Are you targeting a specific audience in your marketing campaigns?
An interesting postcard showed up in my mailbox this week from a gym in my area. The headline and photos on the postcard advertised the gym’s child care facility where members can drop off their kids while they workout. Sounds like a great amenity that many people would want to take advantage of! There is just one problem- I don’t have any children. This postcard has no relevance to me as the receiver, so my first instinct is to throw the postcard in the trash.
With the exception of the kid friendly focus, the gym actually had a really great marketing piece. The postcard had wonderful graphic design and was aesthetically pleasing, it had a unique offer to use a temporary pass to visit the gym with no membership obligation, and it had a call to action that I needed to call a toll-free number to obtain my complimentary visitors pass.
The problem with this mailer is that it did not reach its intended target audience of a gym seeker with children. After further examination, I also noticed that the postcard was addressed to “current resident” which tells me that this gym has no clue who I am and is probably mailing to every address in my area.
The underlying issue is that this gym did not do their research. Without good data, and a good list, your great offer/messaging/design will fall on deaf ears. Even a really bad marketing piece sent to the right target market can earn results, but a great marketing piece sent to the wrong target market will earn no results.
Identify Your Target Audience
Identifying your target market is easy. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Who buys from you?
- What do they buy?
- When do they buy?
- Where are they located?
- What are their buying habits?
- What are your customer demographics? Consider age, gender, lifestyle, family, residency, income level, etc.
Cookie Cutter Marketing Doesn’t Work
Don’t try to generalize you marketing to fit all of these demographics or assume that one type of marketing strategy will work for everyone (like the gym postcard). You need to market to all of these audiences differently as every audience has different needs and preferences.
Bianca Te Rito, contributing author for She Takes on the World, said it best when she blogged that, “It is a big mistake in online personal branding (or any branding for that matter) to try to be all things to all people. If you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one”.
I agree with Te Rito that we cannot try to approach all audiences in the same. My experience confirms that many people try to create cookie cutter marketing strategies that can apply to everyone, but this just simply will not work.
Instead of sending everyone in the area a postcard advertising their child care services, this gym could have greatly benefited from three distinct mini campaigns.
One could have targeted parents of young children with the messaging and imagery that was in the original postcard.
Another could target young adults with photos of young, good looking, fit individuals and the gym’s state of the art equipment.
Another could have targeted active seniors by showing images of the diverse ages present at the gym and perhaps advertise senior friendly group fitness classes.
Cost
The first reaction I get when I suggest three mini campaigns to my clients is that it must be more expensive to do three mini campaigns than one campaign, but this is not necessarily true. It costs just as much to mail 3,000 of the child care post cards as it would to mail 1,000 child care, 1,000 young adult, and 1,000 senior target postcards. If you have customer data on file, and you probably do, than you might not need to buy multiple mailing lists. If the only design variations in your postcards are images and a headlines then the graphic design charges for three postcards will not be that much more than the one.
Target audience and good data are key a successful marketing campaign. Don’t just spray and pray for success. Having a clear marketing strategy target towards a specific audience will increase response rates exponentially.
Amanda Moore
Like most people, I typically dismiss email advertisements in a matter of seconds. If the subject line doesn’t grab my attention in the first few words, or if I am unfamiliar with the sender, the advertisement immediately goes to the trash. This week, however, I received an email advertisement that caught my attention for all the wrong reasons. This email had an odd subject line which read: “Great deals on personalized Christmas ornaments.”
You can imagine my surprise at seeing this subject line in the middle of January. Common sense seems to dictate that you shouldn’t be marketing a holiday product after the holiday has passed, yet this happens more often than you might expect. I immediately discarded the email without reading the offer, incentive, or product details. The company may have had an amazing product or offer, but it fell on deaf ears since it was the beginning of the New Year and I had no current or foreseeable need for the product.
Market in a Timely Manner
One of the most important aspects to keep in mind about your marketing materials is the timing of your message or offer. You want your marketing piece to reach your target audience at a time when your product or service is relevant, and when they might be in the market to buy.
