We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble solutions. Lee Iacocca has a winning thought here. Are you occasionally looking for help finding an answer that would solve a problem? Happens to us all, and even for our customers. Why not turn this idea into a unique marketing approach?
Marcus Sheridan, the founder of River Pools and Spas in Northern Virginia, asked himself the same question and decided to use the question to help himself while helping customers for his business. We can all learn from what he discovered.
Sheridan wrote one article on his company’s blog in 2009 that simply answered the first question on everyone’s mind when thinking about buying one of his pools, “How much does a fiberglass pool really cost?”
To this day, thanks to insights he gained from Google Analytics, he’s been able to track a minimum of $1.7 million in sales to that single article.
Solving problems – answering questions – turns out to be a potentially lucrative marketing exercise.
Related: How to Frame Marketing Messages for Optimum Engagement
You can do this on your own blog like Sheridan did. But why stop there? Why not answer real-life questions from living, breathing people? Sites that do this are all around us have spent lots of time and energy collecting these questions for us, and feed them up daily on a silver platter.
It’s not quite inbound marketing, but pretty close.
Plus, real questions tend to be unique and more in-depth than general frequently asked questions content you’d create on your blog, or serve up in a newsletter. But with a little work, this could be your moment to shine.
Simply show that you know the ins and outs of your market and have seen all sorts of situations that enable you to answer with authority. Share some examples would add even more credibility.
Sure, forums, Q&A sites and the like have been around a long time. Nowadays all the buzz goes to video, inbound marketing, and content marketing. But we should stop a minute and think more on the approach because it’s not like every competitor company has mastered it and it’s still potentially powerful.
This is how you build and retain credibility with consumers who’ve never worked with you before.
And like anything in life, it only works when done well.
When thinking about this subject, I perused a lot of sites with questions and answers and saw some good stuff and some bad stuff. First, the most common offenders:
Marketing approach … questions with tough answers
If you don’t know the answer, don’t bluff with opinions. Do your research and if you cannot come up with a good answer, say so. You might even ask your customers for their help.
Poor grammar and errors
This matters more than you think. Think about it this way: You wouldn’t mail out a postcard that has a glaring typo in it. You wouldn’t make a sales call or presentation you hadn’t practiced. Polish matters online.
I know that the casual environment of the web makes us all feel like it doesn’t, but it does.
So what works?
So, what works as a unique marketing approach?
Concise answers are written with clarity and void of jargon that directly address the question being asked. A non-sales approach that is a genuine reflection of your unique value.
Sounds a lot like the characteristics of great marketing copy.
Another way to do this well is to give your time investment more longevity. Take it to your blog. You’ve spent valuable time answering a question on another company’s site – now take your work and reshape it a bit into a piece of content – a piece of marketing – that works standalone on your own site.
More to read: Case Studies to Evaluate New World Marketing Concepts
Maybe that means reworking the question and answer a bit to appeal to more consumers or removing it from a Q&A format. Maybe it means going more in-depth.
The point is you have a solid content asset that you can build on an archive on your own site for SEO and traffic.
Takeaways
We’ve heard from some clients who’ve landed crucial deals this way, and one in particular that I’ve spoken with has been able to trace a dozen deals back to one Q&A instance on one of the portal sites.
This is real stuff that is worth approaching strategically and tactically, just like the rest of your marketing.
If you are looking for additional resources in marketing strategy, one of my favorite experts is John Jantsch and Duct Tape Marketing. You’ll find lots of good stories and examples to learn from his blog.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of word of mouth marketing. And put it to good use.
It’s up to you to keep improving your creative marketing efforts. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
How to Frame Marketing Messages for Optimum Engagement
Some Great Story and Storytelling Examples to Study
Jaw Dropping Guerrilla Marketing Lessons and Examples
Like this short blog?Follow Digital Spark Marketing on LinkedIn or add us to your circles for 3-4 short, interesting blogs, stories per week.
Defining your target audience is one of the most important factors in any marketing campaign, and your job is made easier by focusing your marketing efforts on appealing to a specific group of people.
Ideally, you’ll have defined the target market for your product much earlier than the marketing stage. However, since drip campaigns enable you to segment your audience, you can refine your target market even further for each individual email. Some studies have shown that segmented campaigns result in a massive 760% increase in revenue.
