Have you ever put together a “marketing campaign” and didn’t see the results you expected? Did you focus on the audience? Was it more of mass direct marketing?
I’m here to tell you that not only did that mass direct marketing campaign cost you more money, but it had a much lower response rate.
If you want to spend less money, have a higher response rate, and build a stronger customer base, you have to know your audience. You can have more than one audience. You SHOULD have more than one audience. There are multiple buyers that want or need your product or service. As a business owner it is important that you know each of your audiences.
If your audience is a 30 year old, stay at mom, of 2 boys, do you know how to reach her? Does she spend all her time on social media? Does she respond to email marketing? Do you need to send something in the mail? Will she find you on parenting websites that she frequents to get ideas on saving money, parenting, etc? Maybe you want to reach all stay at home moms, but some of them don’t have social media … you just developed 2 campaigns. Same audience, different contact method.
Now what happens when you reach your target audience? Where do they go? Does the webpage (yes PAGE not SITE) that they land on, match the message? Will they find exactly what they are looking for because that’s what you promoted to them before they got to your web page? Each campaign needs separate landing pages, each of these pages should have a message that reflects how they got to that landing page, otherwise, you lost them.
When you get to a webpage, do you spend time looking for what you expected? Did you have to search for information (if so, did you actually search or did you say screw this?!) Did the page you land on have a call to action? Did you have to give information to get something?
People don’t have time to search your site. Everybody complains that 24 hours is not enough time in a day, how are you going to get them to spend even a fraction of their time searching your site? You aren’t. You must grab them and get them to take action instantly. If they clicked on your ad or link you have something they need or want, don’t make them look for it, hand it to them, on a silver platter right in front of them.
You can improve the success of obtaining contact information, getting a sale, etc, if you have targeted a specific market, with a specific message, that sends them to a specific page. every aspect of the campaign should connect. This is the key element of your targeted marketing campaign.
If the message isn’t targeted to me and what I need, then I as a busy consumer am less likely to click on the link. If I do by chance click on the link, if the information again isn’t specific to me as the targeted consumer, there is a high probability that I will leave the site. You have just lost me as a potential customer.
It is important that you target your audience(s) and here is why:
1) Your potential customer will feel like you are reaching them personally.
2) Your potential customer will likely take action on your webpage or call you (if that’s the call to action), if they don’t have to spend countless seconds or minutes looking for that specific information you personally reached them with in your initial message to send them to your site.
3) Your targeted campaign will cost you less. Yes LESS.
4) You have a smaller market, but a higher probability of response and return.
5) The lead generation process has a higher success rate, because the potential customer is EXACTLY who you are targeting.
Yes, this is a lot to take in. Yes, this is something most business owners do not understand. Yes, this is why you should hire a marketing firm to manage all of these for you.
Here is why you should not attempt a targeted marketing campaign without knowledge of targeted marketing:
1) If you are unsure of your exact market, you could waste a lot of money.
2) If you aren’t familiar with targeted marketing, you could waste a lot of time ATTEMPTING an implementation.
3) A credible marketing firm, will help you identify each step of the campaign, including the specific audience, the specific method of contact, the specific landing page, the specific call to action, and the specific follow up. Yes, follow up is necessary.
4) You may know your audience, but you may not know how to reach them, a marketing firm and their research and knowledge know how to reach the audience, use their knowledge, it will pay you back ten-fold in the long run.
5) As a business owner, you know your business. You know the widgets, you know who you want to buy, but chances are, you don’t know marketing. The marketing firm doesn’t know the widgets, and can’t tell you who will buy your widget, but they know marketing. They know how to target the audience (that you identify). They know turn those leads into customers.
Most marketing firms, including Beyond Marketing, will give you a free consultation. They will help you review your audience and even make recommendations. The best thing you can do is to take the free consultation, the recommendations and pay the marketing firm to implement those recommendations, allowing you more time to focus on the actual business aspect of your business. You know your business, a marketing firm knows marketing. Together this can be a very successful partnership.