A few things to consider when contemplating the timeliness of your marketing:
- Does your marketing piece or offer correspond with a holiday? Whether it is a specific date or a holiday season, be sure that you marketing piece arrives before the holiday.
- Does your offer include and expiration date? If so, be sure that your message is received in advance so that the offer is still good and the prospect has an opportunity to take advantage.
- Is your product or service seasonal? Be sure to market your company during peak buying times. For example, it would do you no good to advertise tax preparation in May.
- When are you most likely to reach your target audience? When marketing with T.V., Radio, Internet, or email, identify when your potential customers are tuning in and reach out to them then. There is no use in advertising a cereal for children during late night CNN.
- Are your marketing messages automated? Automated marketing via the internet, email, or social media is a real time saver, but be sure that your automation is timed correctly.
Think ahead when planning your marketing strategy. If your marketing piece is time sensitive you need to start preparing in advance. I advise many of my clients to flip ahead in their calendars to identify future marketing opportunities like a Christmas card mailing or a big summer blowout sale over Labor Day weekend. Then, mark your calendar at least a month ahead of the event (for a printed marketing piece) which will give you ample time to brainstorm, create, produce, and distribute your marketing materials. Keep in mind that if you intend to create a multimedia marketing campaign, distribute large quantities, or allow time for follow up, you may need to begin preparations more than a month in advance.
A mistake concerning the timeliness of your marketing may seem insignificant but it can affect your company’s credibility. It will be obvious that you did not prepare in advance. It may also appear that you have little concern for your product or customer if you didn’t care enough to give them adequate time to digest and react to your marketing piece. Some companies intentionally distribute coupons or offers that leave receivers with little time to take advantage of an offer-this just frustrates the receiver and hurts the company’s credibility.
I cant stress it enough when I say check the relevance, check the relevance, recheck the relevance of your marketing pieces! When in doubt, think about it from the receiver’s perspective. Would this be timely relevant to you if you received it? If not, shelf the idea and use it when the time is right.
Amanda Moore
Get your customer's attention and give them an incentive to act now!
Your marketing piece should have a clear call-to-action that expresses to the customer exactly how you want them to respond. To implement a call-to-action, simply ask yourself how you want the recipient to react to the piece and include it in the creative and messaging.
A call-to-action can take on many forms. It could be to respond to a personalized URL or generic URL, go to a website, call a phone number, contact a representative, attend a trade show, or go to a retail location. Ask the recipient to act now! Include this call-to-action in an obvious and noticeable location in your creative. Perhaps bold letters, in the headline, or in a star burst.
The call-to-action seems to go hand in hand with an incentive. Infomercials utilize this tactic regularly to get buyers to have a sense of purchasing urgency. Call in the next twenty minutes and receive an additional ______ free! Incentives give the receiver reason to act on your call-to-action. It can be in the form of a giveaway, a discount, a contest, or a free gift with purchase.
Again, you must think like your consumer. Is a free $5.00 Starbucks gift card enticing enough or would they prefer to be entered in a drawing to win a new iPod Touch? Some offers can be pertinent to your business or others can be fun items that you think your customers will appreciate.
In any case, a call-to-action linked to an attractive incentive will give receivers all the more reason to react to your marketing piece.
Amanda Moore
Frustrated by your marketing?
I can’t generate new leads! My customers have left me for my competitor! They are not buying enough! I can’t seem to gain market share! They are not responding to my mailers! That postcard is too expensive! –My marketing isn’t working!
Everywhere I turn these days it seems that everyone is questioning their marketing. Although there is no sure fire formula that will bring success, there are ways to improve your marketing, enhance your response rates, and see a better return on your investment.
The next few blogs are intended to analyze your marketing efforts and will be presented in six short segments where we will discuss:
• Message and Copy
• Frequency and Timing
• Creative and Branding
• Call-to-Action and Incentive
• Target Audience and Data
• Response Mechanisms
Amanda Moore
