefits of your product or service, followed by lunch or dinner and finally ask them to fill a questionnaire. In this you can put the question which are really helpful to you.
Try this, you'll get some success.

 

I would add that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket, er demographic. If you have a general idea of your demo then test the waters, but also be open to appealing to other demos.