Know your Audience & communicate– Digital Marketing

ONE of the key things for any successful campaign is targeting the right audience. Though this is an age old practice in traditional marketing, the scope of targeting was& is much broader in nature. One of the key success indices of a professional marketing team today is to know their audience first.

Today the scope of digitally pinpointing your target is possible with various Ad managers offering multiple combinations of attributes for advertisers. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence the whole DNA of marketing is unraveling.

While it’s a boon for advertisers, it also requires in-depth research on how to communicate to different sects of the target audience. This requires breaking up your campaign into sub-campaigns, targeting multiple interest groups with unique communication which should kindle the interest in your offer.

So to figure out your audience, it is very critical to understand the product and the company.

• Why the product?
• What are the benefits of using the product?
• Any specific raw material used in making the product.
• Packaging of the product.
• The distribution channel or availability of product?
• What after sales support they offer?

Once you have answers for all the above questions, figure out who is the consumer…..is my consumer.

-        a male or female

-        single or has a family

-        employed, self employed, businessman or professional

-        interests or hobbies (foodie, pet owner, health freak….)

-        owns a 2 wheeler or 4 wheeler or uses public transport

-        frequent flyer

All these answers will sum up and gives shape to the audience you are looking for. If you still have doubts let us look at an example of a premium milk product. In any advertising language a premium product means targeting Sec A classification of the consumer category. In conventional advertising this would mean a product positioning appealing to the Sec A consumer category and a communication which would be broadcasted universally across all mediums. The drawback is the question whether the communication is effective. It may not be appealing for all those in the Sec A consumer category.

Ok, let’s dissect this and see. This premium milk is meant for Sec A consumer category. This consumer category can be further classified as follows:

Target	Emphasize*	Visual
Parents with Babies abv. 12months	Vitamin D  - Helps baby growth	Cheerful mom baby creative
Senior Citizens	Keeps them active & moving	Grand Dad shopping groceries
Health conscious or Health freaks	Source of nutrition for the whole family	Active family enjoying

*The above table is not based on any milk research but just a figment of building a campaign for an effective targeting of the audience. Every product/service has several attributes and it is for the advertiser to realize what would be appealing to a specific audience and draw a simple nano-strategy to nano cast campaigns for effective conversions. Also it will be easy to manage effective conversations with the specific audience groups.

For any Digital strategy or plan to be successful the Target Audience is imperative. And to find the Target Audience, the advertiser should get into the shoes of the business owner and think.

The whole objective is obvious, Minimize the spend and Maximize the output.

Also when marketers are working under budget strains never spray the campaign across a wide geo. Use the budget effectively on creating visibility among the target audience in a smaller geo which will maximize reach.

The writer of this article is the CEO & Founder of Socialmedia Guerrillas, a Digital Marketing Agency active for a decade. He has handled few startups in his career and successfully steered few businesses digitally.

For any queries or support regarding Digital Marketing or for promoting your business online shout at karthi.j@socialmediaguerrillas.com