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First Rule Of Marketing: Focus On Your Audience

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Everyday if you read you will hear a lot of experts, consultants and pundits share their tutelage about what makes for great marketing.

Some may tell you it is email marketing while another says “No, it’s social media” and yet a third will say it is all about integrated marketing.

As a business owner, your head starts to spin and read only to become more confused. Because in a world that is rich with content, data and opinions, what is the best marketing strategy for your business?

Well today I have come to deliver the most concrete answer you should ever receive. Ready?

It Depends!

Wait, so you may be asking if that is some type of twisted humor or if I am pulling your chain, but the bottom line is that when it comes to the marketing that your business really needs most to succeed, there simply isn’t a one size fits all methodology. Not now, and really, there never has been.

So for your business, instead of worrying too much about the latest hype or the newest guruism, really the focus needs to be on this…

Who is my buyer!

That’s right, and while this may be a little trip down memory lane, this may very well be the most honest advice you will get from a world littered with content that is developed with one main purpose; to sell you something.

So what am I selling you?

In this case, I’m pulling out my best 3-piece suit and my finest brief case because I want to show you the world of possibilities if you shift your thinking from what is popular onto what will work. So let’s get back to the question at hand. Who is your buyer?

Build A Marketing Strategy To Match Your Audience

As you develop your marketing strategy and begin to look into what type of digital and traditional marketing assets you plan to build, the most important consideration is whom are we building this for?

Put aside all of the pretty metrics like impressions likes and reach. Sure if your only goal is awareness then maybe paid media or huge social followings matter, but if you are like most companies and your goal as marketers is to create customers then another approach should be considered.

What is the best mix of paid, owned, earned and shared media to accrue the right amount of brand awareness, affinity and ultimately consumers of your products and services?

For instance, many B2B’s may be enamored with big reach and brand visibility numbers, but if the acquisition of a small number of customers can equate to substantial 6, 7 or 8 figure revenue growth then why worry so much about visibility? Wouldn’t dollars be better spent on strategic 1:1 marketing campaigns that like social selling based on social listening or highly targeted email campaigns reaching a very narrow demographic of buyers? While the question may seem elementary or even condescending, it is a fair one to ask.

For every company on the planet there is a target audience. This is the key group of buyers, brand ambassadors and influencers that either consume or can influence consumption of your product. As marketers, the strategy has to be to figure out who they are and target your digital and traditional marketing assets directly at them.

These days it’s about tight targeting but also taking into consideration the main channels that drive conversion as opposed to just consideration.  This is why understanding the decision making process and which channels are part of the journey is so important. In a world where multiple channels and mediums intersect at any given time, brands have an increasingly difficult job in trying to target the right message to the right person at the right time. This is why the audience focused marketer needs to steer away from one size fits all strategies and move toward targeting the most relevant buyers with the highest conversion probability.

It’s About Conversion More Than Anything Else

Remember, marketing first and foremost is about creating and keeping a customer.

Even though there are many shiny objects, new marketing channels and changing methodologies every day, the smartest brands in the world never lost focus.

To stay ahead of the game, keep things simple and make sure that your marketing efforts directly align with your consumer.  From awareness to purchase to the ongoing customer experience if you focus on your target audience you will immediately put your brand out ahead of the rest.

As I like to say, let the next guy worry about vanity metrics. In here, we are too busy helping our customers become closer to our brand by delivering the message they want on the channels they want to hear it. Begging the question…what message is your brand delivering, and to whom

Image: Creative Commons 

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