Tweet

Tailoring Your Marketing to Different Audiences

Written by: Stacy Karacostas

Article Overview: Whether you’re looking for a job or trying to find customers, you are engaging in a sales and marketing presentation. The only difference is, when you’re job hunting, the potential employer is the customer.

Tailoring Your Marketing to Different Audiences

Do you remember writing your resume and cover letters?

Maybe you’ve had to do this recently. Hopefully, if you own your own business, it’s been awhile. Either way, there’s a terrific marketing lesson to be learned. Just take your mind back to your resume-writing days and answer the following question...

What is one of the most important rules of writing resumes and cover letters?

It’s not a design rule.

Or a rule about how you organize your content, though it does have to do with your content.

It’s that you should always do a little research on the prospective employer. Then tailor your resume and cover letter to that particular job and company.

And why should you do this? Because what they really want to know is what you can do for them.

After all, no two jobs are alike. And no two employers have exactly the same set of needs when it comes to hiring.

So you want to make sure your resume speaks to them in a way that shows you are the best candidate to fill their needs or solve their problems.

Seems logical enough, right?

Well, the same thing holds true when it comes to your marketing.

Whether you’re looking for a job or trying to find customers, you are engaging in a sales and marketing presentation. The only difference is, when you’re job hunting, the potential employer is the customer.


Yet even though we all know you have to tailor your resume to each position, most small business owners don’t even consider tweaking their marketing to suit different audiences.

Instead, they try to save money by creating one-size-fits-all marketing. But if you try to speak to everyone, your message is too generic so you end up connecting with no one, and wasting more money in the end.

This doesn’t mean you can’t sell to more than one target market. Or use many of the same basic messages. It just means that, like a resume, you need to tailor your marketing to each audience.

How do you do this? The same way you would if you were reworking your resume for a new job:

1) Create a framework. Get the basics of your products or services down on paper.

2) List all the benefits. Don’t just write down the features of what you’re offering (size, shape, color, time, price, amps, volts, extras, etc.). People need to know why they should want or need those features.

3) Do your research. You have to know the person you’re selling to, and their wants, needs or problems, if you’re going to convince them you have what they’re looking for.

4) Profile your markets. For each market you want to sell to, write out a detailed profile of who the ideal customer would be including age, sex, religion, job, salary, education, political leanings, family, shopping and reading preferences etc.

5) Make a list of what’s most important to them. This might be time with the family, keeping up with Joneses, making a lot of money, investing wisely, paying the bills, saving money, having fun, whatever. You have to know what they’re thinking if you want to connect and communicate with them effectively.

6) Understand what worries them most. Everyone has a different set of worries and concerns in life—and when making a purchase. Often the two are intertwined. By knowing what they’re most concerned about you can ease their fears.

7) Speak their language. We all like to feel like someone else gets us…And that’s especially true when it comes to buying products or services. Prospects want to sense that you understand what’s bugging them and know where they’re coming from.

So come across in print like a helpful friend offering them the best advice or solutions for their particular wants, needs or problems—not an impersonal business selling stuff.

8) Push the pain button. If you know who you’re selling to, you know the problem you can solve for them. So talk about that pain or problem, then position your products or services as the pain-relief.

Remember, the most effective marketing and sales pieces have very little about you, your business, your products or your services. Instead, they’re focused on your prospects and how you can solve their problems, fill their needs, or fulfill their wants and dreams.

Just like a prospective employer, prospects want to know more about what you can do for them (proven results, guarantees, benefits, etc.), and less about you, what you can do or how you do it. Make that connection and you’ll be well on your way to making more sales.

Related Articles
  The Six Stages of Persuasion
  Do you have effective key messages?
  Are You Just Presenting or Truly Engaging?
  Meaningful Message, Personalized PR
  ROI - PR’s Holy Grail

Article Tags: audience, audiences, cover letters, jobs, looking for a job, marketing presentation, money, own business, prospective employer, sales and marketing, small business owners, target market, tweaking, writing resumes, writing your resume



Related Forum Posts
Re: What is your Business? - We are running a Online Marketing Firm and we have some good clients to which we are offering a complete Digital Marketing strategy like Search, Mobile Marketing, Branding and Design. I think in Online Marketing company online presence can be a wining factor for the success of the company.
Re: Let’s talk about the ways of marketing your products, servic - I agree with some of the others who responded it depends on what your selling... but to answer your questions here are some of the methods I use. Forum Marketing Yahoo Answers (I need to use more of) SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Bum Marketing or Article marketing P-P-C (Pay Per Click) Marketing Online Directories Hope this helps.
Re: Should Evan add a "Social Media Marketing" category to the f - Hi, Online Marketing would be a great title, and having sub categories would make it even better, there would plenty of categories to choose from, Social Media, SEO, Article Marketing and yes even Affiliate Marketing to name just a few, great looking site btw Jeff, take care, Carol
Kevin's Case Study #11 - A New Forum Category? - Hi Everyone, 2009 is a new year and I'd like to create a new forum category to jazz things up! In the past, there's been some interest voiced about adding a "Social Media Marketing", "Online Marketing", "Internet Marketing" or "Online Promotion" category. I'll implement [u:1g2tv6tf]ONE[/u:1g2tv6tf] of those new categories, but can someone first tell me what the difference would be between the existing "Marketing" section and one of those new options mentioned above? Thanks
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Reverse Mentoring

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Log On

Stay Employed In A Down Economy

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.