So you have your target consumer profile groups figured out… Now what?
As we discussed in our last post, you need a granular understanding of your target market(s) broken down into consumer profile groups in such a way that you can target and reach those groups efficiently. That’s the key word—efficiency. As a marketer, everything hinges on ROI. The old saying goes, “no one was ever fired for buying more TV.” Fortune-cookie wisdom notwithstanding, you most certainly will be fired if you’re needlessly wasting big money on network advertising if your ideal consumers are more effectively reached through cable programming, mobile apps, or digital content. These cost far less and offer targeting opportunities larger media plays do not afford.
Using the example from last week, let’s say your good or service appeals most specifically to men in the 18-28 age range. Even more so, the heart of your demographic profile is recent college graduates and young professionals that earn in the $45,000 – $80,000 range. More often than not, they’re unmarried and do not own their home. You’ve accomplished step one, which is collecting information about your target so that you can begin teasing out the media outlets that that consumer profile is likely to frequent.
Next, you need to know where your targets spend their time when they’re consuming media, because that’s your avenue to reach them. So if we’re really honing in on that 22-27 male, we need to know more about him to find that out. So you contact database and big data consumer profile firms to start cross-referencing the types of people in whom you’re interested against Nielsen data on viewer stats. You also contact Quantcast and Google Analytics to break down web traffic to popular sites for the same type of information. You find out that the shows Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and The Daily Show boast a huge percentage of 22-27 single men making $60k that don’t own their homes. In the online sphere, you find out that Uncrate.com and Esquire.com boast the same overall demographic profiles. This tells you that your audience likes character driven dramas starring anti-heroes. You can also discern that he enjoys political satire and comedy, but also is probably above average on the civic activism scale. He’s an early adopter (Uncrate) and takes pride in his appearance (Esquire).
All of these clues tell you about two things: first, to what types of media your target is drawn; and second, what types of messages will get through to him. You don’t need to buy a spot during Breaking Bad to reach that target audience, you just need to know that that’s the type of show your audience likes. If that’s the case, find the best Breaking Bad commentary and analysis blog online and buy ads through that site. Better yet, use echo targeting so that as soon as your target consumer hits that page, the next website he visits will also feature your product in a banner position. You already know based on the show’s demographics that the people visiting a site like that are going to be in your consumer profile group wheelhouse, so you are going to be earning high-quality impressions among the group most likely to convert to a sale. And, because you’ve targeted your consumer groups so specifically, there is almost no waste among those impressions. High efficiency—maximum ROI.
We live in an on-demand, digital world. Consumers have nearly infinite information and entertainment at their fingertips. You have to take that next step and dig one level deeper in order to find media outlets that matter to your target consumers. You have to be analytical and discerning in where you place your marketing to ensure that it’s where your target audience is most likely to be without anyone having to coax them to go there. Before you can determine where to place your messaging, you need to know enough about your target audience to appeal to him on a personal level. Once you have that granular data, you can then suss out the most efficient placement opportunities for your media and ensure maximal ROI potential.
In our next post about targeted marketing, we’ll discuss how this deeper understanding of your audience ought to affect message construction and your social media strategy.
– See more at: https://www.copperdigital.coms/marketing/do-you-understand-how-to-target-your-audience/#more-1117
