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Much like attending a concert that’s performing a genre of music you have no taste for, advertising to an audience that has no interest in your product or service doesn’t sound like a good idea. Find out why your target market shouldn’t be everyone and who your perfect customer is in this article.
What we tend to think of when it comes to advertising is the type of ads we all grew up seeing on TV, billboards, and in magazines. Nike’s “Just Do It” is a great example of an ad we’re all familiar with.
You may be thinking that’s a good ad but I want you to ask yourself, “Who is the ad targeted at?”
If you answered “Everyone” then you would be correct. Blanketing the entire market with that slogan is exactly what Nike aimed at doing.
This is why we’ve all seen those three words along with that iconic swoosh.
Another good question to ask then is, “What does it cost to advertise to EVERYONE?” And the answer to that is in the hundreds… of millions.
It’s that kind of price point that makes it so crucial for small businesses to define their perfect customer and show them their ads exclusively.
If you’re blanketing your ads to even a small region of your local area, the chances of you keeping a marketing budget under control is very slim. You pay for everyone that sees your ad and just 5 square miles of people around you is a lot of attention to pay for.
Showing your offer to just anyone or to people that have no interest in buying simply doesn’t make good business sense.
It’s best to show your ads to people who want to buy from you, your perfect customer. If you’re casting the proverbial net out onto a whole market then you’re wasting a large portion of your budget showing your offer to completely uninterested people.
Instead, streamlining your audience and spearfishing that pool is the better option. That option comes with a higher return on investment.
It’s also worth noting that even when you have honed in on your perfect customer, not all of them will buy immediately. And that’s perfectly fine. Your business is now at least in the back of their minds and within reach for when they DO go to buy.
Spending half of your budget on people who will buy later is massively better than spending that half on people who will only buy in a parallel universe.
And in that case, a sell-to-everyone campaign is way cheaper than a parallel universe craft.
Finding out how to reach those who are willing and want to buy isn’t difficult and doesn’t require a major in philanthropy or even a minor in forensic investigation.
If your business is well established and has reviews or testimonials posted somewhere, spend some time and comb through each customer’s post and see what they’re saying.
The same technique will work if your business has just started or has yet to launch. Just take a look at your competitors’ reviews. Get a sense of where their minds were when their problem arose and take note of the language describing the relief they got once their problem was solved.
There will be common threads along different aspects in your perfect customer base and its those threads that make up the customer’s language.
With that it’s safe to say that potential customers will also share some of those threads. You then can use that language to attract new customers to your business.
All in all by digging into the customer reviews and testimonials you will get a very good sense of who your perfect customers are. Using their own language to speak to them within your ads will ultimately result in spending your marketing budget on the best possible audience.
There’s so many ways to do this and it’s very doable for every single business out there, including yours. If you’d like to know how we could help you with this in your business, get in touch with us today.
If you’re thinking about how to get more customers for less dollars then take a look at our Meta guide.
