Marketing is the art and science of targeting and retaining profitable customers. In order for your marketing strategies to be effective it is important to be sure that you are targeting the right customers, and in order to do so there are a few things you need to consider. The main thing to keep in mind when constructing a marketing strategy is understanding your audience’s needs and wants and the best ways to effectively approach them.
At TheMillCreek.net, we help businesses find their target audience and introduce effective ways to approach them. Understanding your audience is vital to research and evaluate when considering marketing strategies. Here are some tips to better understand your audience:
Think to yourself: Who am I trying to reach?
Before launching a marketing campaign or even simply an advertisement, it is important to sit back and think “Who am I trying to reach?”. Think about what product or service you are selling and determine who is an audience that would be interested in purchasing it, that group is called your target audience. Narrowing down your audience is something that is important, because if your reach is too wide, you will not be consistently staying in front of those that are potential consumers.
Consider your potential customers demographics. Men or women? Young or old? Where do they live and what is their economic status? Try to put yourself in your audience’s shoes and approach your marketing based on what you think they would respond to.
Keep up with current data and analytics
Reviewing current data and analytics is a great way to understand your audience better and potentially make changes to your current marketing strategy. By doing this, you are able to take a look at what previous marketing for others in the industry has been successful or not. Reviewing analytics is a productive way to figure out what your audience responds to, and if they are not responding then it is a great way to figure out what you need to change.
Conduct Surveys
According to Hubspot, conducting surveys is a great way to get a more specific understanding of your audience. Through this method you are able to ask questions about products/services, customer service, marketing efforts, satisfaction and more. You can also make the survey anonymous which gives the customers even more incentive to participate and also results in more accurate data. Surveys can show you what customers want, need and expect from you, while also letting you know what aspects of your current strategy they enjoy or dislike.
Keep an Eye on Competitors
Keeping an eye on how competitors are approaching similar audiences is a clever way to gage what marketing efforts you should or should not be taking. By viewing what does and doesn’t work for competitors, you can get ideas on marketing strategies that may work for your business or save time by avoiding unsuccessful ones.
Find the Right Marketing Channel
A big part of understanding your audience is being able to find the marketing channel that will most effectively reach them. It is important that your content is relevant and posted on a channel that allows your target audience to see it and engage. Some of the different marketing channels include:
Email marketing
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
Traditional Advertising
Experiment with your Products
Don’t be afraid to experiment with your presentation of your products and the marketing strategies you use, even once you have solidified a plan. Your product market will always be evolving, so you should too. Testing out some new products and brainstorming new marketing strategies to accompany them can be a fun way to interact with your customers. By trying out new methods, you may even run into something that resonates with your audience even more than whatever you are currently doing.
