subject: Targeted Marketing - Defining Your Audience [print this page] Targeted Marketing - Defining Your Audience
Whether you're selling a product, providing a service, or simply creating a website you need to consider your target market. You may not have considered them your target market, you may have considered them simply your audience. Nonetheless these are the people who are going to create your income. You need to be able to specifically define them and know what drives them to purchase products or services or clicks ads.
When attempting to define your audience or your target market, consider all of these important factors:
Age - You won't sell a Hannah Montana CD to a 45 year-old; and if you do it's for a child, not themselves. Hannah Montana is something that only appeals to a much younger demographic.
Gender - Males aren't all that interested in make-up, so you wouldn't want to target them if you were selling it. Obviously make-up is designated as a feminine element.
Income - A person's financial situation determines many of the daily decisions they make. Targeting a lower-class neighborhood might not be a good idea if you're looking for investors to donate funds to start a business.
Martial Status - Single people have different priorities than married people. Also, a person's significant other has an enormous amount of influence over the other. Convincing one may compel the other to simply follow suit.
Geographic Location - People who live at the beach probably won't be shopping for snowmobiles often. Likewise, people living in the arctic probably won't be looking for snorkeling gear. Where in the world is your audience?
You also need to know your target market very well; know their wants, desires, needs, tendencies, and most of all their motivators. You want to motivate people to purchase your product or service, or simply return to your website at the very least, in the hope that eventually they will purchase your service or product. You could entice people with current, reliable, accurate, useful information or an effective ad campaign. If your content is of high value to your audience they will be motivated to acquire your newest content as soon as possible. Or in contrast you could offer some sort of service or product over the internet, promoting it through your website or blog. An e-book is the simplest form of this.
It takes some research, but once you've defined you target market you can begin to choose the most effective advertising campaigns to use. There is no question targeted content and ads are more effective than generalized content and ads. They have more influence over a targeted audience. The question is, will you decide to utilize this tool to your advantage?
(C) Copyright 2011 Timothy Warren Bailey. Some rights reserved.
