“The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything. She wants all the information you can give her.” – David Oglivy
For many marketers defining their target audience can be difficult to do. However, time and time again companies fail to invest in market research and the importance this research contributes to future strategies and plans. It’s not just small companies that are guilty of this, but large corporations as well.
Companies invest huge budgets into product development, marketing efforts and sales – however one thing so often overlooked is defining their super audience. What is a super audience you ask? A super audience is your ideal client/customer who is essentially made up of the key decision-makers who will buy your service/product. Instead of shooting a fish in a barrel you should be hunting for sitting ducks.
Defining your target audience is one of the oldest struggles marketers face on a day to day basis. Overcoming this struggle, however, isn’t impossible. One of the no. 1 mistakes we make every day is trying to appeal to everyone. We need to narrow our focus, breakthrough distractions and become niche in our targeting. Failing to narrow down your target audience will result in loss of money, energy and time- let’s face it who has time for that?
Ultimately defining your target audience is a key step to marketing success. The objective is often to spend as little money as possible for every sale made. And we can only achieve results and ROI once we see successful conversions. In order to do so, here are some steps to ensure you’re targeting the right people to achieve your goal.
- Define your persona: Understanding your customer and what they look like. You can’t talk to everyone.
- Where is your ideal customer located: If you’re based in the UK and your main clientele is here start there. There is not always a need to go out to the wider world if you haven’t exhausted the resources on your very doorstep.
- Identify your whitespace opportunity – focus on fewer things better.
- Identify your sweet spot - people want to know about this topic but there is little available. Give your customers something which is of value to them, not just you.
- Are you clear on how your customer likes to buy – what encourages them to buy and what makes it easy for them.
- Who do you really want to sell to? - Put the blinkers on. Know who you want to sell to and focus and how to target them.
- Have empathy for your customers – What are they currently trying to do and how can you solve it.
- Identify the people who you need to make the journey – decision-maker, influencer or is it a recommender to result in a sale.
- Look inside the company – what has and hasn’t worked. There’s so much information at your disposal.
- Finally – Research current trends in your audience base to understand what your customer is currently reading and researching.
Essentially if you fail to identify the correct audience, your marketing efforts will be wasted. The old age adage ‘Customer of King’ may seem outdated. However, marketers today fail to recognize the importance of their customers. Understanding our customers and emphasizing with their needs is the core of any business. Focusing on revenue and failing to take our customer into account will only result in unsuccessful marketing campaigns, short-lived successes and very little loyalty.