Chipotle, while not a small business does have many marketing characteristics similar to those of small business. They work with a small budget, barely advertise on TV and do their own work in-house.
US companies spend millions of dollars each year developing the best strategies and tactics to reach their target audience and increase sales. In fact, a survey of chief marketing officers (CMOs) found that in 2015, companies were spending between eight to 11% of revenue on marketing. The messages and media used to communicate a company’s offerings are key factors in business growth, but the increased prevalence of social platforms and instant access to information demand that organizations shift emphasis from “managing the message” to “enabling the conversation.”
How’s that possible? It comes down to their specific marketing strategy. A strategy built on these marketing attributes:
Marketing strategy plan … Products that are remarkable
These are the ones that get talked about. Marketing starts with having products and services that are better than the competition, making them remarkable and worthy of being discussed by your customers.
What your best customers are worth
They are worth far more than your average customers. It starts with knowing who your customers are, then knowing the best of the group.
Market strategy … customers don’t buy what they need
Customers buy what they want. Gather as many insights as possible by observing what they do. Asking them is not as valuable as observing them.
Marketing strategy examples … new ways of spreading your messages and ideas
These new ways (blogs, permission-based RSS information, APPS, consumer fan clubs) are quickly proving how well they work. Traditional ways of interrupting consumers (TV ads, trade show booths, junk mail) are losing their cost-effectiveness.
The game of marketing has changed significantly over the past decade. It’s not price – it is relevancy, difference, and value. Chipotles know this and have built its strategy around these concepts.
There was a recent AdAge report documenting the non-traditional elements of Chipotle’s CMO and his team. Here are a few key points from this report:
Chipotle marketing mix.
Chipotle has targeted millennials for its primary customer segment.
Its strategy is to win over millennials by solidifying its reputation for freshness, and offering a healthier fare than its competitors.
The brand also gained reputation by shying away from traditional media, because younger audiences feel like it’s less authentic and less easy to connect with.
Even Chipotle’s first national TV ad wasn’t traditional by any means. It featured Willie Nelson telling a two-minute animated story of a farmer whose business grows massive before his conscience convinces him to revert to more humane, sustainable operations.
It’s working at a more grassroots level to build support too, like with its Cultivate food and music festival and its Farm Team loyalty program — both are focused on humane food sourcing and organic farming.
In addition, Chipotles announced it would become the first U.S. restaurant chain to remove as many GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) foods from its menu as possible. To complement the announcement, and to curb any skepticism about the source of their products, the company created and released a three-minute video commercial on YouTube called “The Scarecrow.” The video strategy was to appeal to emotion to make it extremely impactful.
It was very successful and went viral and received more than five million views in fewer than two weeks. It is a great example of how companies are utilizing digital resources to brand and market in more creative ways.
However, they didn’t stop there. Marketing these days requires knowing your audience and the best channels to reach that audience. You can’t just create and release a commercial on YouTube … and be done with it. Especially one this good.
Market strategy … Spreading your messages.
You need complementary messages and techniques. Chipotle knew this and created a mobile app video game that presents the same concept as the commercial, and made it available for free downloading through the Apple App Store.
The combination of viral video and video game app is attractive to their target market, millennials. Chipotles know multi-channel marketing and integrated advertising are the new norms.
The lessons to learn from the Chipotle marketing strategy?
Know which customers you want to target, study their characteristics, likes and dislikes, and build your campaign strategy around these.
So … guess what? Chipotle’s campaign strategy, while different than their larger competitors, is not so unconventional, is it? But very creative and unique, yes?
The bottom line
In summary, the game of marketing has changed significantly over the past decade. It’s not price – it is relevancy, difference, and value. What are the marketing lessons from your business?
Have any questions or comments to post below?
It’s up to you to keep improving your social media marketing efforts.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing and advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
More reading on advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
having a significant impact. And the change is rapid. Traditional media vehicles are losing effectiveness as people communicate in new and different ways. Here we will illustrate learning from the best marketing strategy examples.
If you can dream it, you can do it.
– Walt Disney
Mass audiences are fragmenting into small segments. Developing a point of difference is harder than ever. It takes a lot of creativeness, but it is certainly doable.
Whatever is the case, many organizations, Google among them, find it a very useful way to guide investment and it’s amazingly simple to learn and apply.
