Is your marketing strategy random or disorderly? While shooting arrows in the dark could be yielding results right now, for your business to succeed in the long term, it will need to undergo a rampant change.
First, you have to focus your marketing efforts. Various surveys state that targeted marketing is 2x more likely to generate favorable results than a random approach to lead generation. Modern-day users no longer have the time or patience to scroll through the noise and are quick to dismiss businesses that can’t deliver targeted, meaningful content.
If you need to rethink your marketing approach, follow these steps to better communicate with your target market:
Get to Know Them
Great communication and content is a major competitive advantage for modern brands. The key to great communication relies on clearly defining your target market. There are a few elements you must consider as you begin defining your ideal buyer. Target markets are often categorized based on variables like:
- Demographics: age, gender, education level, occupation, income level, marital status.
- Psychographics: ethics, personality, beliefs, values, lifestyle.
- Geographics: area, city, region, country.
- Business Industry: business sector or industrial vertical.
Businesses can use such markers to segment their audiences into a set of characteristics in order to truly understand their customer at a granular level. Before you go about putting these features to the test, you must figure out the ideal values of such parameters and establish an ideal customer profile or buyer’s persona. By doing so, you’re effectively maximizing your profit and customer lifetime value. Use these ideal values as a benchmark when evaluating when and how you procure your business leads.
Use a Common Language and Channel
Once you identify your target market, you must understand how your target market communicates and how they prefer to interact with brands. For example, if your target market is 20-something males, you know that yo, like brochures, packaging, and social media assets need to appeal to the colors, brand voices, and design that resonate with this target market.
You can perform case studies of brands in your industry that perform well with this market and find ways to replicate these strategies in a way that is authentic to your brand.
In essence, you need to speak the same language as your customers and reach out through the right platforms to communicate effectively with your target market.
Host Events
Events create a direct connection between you and your target audience. After all, only those who are genuinely interested in your offering or value proposition will make an effort to attend such events—be it virtual or in-person. You’re effectively focusing on your target audience, whether you do it consciously or not! As always, the event must be aligned with the expectations of your target audience, brand position, and marketing strategy.
For example, if you’re looking to gain more high-quality leads while establishing your brand as a market authority, something to the tune of a seminar, featuring several industry experts, would be effective. On the other hand, if you’re a fun brand looking to get the word out, consider hosting an in-store event with influencers and fill the venue with branded step and repeats, decorations, custom giveaways and more.
Generate Useful Content
Helpful content is the best way to talk to your target market—it’s useful, relevant, and offers compounding value. Writing on topics that interest your target audience is a great way to connect with your ideal customers. While blogs, social media posts, and videos are the leading forms of content ruling the market, there are plenty of ways to create a broader content strategy.
Consider a store that uses shelf signs to shed more light on top products. You can use signage to communicate key features or benefits of your products and services. This type of communication informs buyers, makes their shopping experience easier, and develops a conversation between brand and buyer.
Talk to Them Directly
When you define your target market, you must also define this market’s key pain points. Your communications must describe how your brand can alleviate these pain points and improve some aspect of the consumer’s life. The fact of the matter is that people rarely listen unless someone is talking directly to them. As a result, generic messages that could appeal to anyone go in one ear and out the other.
When communicating with the consumer, it’s important to speak directly to them. Personalize your marketing approach whenever possible. Use polls, custom coupons and email campaigns, and user-specific product recommendations to build relationships and drive sales. If you can use these key strategies and high-quality digital and physical marketing tactics, you will have an effective communication strategy.
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