Marketing Your Product Successfully Requires Targeting the Right Folks the Right Way

To be effective, marketing must be focused. Even if your product has broad appeal, marketing your product must still involve targeting your advertising, offers and informational campaigns to the potential customers who are most likely to use what you have to sell.

You can narrow your marketing efforts to a receptive and interested group of potential buyers by acquiring a list based on demographics of your perfect client. Or better yet, mine your own customer database. After all, this is the second most valuable asset to any business (aside from staff).

Who are your customers?

When you know who your potential customers are, you’ll gain valuable insight into why they buy your product or a product like it. You’ll be able to focus your marketing efforts on particular segments of the total population of potential customers, as well as create personalized appeals and calls to action that will be more likely to produce results.

Demographics

Demographic data is the broadest and most easily acquired type of information for target marketing. These measurable bits of data describe fundamental characteristics such as:

  • Age
  • Income
  • Assets
  • Financial information
  • Education
  • Occupation
  • Geographic location
  • Racial or ethnic identity
  • Gender
  • Marital status
  • Number of children
  • Household size

There are many information sources that provide this type of demographic data. In addition, publications such as County Business Patterns, published by the U.S. Department of Commerce, or the City and County Data Book, published by the U.S. Census Bureau, can be rich sources of demographic information.

Lifestyle

Data on customer lifestyle can help you narrow your approach to marketing your product.

  • Psychographics – This type of data indicates personality traits and characteristics of your target market, such as whether they’re likely to try new things or are unwilling to take risks with something new.
  • Social interests – These factors indicate personal and recreational interests, such as hobbies, entertainment preferences, vacation and holiday choices, and dedication to social or community causes.
  • Beliefs and values – This category covers religious affiliations, ethnic and cultural identity, and political leanings.
  • Life stage – This refers to the general categories of age, family status, responsibility and function. For example, marketing will be considerably different when aimed at teenagers, young adults, new parents or the recently retired.

Are you acquiring customer data and using the best techniques of targeted marketing to market your product to the right group of potential customers?

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