Targeted online marketing prevents a business from wasting resources. You can gain traction when you know your fans.
Analysis of online advertising efforts helps you to produce more content that is more appealing to your audience.
Not everyone needs (or wants) your product or service. You could have a million followers, but if not one of them is a quality lead nothing that you share has much value.
Find and target the people who may want to buy your product. Even if they don’t know about it yet.
When you know your audience and have a good understanding of who you are targeting, writing content and networking is a lot more effective.
You can find a voice in which to talk to demographics. Target and build trust within those groups, showing them you are a professional in your industry.
But how do you find the people who want what you have? First, ask yourself “Who is your ideal client?“.
Who is your ideal client?
If you already have an established business you will very well know the type of client you prefer to serve. However, your ideal client may be different from your eventual target market.
Finding your ideal client using your current client list
If you already have a client list create a spreadsheet, so you can visually see the groups of clients that you already have.
Put them into columns, so you can sort by age group, gender, earnings, interests and location.
- How would that group of people make a purchase; online, on the high street, in a shop, over the phone?
- How much would they pay?
- Can they afford you?
- Do they take up a lot of your time, without giving any return?
- Which ones refer you?
- Which ones, therefore, are ideal?
You will find the group that you really value, and may have a better idea of the clientele you want to support.
Find your target market using more than one medium
Your current client list may not reflect the market that follows you online. Check all your networks to find out who is interested in your content.
When you first have a presence on the internet you have nothing to compare with and no one gives you that information for free. To start with, any business will take time to find the perfect balance between marketing message and audience.
Begin by writing blog posts for different age groups, genders and interest groups then share them across the relevant networks.
Analyse the results, which blog post get more clicks on which networks? Your target market may be more than one group of people.
Discover your audience using Google Analytics
Be sure to have registered for Google Analytics and have their code installed on your site, to track visitors. Enable demographics, it is a really important area that you should be analysing.
Use Google Analytics Demographics to look at the groups your website appeals to.
The demographics of your target audience
If already have an established business, it is easy to find out a few things about your target audience including:
- How they found your site
- Average age
- Gender
- Personality
- Family life
- Job title
- Job function
- Income
- Needs
- Challenges
- Location
Google Analytics provides so much of this data for your website or blog.
Use Facebook Insights, Twitter and Pinterest analytics to get a good overview of demographics and personal interests.
Add this information to your spreadsheet and each month refine this list.
What are the demographics of the people that react to your posts, shares your content or click your links?
Try to decipher which pieces appeal to which audience.
You may then be able to channel your content toward a different audience. Content and design can be customised for groups or subgroups.
Picture your audience as you write for them. Try to solve their problems. A teenage boy does not read, react to, or search for, the same content as a middle-aged woman.
Start to create content for different ages, personalities and income groups.
Once you are openly solving the problems of your audience, Google will recognise and rank your content more highly.
Network, blog and share to your new found audience
Now you have a good idea of who your online audience is you can start to track and follow users that may be interested in what you have to offer.
If you run a Laser Quest Centre you may be targeting both parents, teenagers and same-sex groups, for stag or hen nights. This sort of company could also be location-based, so your market may be within a 100-mile radius of your centre.
Potential clients will use a number of platforms to network, so, if you are comfortable, use more than one social media network. A lot of people use more than one.
The Laser Quest Centre may find parents on Twitter, and teenagers on TikTok.
Start to channel your online marketing more and more to those groups.
Find your target market using more than one medium
Networking across different social media networks gains recognition for your brand.
Using Twitter to find a target market
Twitter has a great advanced search facility that is under-used.
- Type a key word into the Twitter search. The results page will appear.
- Click MORE OPTIONS. Using this drop down menu, you can filter the search by Tweets only, accounts only, photos, video, news, people you follow and people near you.
- Click ADVANCED SEARCH at the bottom of the menu.
- Save this page, it is really useful.
On the advanced search page you a search location, which is great for location-based businesses.
Searching within the first group, ‘Words’ produces results from Tweets, account bios and names. Really useful when targeting a person with specific interests.
Find people in the groups you have discovered and make sure you interact. Use Twitter lists to organise people into categories.
Using Facebook to find a target market
Using Facebook as a business, you cannot directly search for individuals.
However, you can search for other businesses or organisations that your ideal client may be involved with.
‘Like’ pages, join groups and share your content as your business.
Using LinkedIn to find a target market
LinkedIn is great for business networking and the search facility is also really powerful. Search job titles, full names and locations – then ask to connect with them with a friendly message.
Groups on LinkedIn are really useful too. Join some groups relevant to your target market, then get involved in discussions.
Share your content but do not spam. No one likes pushy sales tactics.
Network with your target market
Find and follow organisations that your ideal client may be part of, rather than following or connecting with people at random.
Socialise online within these groups. Offer direct, valuable advice to the group and share your targeted content, so that people will remember your brand. Be generous and informative, you will get the return.
Use similar photographs across your networks to help people recognise your image, whichever platform they use.
Make sure your social media profiles are up to date and keyword heavy, enabling people to find you in a search and also so that Google marries up to your online presence.
Blogging for your target market
Once you know who you are talking to it is much easier to find your ‘blogging voice’.
Be yourself and add your own personality. Use keywords in your posts.
How to write for search engines and humans
If someone asks you a question and you have valuable information to offer on the subject write a blog post. Chances are someone will ask the same question soon and you can point them to your post.
It also means that people searching online will find the post, increasing your Google rank.
Share the post across networks to target the market. Stay consistent; it is a long game, but if you put in the time, you will eventually generate the leads you want.
