It’s hard, but it’s the most important thing a company can achieve: aligning their media and messages to hit their target market or customers.
Not sure where to start? Well, you should work out the following;
Target Market: who is your ideal customer, work out this and then you can work out the others.
Are you usually aiming at a male but it’s actually a female that calls you for a quote? Maybe you have been in the business for many years, and your aiming at older people, but when you look into it your main customer is in their 20’s. How can you work this out? Well, here at Smart On Hold we looked back through the last few months enquiries, what’s their gender? Where are they? It’s a great starting point.
This is then your “avatar” – basically your ideal customer, and then this is who we are going to aim everything we market/write/say at.
Media: once you know WHO you are aiming at – where are they looking?
Are they online, googling your service? Or maybe they are mainly influenced by what their friends are doing, why not head to Facebook? Wherever your Avatar goes to find things they want – that is where you want to be!
It’s also key to work within your budget here; what is the lifetime value of your client? Maybe they stay with you for 3 years, or only buy once but when they do its worth $1000, surely you know then that paying more than $5 for a lead that could spend $1000 is a bit low?! It’s really important to work this part out. This is then all added into where, how and when we are advertising to potential customers.
Message: what are you going to say to them?
Don’t jump right in with BUY ME!
Why not educate them and get them to lean onto your business as the obvious choice … If you have been in your industry a long time, then you must know some industry related topics that really can help your prospective and current customers. Maybe you can do a free demo of what they can do with your product/service.
So you know your marketing MESSAGE, MEDIA and MARKET … Now what?
Once you have these 3 pieces of vital information worked out and ready to go – then you can move onto marketing your business. These 3 vital sections will ensure you are targeting your main target market with information they want in the place that they are going to look for it!
Take some time out of your business, like we did, to work away from the everyday workings and instead put your time into the future of your business and who to aim at. Try adding more to your media and messages. For instance, you can address both items with Messages On Hold. These are powerful but affordable marketing media that reach target audiences and clients with messages.