If You Don’t Know Who You’re Marketing To

Are you able to close your eyes at this very moment and see the face of the people you’re trying to market to?

Do you know the kinds of things these people like? Do you know what images appeal to them, what products they have the most need for, and what styles of marketing will best grab their interest? How clear is the image you’re seeing? Do you know exactly who these people are or the image fuzzy, barely in focus, or not in focus at all?

So many companies are designing marketing material, paying for their color printing, coordinating the distribution of their advertisements, and they don’t even have a clear idea of who they’re trying to grab.

The reason is because they’re attempting to target every person possible. The market is the entire country.

The only time a system like that will work is when you have so much money for color printing you’re able to completely saturate the market with your advertising. And then it isn’t really the focus of your advertising that’s getting people interested but the sheer volume of what you’re sending out. If you fill up the market enough you’ll get people looking at you.

But is this the best approach? Is the money being well spent?

If you know the audience you can tailor the message to fit them. You can use language and images that appeal directly to them. The way you arrange your message to appeal to a middle aged suburbanite is not going to be the same way you tailor your message to fit a college student.

Each group has certain likes and dislikes, things that appeal to them in a way that doesn’t appeal to the other groups, and if you don’t know that you won’t be able to do the best job possible at gaining their attention.

Having a niche helps you to hone in on your market, but you don’t have to always have a small niche to do this. After all, if you wanted to target college students in general, you can create your message to best work for them, while still targeting all college students. That isn’t a small market, but it is a specific market.

The first step of any marketing campaign should be figuring out exactly who the target is and how you can best appeal to them. Do the needed research or else you’ll find your response rate lacking in relation to the costs of the marketing.

Remember :  the broader your audience the harder it will be to get your message right. A niche might be better for you if you find yourself unable to afford the kind of marketing you’d prefer for a large market.

The next time you close your eyes before a marketing push you should be able to completely visualize who you’re marketing to.

By Kaye Marks

Image by Martin Garnham

Kaye Z. Marks is an avid writer and follower of the developments in the business card templates and business card printing industry. Order business cards online with PrintPlace.com.

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