The best marketing ideas and strategies are completely pointless unless you’re effectively communicating with your target customer or client. To do so, it is essential to define who they are and how to reach them. Until you do so, you are just wasting those ideas and money.
Marketing is the science of creating awareness, attracting new business, and inspiring action from your target. For a small business that must squeeze all the bang out of their buck, broad advertising and promotions are usually not going to cut it. You need to refine and narrow your focus. Not only do you need to know exactly who your target is, you need to know where they are at and how to effectively communicate with them.
Example: A new, high-end woman’s hair product line.
All women use them, but some more than others so you have to really think about who the target is. Mothers with family responsibilities have different priorities and do not get the time to indulge on themselves that often. Young girls may not have the budget for high end products but young women in the 20s to 30s, finished with college, have good jobs, and have not yet started their families are the best target demographic with the most purchasing potential. Spending habits will be mostly on fashion, appearance, and other self-indulgent services and products that benefit them. They also have the budget to support these needs.
In terms of advertising, utilizing media that caters to a certain demographic will be the most relevant and often the most expensive. Direct marketing and internet marketing would be much more cost effective and offer the most return on the marketing investment. The marketing channel partners that sell your product at market will also be as important as the target themselves. It’s imperative that each channel is attracting the correct demographic at retail.
So what if you sell custom off-road suspension kits for trucks? This example of woman’s hair products can be applied to almost any goods or service but in order to minimize costly mistakes it’s essential to do the research. Define your target by compiling as much information about them as possible with regards to your product or service. An easy exercise is to think about who you want to sell to and then become that target. What is your age, martial status, family size, and hobbies? Where do you live, work, and play? Spending habits and vacation destinations? Demographic, geographic, and psycho-graphic lists of information about your target will help you fill in any holes so your research is complete.
Take the Zen approach and become what you seek in order to effectively communicate with them. Once you identify your target, then you can choose the correct medium and marketing channels to reach them.