70% – Sustaining Innovation
Sustaining innovations are improvements to existing products and services that align well with your organization’s current strategy. While these types of innovations are often derided as “incremental innovations” that pales in comparison to “disruptive” or “radical” innovations, that seem more exciting, they are at the heart of any strong innovation effort.
The truth is that it is sustaining innovations created by the vast majority of value. To understand why to think about Moore’s Law. A new generation of computer chips may not seem that exciting, but the incremental improvements over the past 50 years are what has driven the digital revolution and made many “radical” innovations possible.
Another aspect of sustaining innovations is that they tend to fit in well with current processes and customers, so costs for ramping up production and gaining adoption tend to be far lower. That’s why even when you look at wildly innovative companies like Google and Apple, most of their budgets are focused on improving existing products.
Most of your resources — about 70% — should go toward sustaining innovations.
20% – Exploring Adjacencies
Every business, no matter how successful, eventually declines. You can be the most efficient buggy whip maker in the world and you still won’t make much money, simply because there is not a huge market for buggy whips these days. At some point, every square-peg business meets its round-hole world.
You always want to be exploring adjacent markets and capabilities. Amazon greatly improved its business by exploring product categories other than books and car manufacturers are currently investing billions in electric car technology in order to be able to compete in a post-carbon world.
Unfortunately, adjacent opportunities are far riskier than sustaining innovations. Amazon is doing great with its Echo smart speakers but completely flopped with the Fire smartphone. So you don’t want to bet your future on customers and technologies in which you don’t already have a strong operational presence.
Still, by going into an adjacency you aren’t completely taking a shot in the dark, because these markets and capabilities already exist somewhere, just not in your organization. So you may very well be able to leverage your existing resources to create something significant.
10% – Building A New Paradigm
Over the past 100 years, just about every business IBM has dominated has hit the skids. It was a pioneer in tabulating machines, mainframe computers, personal computers, and installed IT services, just to name a few. Nevertheless, every 20 years or so, each one of these business has been disrupted.
Yet still, IBM remains one of the most valuable companies in the world because it keeps developing new technologies. Today, as its business for installed solutions continues to decline, it’s building completely new businesses based on technologies like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and neuromorphic chips.
Let’s consider a couple of examples to illustrate.
Guinness marketing strategy shows their creativity
This Guinness marketing campaign demonstrates that Guinness marketing has certainly noticed.
And Guinness marketing has adapted and come up with some cool new marketing ideas. This new ad from Guinness proves that beer commercials can be so much more than guys and bars.
“Empty Chair,” tells the story of a bartender who leaves a pint of Guinness at an empty table every night amongst birthday celebrations and sports team’s victories. No one sits at the table, and the woman shoots a dirty look to anyone she catches eyeing one of the empty chairs.
Without fail, the frosted glass is there each and every night. It’s a powerful image that serves as a sign of hope for the bartender. But we aren’t exactly sure who the beer is for until the very end. Everything comes together when a soldier finally returns home to claim his Guinness.
The spot finishes with the tagline “The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character.”
Guinness’s marketing story based on emotion has flipped traditional beer advertising on its head by getting rid of the template and telling a story – a real emotional story – that connects with people. The responses were overwhelmingly positive … customers and particularly the target customers are looking for meaningful stories. The emotion in this marketing strategy certainly is addressing this end state in our opinion.
This Guinness “Empty Chair” commercial salutes the character of a community as they honor one of their own who is out of sight, but not out of mind. They remind us that a true test of character is what you do when no one’s looking.
The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character. Guinness proudly raises a glass to those who are #MadeOfMore.
Guinness has made the message as clean and simple as possible. You cannot overachieve on the simplicity of the message. A message that the reader will quickly grasp and fully appreciate. Keep in mind that pictures are far more valuable than words. Guinness certainly gets it and tells an interesting story as it weaves the message together.
Many business leaders are uncertain about the future. What will great marketing look like in the years ahead? Guinness’ spot shows the way.
Marketing works in many ways.
First, it breaks through the clutter. It is visually arresting, surprising and beautiful. After watching it once, I wanted to watch it again. There are no better means of influence or the power of persuasion than emotion. Hands down the best, in our opinion. And enhanced with a great dose of curiosity.
Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the experiences are important to remember.
Second, it has solid branding; it is clear that this is for Guinness and the brand’s personality.
Third, it communicates a benefit. The entire spot revolves around the Guinness commitment to people. It is very clear that Guinness has something special and remarkable that they want to share.
The ad has generated an astonishing amount of buzz and attention. It is engaging, well branded and focused.
The ad was serious and emotional. It is like they left a note that says:
… there will be a seat left open, a light left on, a favorite dinner waiting, a warm bed made…because in your home, in our hearts; you’ve been missed. You’ve been needed, you’ve been cried for, prayed for. You are the reason we push on.
It touches deep emotions about loss and longing. And the spot worked to build the brand; it made people feel proud of Guinness and its values.
Example takeaways
Stories and emotion are the future of great marketing strategy, aren’t they?
Ben and Jerrys marketing strategy examples list.
12 Lessons from Ben and Jerrys Marketing Strategy
Ben and Jerry’s marketing is changing the game of social.
What are your favorite brands? Which ones do you follow closely and learn the most from? When choosing to learn from other marketing successes, it is always helpful to choose great brands to follow. We follow Ben and Jerry’s marketing strategies because of their creativeness and unique approach to customer focus.
Meet Ben and Jerry’s. They have been successfully executing their social marketing strategy and plan since the first days of social media and social commerce. For over 20 years their strategies have played a significant role in their growth.
An introduction to Ben and Jerry’s is unnecessary, isn’t it?
With more than 600 retail locations in 34 countries, the ice cream scoop shop is the picture of success.
Ben and Jerry’s rode the baby boomer trend in the late 1980s, the swelling ranks of mid-age professionals that created the need where people could share and enjoy a unique ice cream dessert with friends and colleagues, away from work and home.
In our opinion, the company has changed the way companies market themselves to customers. Here is how we feel they have been so successful:
Marketing strategy examples … market segmentation
The company has stayed with the upper-scale of the ice cream market, competing on product quality rather than convenience or price, which are the case with its closest competitors. They target customers with high-end ice cream tastes and unique flavors.
Marketing strategy examples list … execution
The company continues to focus on its original product bundle that includes great ice cream, unique flavors, quality service, and a nice environment to hang around. They keep their focus on paying attention to the details of great execution and service.
Social Media
One of the earliest adopters of the use of social media for marketing and social commerce, Ben and Jerry’s has certainly taken a leadership position in social engagement. Their social media strategy is built on its company website and six additional social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, G+, Instagram, and YouTube.
Basic marketing strategies … adaptation and innovation
Ben and Jerry’s have clearly embraced the social realm. With a strong presence on multiple social networks, the brand has set a high bar when it comes to being social and engaging its customers. They are at or near the top of nearly every major brand ranking in social commerce.
Ben and Jerry’s ability to wear so many hats on corporate success, “local” favorite, and Internet sensation warrants close examination.
What makes this company so good at being social and executing a great marketing strategy? And what can it teach us? Here are our thoughts on these questions:
Customer collaboration
Collaboration with customers is used to obtain customer ideas on new flavors. Fans inspired the best-selling Cherry Garcia, Chunky Monkey, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavors.
Customer relationships
Instead of solely focusing efforts on accumulating new customers, it cultivates its current relationships. This ensures more fans/followers in the long run, as well as the continued existence of brand advocates. This holds true across the board: in-store experiences are highly valued, along with online engagement, emphasizing the importance of customer service.
Interactive customer engagement
Engagement is a high priority for the brand, and they continually look for new ways to collect inputs from customers. A good current example is their ‘Scoop Truck’, which travels around the country giving out free samples of new products and soliciting customer inputs.
They believe in letting customer engagement and conversation occur as naturally as possible. They listen carefully, observe, and apply new ideas from what they learn.
Encourage sharing
Happy customers are eager to share good experiences and offers. For example, frequent promotions garner an extraordinary amount of engagement on social media through comments, “likes,” and shares.
Social mission focus
Ben and Jerry’s brand has always chosen a social mission … to stand for and stand behind. One great example of an issue they got behind was supporting the push to get corporate dollars out of politics … www.getthedoughout.org.
