Fish where the fish are biting!

One of the questions we ask businesses when helping them plan, is, do you know the ROI (Return on Investment) on your advertising and marketing spend? The answer is almost always the same, No. And, do you know your target market?
Yes… sort of.

Identifying your target market is a critical step before you should undertake any marketing or advertising campaign, no matter what the medium or product.

I often use the analogy of fishing when explaining this to clients.

You can either go down to the seashore, put on the bait that you purchased at the local BP fuel stop on the way there and cast your line into the ocean and wait, hoping for that whopper to bite. Or, you can identify your target – Gurnard, in which case, you can find out the best bait to use, the best location and the best time of the day or tide. So, you travel out to the Northern buoy, fish at 30m, 1 hour either side of low tide and use squid for bait.

Which do you think is going to be most reliable way to catch the fish?

Just advertising to everybody hoping that someone will buy your product or service is such a waste of money and resource. But it is still surprising how many businesses do this.

Identifying your target market is so important, because once you have narrowed down who it is your targeting, and what they are wanting that you so happen to provide, you can improve your ROI on marketing and advertising significantly.

If you don’t know where your target market spends their time or why, it’s impossible to have an effective campaign that will reach your audience, whether it is via content marketing, email marketing or social media marketing.

And it doesn’t matter if you’ve created the greatest marketing campaign ever – if it’s not targeted at the right segment, in the right place, it won’t have the desired impact or results, just like fishing.

Look at your existing customer base, it’s a good place to start. What’s common about them?

Demographic, location, interests, gender, age group?

Once you can describe your target market in detail, you’re in a position to consider where they would go to find out about your products or service, and that’s where you want to be.  Now you’re ready to develop that marketing campaign.

Happy fishing.