Every few days when checking my email I go through my spam folder to make sure I haven’t missed any business inquires or important memos that may have accidentally ended up there. And while I’m sifting through them, almost unconsciously, I put up these sort of virtual blinders that weed out mail I don’t want from companies I’m not even remotely interested in.
No, I don’t have a personal beef with the diet pill companies or insurance sales folks. And no, I’m not offended by the ads for mail order brides or male enhancement. I get that receiving marketing emails is part of the internet experience.
They’re not a significant bother to me. I just don’t read them. And if it gets to a point where I feel like I’m receiving too many or it becomes too difficult to get to the actual emails that are important to me – I just start sending those emails to the spam folder.
And I know I’m not alone there. You, me, and everyone with an online presence has a spam folder that we start sending emails to eventually. And you know why? It’s because we don’t care about them or what they’re offering. We’re not the target market of the company that’s sending them. They’re barking up the wrong tree.
“Sure”, you’re thinking, “Of course people send the porn ads and horoscope readings to the spam folder. No one is interested in those”.
But that’s where you’re wrong. Do you think, even automated, those companies would waste time, money, and resources constantly sending out emails if they didn’t work? Someone is opening them, albeit the clickthrough rates probably aren’t the best. But you know how they could be better? If the companies targeted and only sent emails to people who’d actually be interested in their product.
I chose diet pills and male enhancement ads to use as an example because those are spam emails we can all relate to. But take a look through your own spam folder. I’m willing to bet you’ve also got emails from regular companies and brands too, but you’re still not interested in them.
Because when brands try to pander to people who aren’t their target demographic, it goes ignored.
Maybe you have a kickass sales pitch, and maybe you even hired a professional copywriter to craft one for you. But it doesn’t matter how many fish are in the sea; if you’re using the wrong bait you won’t catch anything.
Defining your target market will help you save money, and earn money simultaneously. Because not only are you specifically targeting a market you’re actually relevant to, but you’re saving resources and wasted time by avoiding people who are going to automatically treat you as spam.
Whether that action takes place inside an email folder, with your flier being tossed in the trash, or your ad getting scrolled right by on Facebook, people who do not want to see your ad will not see it, even if you manage to get it in front of them.
So all the time and money you’ve put behind creating it is wasted.
When developing a marketing plan, one the first things you should do, and definitely one of the most important, is to figure out who your target market is, so that you can then cater all of your efforts to them.
Because sure, your boosted post will get you in front of a few new eyes. But is that really helpful if say, your company sells video gaming accessories, but your ad is going out to a bunch of stay-at-home moms with toddlers?
Of course not. They’re going to scroll right past it without batting an eye. Maybe it showing up on their page will get you a view, but what’s the value of a view If that’s where it stops?
Yeah, you might end up finding a handful of moms who game regularly. But wouldn’t it make more sense to send your ads to the people more likely to buy your product or service, rather than hope some of the people you show it to /might/ be interested?
Plus, once you’ve defined your target market you’ll be able to pitch to them better. Knowing who your target demographic is allows you to research their purchasing habits, income, find what social media channels they’re using, and a whole slew of behaviors you can analyze to reach them better.
With the information about your target market, you can delegate what social channels your brand needs to be on, help set price points that your customers (or their parents) can afford, learn what time of day is best to distribute ads, and overall develop a more targeted and efficient marketing strategy other than blindly throwing out collateral and hoping it sticks somewhere.
What do you do to figure out your brand’s target market?
