Target audience

Your Target Audience Is NOT Generic

There’s a mindset among many business owners that they need to be on social media. Specifically, they need to be on Facebook; or Twitter; or LinkedIn; or have a blog; or look ahead to business options on Google Plus.

This is usually fostered by fly-by-night consultants and agencies who tap into the fear factor so many businesses have about social media, and use blinding statistics and numbers about these platforms, and why a business needs to be on them.

You get the usual soundbites, like Facebook is the equivalent of the third biggest country in the world; or Google Plus has the fastest adoption rate of new users across all social networks; or if you’re not blogging, you’re not reaching your audience.

But so what? All these numbers and stats are doing is taking a generic approach to social media.

The consultants and agencies peddling them are doing so because they know big numbers sound impressive, and that any business owner would be a fool to miss out on 750 million potential new customers on Facebook, or 20 million and counting on Google Plus, or any other millions of potential customers on other networks.

But, again, that’s being generic. And customers are anything but.

The Collective Individuals

Sure, you can segment customers into groups. For example, you might have a product that appeals to women between 25-45, with kids and a sporty lifestyle. Or you might attract gearheads. Or teenagers.

But they’re still individuals, even as part of a collective.

There’s no guarantee that a million sporty moms will all love the same product; or that 500 gearheads will all be tempted by your latest sale; or 1,000 teens will all want to see the same teen movie.

As consumers, we don’t work that way – so why would we approach our business strategy that way to attract our audience? Why would we think generically? Because we’re told that’s where the money is, according to the people with the awesome social media numbers?

Be Your Customer

If you’re a brick and mortar store, and you attract a very niche audience based on location and age, do you think having a generic blog is going to attract new customers?

If you’re a mom and pop business that sells classic 78 RPM vinyl, do you think a Facebook group full of teens talking about video games is going to work for you?

Yes, social media and a solid online presence can – and does – bring in new business. But that’s after research defines where that new business is, not because someone tells you that you could reach almost a billion potential customers simply by having an account.

Seriously, if it was that easy, we’d hear more success stories of how social media is the secret sauce, as opposed to digging in deep and finding out for ourselves what we need to be doing.

You’ve built your success up so far by being smart about your business – why would you want to stop now, just because someone shows you some bright lights and inflated sales potential?

Research. Learn how you can use the likes of Twitter and Facebook (and others) to find out if your audience is there for you and, if so, how you can get in front of them.

Plan. If you find your target audience is in a specific place, make sure you understand the platform and the different approaches on each one.

Strategy. Much like you wouldn’t offer a sale on meat to a vegan, look to use different strategies and promotions depending on the information and statistics your research finds.

Sure, numbers are great (despite what girls tell us guys, size does matter, or so I’m told).

But size only matters when it’s appropriate – make sure you’re not getting sucked in by size, when you should be looking at the overall package…

image: MrWoodnz

Translation Marketing

Jump of the Cliff When you’re selling something, how do you do it? Are you keeping it simple or are you overselling?

In other words, are you using translation marketing or not?

In his post today, Chris Brogan discusses the sales cycle and where social media fits into it. Prospects, awareness, leads, customers and evangelists. All great stuff and well worth reading. But that’s internal talk. Yes, the aim is to take that internal talk and transfer it to external listeners.

But when you’re trying to grab these external listeners, are you talking their language or double Dutch?

Marketing seems to have gone through a metamorphis over the last few years. More are trying to be clever with their message – unfortunately, many are coming across as too clever and the message is being lost.

Nothing needs to be complicated. People by nature are simple. We like simple things. Confusion might be fun in a mystery movie or a game of Cluedo. But when it comes to businesses marketing to us, confusion just turns us off you and onto your competitors.

Yet it doesn’t need to be this way.

The Like Factor

Years ago, when I first got into marketing, one of my mentors taught me about The Like Factor. It was a pretty straightforward concept and one I’m sure was widely used. Maybe it still is today, but I’ve seen few examples if it is.

People are more comfortable when they relate to something. Personal experiences tell us whether we like something or not. So use that and turn The Like Factor into your own translation marketing so we don’t have to translate your message.

Compare these two messages:

“It is important to manage the performance and availability of your critical Web applications to deliver consistently superior services aligned with your business goals. Meeting this challenge requires a new approach to application performance management, where IT becomes a strategic service provider and an innovation partner of the business organization.”

“You know that feeling you get when you go out and you can’t remember whether you turned off the gas or not? We’ll be the guys that make sure your gas is looked after in your IT kitchen.”

They’re the same message aimed at the same people – IT managers. The first one is a marketing spiel given by an IT provider, the second is something I just came up with to use translation marketing.

You’re the customer. Which one would you relate to more? Do you prefer marketing talk or translation marketing?

photo credit: greg321

Don’t Tell Me – Sell Me!

I read a report today that women multi-task better than men. Published by Integrated Media Measurment Inc, the survey looked at how almost twice as many women both use the Internet and watch television at the same time compared to men.

While I found the survey a little obvious (everyone knows women multi-task better than men!),? it did make me wonder – how is this information being used?

Let’s look at the key group, for instance.

The biggest percentages of women that are using the Internet while watching TV are the ones that fall between the ages of 19 and 39. For this age group, many of the most popular shows include Grey’s Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Medium, 30 Rock and Big Shots.

This doesn’t take into account the most popular genres like soaps, lifestyle, reality TV and chat shows. So the question then becomes are brands using this audience effectively?

Media Convergence

Let’s say I’m the marketing director for one of these shows. I find out that while my target audience is watching the show, there’s a good chance that they’re also online at the same time. So shouldn’t I be using that to my advantage? How about…

I offer fans of the show the option to register at my show’s website.

When the show is on, anyone using the Internet at that time gets pinged with a time-sensitive message offering exclusive offers for the duration of the show. It could be fan apparel, memorabilia, discounts on DVD boxsets, etc.

Pick random email addresses by location, give them free tickets to their favourite show and run their website username along the bottom of the screen as a way of saying, “Thanks for being a fan”.

These are the really obvious approaches and they’re also limited to first runs and live shows. Yet the concept is feasible and the technology is there. As far as costs go, take it a little step further with your advertisers. Show them the numbers of online users you have outreach to, and allow them to place similarly unique offers to those online users for a nominal fee increase in their advertising rates.

What do you think? Would you be interested in your favourite show or brand engaging you in this way? If not, and you fall into the group the IMMI survey mentions, what would you advise when it comes to brands interacting more with your online use?

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