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Do You Know Who Your Target Audience Is?

Written by: Ray Stewart

Article Overview: It is surprising how many businesses are just advertising to all and sundry. They don't even realize how many resources they are wasting by adopting this approach. When the concept of Target Audience is mentioned to them they reply "everyone is my target audience - right" - Wrong. Marketing is more effective when you put the message exactly in front of the people who are ready, willing and able to buy your product/service at that moment.

Do You Know Who Your Target Audience Is?

It is absolutely vital that you know who your Target Audience is.

Why? Because if you send out marketing materials to people that are not likely to need your products/services – you are wasting your time and valuable resources.

How do you know who your Target Audience is?

Your TA is simply the people that you would like to do business with. In essence you need to know who your ideal clients/customers are. Once you know this, you will know how and where to look for these people/businesses.

For example, if you are a hairdresser, would you be looking for clients by advertising in a national fishing magazine, or would you be better focusing on people within a 5 mile radius of your salon?

If you are a plumber, would you find many customers by advertising in a national computer magazine, or would a more local approach work better?

If you are a mail-order bookseller, would you put leaflets through 5,000 doors in your local area, or would you have more success with an advert in a national publication?

I know these are slightly extreme examples, but I hope you can start to see the point in trying your best to put your offer in front of the people who are most likely to respond.

Recently I was talking with a coach business who wanted to start running coach based tours for older folks from the Midlands to various seaside resorts for one and two week holidays. They were talking about an advert in “Yellow Pages” for next year. I asked them how many of their target audience would look through that publication if they wanted a holiday. As we started brainstorming, excellent ideas such as Post Offices, Supermarkets, Church Halls, where lunch clubs and tea dances are held, hairdressers and cafes locally would be good places for posters. All places where their Target Audience would be much more likely to see the tour posters and respond to them.

It is the same for any business. Spend some time really thinking about the people most likely to benefit from what you are offering and where to focus your marketing efforts to ensure they see your offer and it is compelling enough to trigger a response.

Are you doing this kind of laser focused marketing at the moment? If so, revisit your original findings and make sure they are still 100% valid. If not, start today.

Ray Stewart

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Article Tags: approach work, church halls, computer magazine, extreme examples, fishing magazine, hairdresser, lunch clubs, mail order, marketing materials, mile radius, national computer, national fishing, national publication, post offices, seaside resorts, target audience, tea dances, tour posters, valuable resources, wasting your time



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