Effective Targeting, Finding the Balance

There are many ways you can target.

You can target customers and prospects geographically. How close do they live to your locations? Do they live in the neighborhoods or communities most likely to do business with you? Where do they work?

You can target customers based on many different profile attributes. You can target products based on age, gender, socio economic attributes, household makeup, buying habits, and much, much more. Certain products may appeal best to certain people, and the better you get at targeting, the better you get at selling.

But you can also target the messages and their packaging based on these things. Certain people are more likely to respond to messages that are fun and exciting, whereas others want the pertinent facts, whereas others want a mix of the two. Messages can be targeted to be more relevant to people of a particular age and gender or family makeup.

There are so many different targeting options that at some point you hit a wall of diminishing returns. You need to find the right balance for your company, product, and customer/prospect makeup.

Gaining the insight necessary requires effort. It requires an understanding of people and an understanding of data and the ability to use both to generate ideas and experiment to confirm those ideas. Maybe you have one person with these skills, or maybe you have one person who can organize the activities of those who have the skills. Either way, you will learn a great deal about your customers, your prospects, and your products. And finding this balance will take your marketing success to new heights.

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