Experience customization
Ben and Jerry’s provides its unique experience through programs such as personalized ice cream flavors and localized store experiences. Their social sites, in particular, Pinterest and Instagram, encourage users to share their Ben and Jerry’s moments’ which are shared on all their social sites.
Taking a stand.
Taking a stand
Giving consumers a charitable reason to buy that ice cream cone or package is beneficial for all. The takeaway from Ben and Jerry’s is to know your customer and tie that in with what matters in the world … so, pay attention to how your brand can fit into trending topics.
Showing customer appreciation
Appreciation for their customers. The lead in a quote to this article from Ben Cohen says it all about their culture and success at showing customers appreciation.
Whether we are discussing businesses that are social, the best at engaging customers, or being great at a social commerce business, there are few businesses in the class of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream.
Being social is a core component of Ben and Jerry’s marketing strategy. It is the integrating ingredient of their online and online to traditional marketing/media.
Not all businesses can go to the extent that Ben and Jerry’s does. But they can support local issues and do weekly online promotions to increase customer engagement, gain new customers and convert good customers into advocates.
Lots of ideas here that can be easily replicated … which ones do you feel could benefit your business? How could you improve the Ben and Jerry’s marketing strategy for your business?
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improve your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he writes about topics that relate to improving the performance of a business. Go to Amazon to obtain a copy of his latest book, Exploring New Age Marketing. It focuses on using the best examples to teach new age marketing … lots to learn. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
In the old days of advertising, the name of the game was reach and frequency. Brands preferred mass media vehicles like television and radio because they were the easiest means to reach large audiences and build brand awareness. But the world has drastically changed with the internet. Now the focus is all about how to reach a target market for improved marketing to obtain specific audiences.
Increased media fragmentation and new tools for reaching people, like targeting, have evened the playing field between businesses large and small. Even the smallest mom-and-pop shop has opportunities to get in front of their target audience and drive awareness at a faster clip than some of the largest brands.
Related post: Digital Storytelling … 4 Ways to Employ for Message Persuasion
Segmentation is a key tenet of effective marketing. How can you achieve your goals if you aren’t reaching the right consumers?
Market segmentation
Market segmentation means getting to know your market — learning demographic, geographic, and psychographic variables about the people who have the problem your product solves.
Are there groups who have different needs?
Are there groups who think or feel differently?
Are there groups who have different lifestyles? View different media?
Not all markets show a distinct set of groups, but most do. If you don’t find viable groups, you can use a concentrated strategy, where you develop a single product/ message for the entire market.
Most firms use a differentiated strategy, where they target 1 group within the market or several groups. Sometimes a firm will develop different products/messages for different groups; sometimes they’ll use the same product with different messaging strategies aimed at the individual groups of consumers.
For example, a brokerage firm might have an IRA account and market it to different groups by changing the message. A group composed of younger workers might highlight the growth over time by putting in a small amount of money, which the message to a group composed of older workers might highlight the increased contributions allowed older workers under US tax law.
Online marketing success depends on segmenting to find your target market (or markets) and targeting your marketing strategy (message, products, service options) to appeal to this target audience, just like it does in an offline environment. That’s why vanity metrics, like Facebook Fans, don’t matter — they’re likely not part of your target market.
What is target marketing?
A target market is a group of customers a business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and ultimately its merchandise towards. A well-defined target market is the first element of a marketing strategy.
According to Entrepreneur, target marketing is: Your target customers are those who are most likely to buy from you. Resist the temptation to be too general in the hopes of getting a larger slice of the market. That’s like firing ten bullets in random directions instead of aiming just one dead center of the mark–expensive and dangerous.
Target marketing is the product of research into your consumer base and the needs of the local market. There are several types of target marketing your company may take advantage of depending on how you wish to generate interest with consumers. Combining a couple of strategies can garner more attention from a wider base of potential customers.
Target market example … benefits of targeting
Think about it. Not everyone is the same, right? Not everyone wants the same things. And, not everyone looks for the same things when they buy. So why would you think you can create a single product, with a single message and everyone will want it?
Target marketing both reduces costs, because you’re not wasting resources trying to please everyone, and increases revenue because people buy products they see as “for them.” Thus, instead of creating generic products (and messages) that don’t “speak” to anyone, you’re creating targeted products and messages designed to tickle the fancy of a smaller group of people.
Types of target market.
