When it comes to content marketing, nothing is more important than figuring out who you are trying to reach. You can try advertising snowboards to knitting groups all day long, but that doesn’t mean you’ll make a sale. Establishing a clear and concise marketing plan requires figuring this aspect out, because if you’re unsure of your audience, all of your hard work may end up falling on deaf ears. Let’s dive into target marketing and figure out what goes into getting your message out to the right people.
- Who is your target audience? To clarify, a ‘target persona’ is the makeup of who you are trying to connect with in your audience; their age, job, wants, needs, where they spend their time, what their hobbies are and what they value the most. See more examples below.
Resource: If you need help with this part of the process, Building A Story Brand by Donald Miller can be an excellent resource in putting together a plan and moving onto the next step in target marketing.
- Where is your target audience on social media? There’s no point in diverting your effort to certain platforms if your target persona isn’t someone who uses them, despite the popularity they might hold in other personas.
Resource: We recommend this guide that breaks down the different demographics of who uses certain apps. For example, if your brand is meant to appeal towards women, Pinterest is a prime hub for that as 70% of its users are female.
GOAL OF SOCIAL MEDIA
The goal when posting to social media is to grab someone’s attention and convince them to go to your website. Some of these social media platforms are accessible through a computer, but most of the people who are using them are going to be on their phone, which means it’ll be the same device they’re on when viewing your website. If it isn’t mobile-friendly, it has the potential to turn off many would-be customers.
Once you have your target persona established, it opens the doorway to other avenues to connect with your audience. Influencer marketing is a popular method of doing so, and can be quite effective when gone about in the right manner.
A successful social media should not just raise awareness around your brand, but find those who are likely to become repeat-customers. This can be better achieved through pinpointing your target persona and keeping them in mind as you put together your social media strategy.
STILL NEED A LITTLE CLARITY?
Scroll through the images below you will either identify with them or not. Think about the photographs from your customers perspective- are you using photographs that make them identify with your company? Where they are as a person in work, outside of work, where they feel stuck, what they want to find or where they want to be? Your website may being saying all the right words but you need to match that with the correct visuals.
