So, you’ve got the guiding principles of marketing down – or you should have if you read our blog last week! But do you know who you’re marketing to? An impressive marketing plan is useless if you are not delivering it to the right people. For example, you wouldn’t aim a marketing campaign for a new beer at primary school children; it would be pointless, and kind of illegal. Businesses waste time looking in the wrong places for potential customers, but you can nail down your target market with these simple steps.
Make sure you’re clear about what you’re marketing
You might think you know your business and its products and services inside-out, but would a customer? Brainstorm the benefits of the products and services your marketing will focus on. What problems do they solve, and what sort of person/business needs these problems solving? Remember to stay customer focussed. Look at it from their perspective. A great example is technology. You could have the greatest bit of tech available but it you can’t distil the customer benefit, you won’t sell any.
Start with your existing customers…
Your existing customers and clients aren’t just valuable because of their loyalty, but can actually be a great indication for how your business should be moving forward. Think about the sort of people they are. What defining interests and characteristics do they have in common? Conducting some market research in the form of a quick survey with your customers can reveal useful information to help you define your target market.
…then focus on new customers
Once you’re more familiar with your current type of customer and are happy you fully understand the problems your products and services can solve, you should have a better understanding of the people you should be aiming your marketing campaigns at.
Who?
Look at key demographics such as age, gender, location, and income level, for example. Paint a picture of the type of customer that will gain from your products/services.
What?
Think about what interests and hobbies this type of customer have, and how what you’re offering can fit into their lifestyles.
Why?
Why do they need your product? Consider what problem it will solve for them.
Where?
Where do your target audience look for their information? For example, teenage girls are likely to look in different places than a professional audience. Consider which platforms you need to utilise to reach your target audience.
A Digital Glue example
We have recently been working on a social media strategy for a new client, and the first task we set ourselves was defining the target audience. In this case, we needed to break the target audience down into three different groups and then develop social marketing ideas for each, focussing on which social media platform each group would utilise and how we could deliver messages on each of these. A clear understanding of our client’s services and what they wished to gain from social media marketing helped us to do this, and we are confident in the development of a strong social marketing plan.
To save money and get a better return on investment, defining your target audience is crucial. Get in touch with us here to find out how we could help.
