Every company feels with absolute certainty they know their target market. Yet when a marketing expert, such as myself, says “tell me more” they speak in generalities not specifics. This isn’t “knowing” your audience. To move a specific group of people, the more you know about them the better.
“You’ve got to keep your finger on the pulse of what your audience is thinking.” Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock)
What is clear from the hundreds of companies I’ve interacted with is every culture speaks a different marketing language. To get everyone where they need to be, which is on the same page when it comes to your target market, you need to start with the basics.
There is an obvious and natural flow to setting up your target marketing.
Target Market: a group of customers you target your marketing efforts and products/services towards.
Audience Segment: a smaller segment or subgroup of your broader target audience.
Customer Profile: a description of a typical company within your target market you sell to (B2B specific). Yes, there is a difference between this one and the next.
Buyer Persona: a fictional character that represents a perfect mix of perceived traits and real data around a primary customer type.
Best Buyer or MIC (Most Important Customer): a detailed set of characteristics that define who your best customer is from a standpoint of product depth, loyalty, referrals, etc. You want more of these!!!!
“Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets.” Nido Qubein
Get a small sampling of our buyer personas. Check them out. When building any marketing element choose which persona(s) you are targeting. From there you can see which personas are reacting the way we want allowing us to act more strategically in marketing.
Why is this targeting so great? Because it creates positive customer engagement that influences your target market’s buying decisions; i.e. it makes you money. Let’s take one simple marketing vehicle–blogging.
61% of US consumers made a purchase based on a blog post.
B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who don’t.
57% of companies with a blog have acquired a customer from their blog.
Knowing this information only gets you so far. Follow through gets you the rest of the way. Next time someone asks you if you know your target market, will you have the right answer?