Target marketing parameters
Age
Targeting a product to a particular age group or generational cohort is a way to concentrate your marketing efforts and generate product interest within that particular group. According to Entrepreneur’s web site, research is necessary for age or generational marketing to determine the status and living situations of consumers in your potential target group. For example, a middle-aged woman in the modern era may still be on the dating circuit and not look to settle down anytime soon just as easily as a woman in the same age group could have a family.
Income
Income-sensitive marketing seeks to target your services or products to consumers of particular income and economic status. This strategy also shapes the prices you charge for your goods and services as well as the marketing campaign itself. For example, products marketed to consumers with higher incomes will usually have higher prices while those products marketed to consumers with lower incomes will usually have correspondingly lower prices. This permits more consumers in your target market group to afford your products.
Gender
Gender-specific marketing shapes a campaign toward one gender or a specific group within that gender. For example, target marketing toward pregnant women seeks to generate more interest in your goods and services within that particular group. How you accomplish this task depends on the outcome of your market research and gender needs within your local marketplace. This research may influence the types of images, colors, and language you use in your marketing campaign to attract your target gender or gender group.
Geographic
Geographic areas across the country have different product needs. Targeting a marketing campaign to meet the signature geographic demands of consumers in your marketplace can boost your company’s importance and necessity in the minds of consumers. This strategy also works with seasonal marketing campaigns to take advantage of shifting consumer moods as the weather turns hot or cold. For example, many beverage companies roll out pumpkin-flavored hot drinks during the fall to catch consumers turning attention toward Thanksgiving and colder weather.
How to target for improved marketing … steps in target marketing
Here are six steps to employ in defining your target market:
Understand the problem(s) you solve
Paint a picture of your ideal customer
Who is most likely to seek a solution to the problem you solve
What does the market look like
Think about your internal customers — employees and their capabilities
Investigate competitors in this market
A better way to create target markets
Of course, there’s a better way to create target markets. It is one that integrates across critical elements of market segmentation. One that divides the total market up into groups — targeting — determining which group or groups will be most profitable. And finally positioning to develop a clear message (and product features) that satisfy the needs of your chosen target market better than competitors.
Once you’ve identified the various segments within the overall market, you’ll need to look at both competitors and your internal capabilities in deciding which groups you’ll target.
Are group differences wide enough to justify targeting them?
Can you meet the unique needs of 1 or more segments?
Do competitors already do a good job of meeting the needs of a particular segment
You also want to look at the potential of each segment:
Is the segment large enough, although small segments, called niches, are potentially valuable with low-cost digital marketing strategies?
Is the segment stable enough — will their needs likely exist into the future?
Is the segment wealthy enough — although even low-income segments can be valuable if the problem is serious enough?
Can you reach them without wasting money on media that reaches everyone?
The last elements of target market selection are to define your target market. In traditional marketing, we commonly talked about target markets as being: 18-24 college students, from middle-class backgrounds, studying at public institutions, etc. While better than nothing, these somewhat generic target markets didn’t help in the next step — positioning.
Today, we’re more likely to use personas to define target markets. Personas are more detailed, specific descriptions of your target market, focusing heavily on psychographic differences and usage behaviors that differ between market groups.
Positioning – Putting it all together
It’s not enough to segment the market and define your target market — or persona –, you need to clearly position your product in the minds of your target audience as something designed “for them.”
First, differentiate your product from those created by competitors. Give it unique features that especially appeal to your target audience; features as simple as a color choice (i.e., Apple 5c) or as the complex is a totally different system.
Related post: 11 Steps to Media Framing Messages for Optimum Engagement
Then, create messages that clearly articulate this difference, why your target audience cares about it, and how you deliver it better than competitors. FOCUS on a single reason why your target market cares about your product; don’t cloud the message by listing EVERYTHING you do.
The bottom line
To be effective in this new era, we as marketers need to see our jobs differently. No more just focusing on metrics like clicks, video views or social media shares. We must successfully integrate our function with other business functions to create entire brand experiences that serve the customer all the way through their experiences throughout the business.
We can do better. Much better. But first, we need to stop seeing ourselves as crafters of clever brand messages and become creators of positive brand experiences.
There can never be enough focus on continuous improvement on brand marketing, independent of how well the business is doing.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
