There’s something about digital marketing that changes people’s assumptions. If you were advertising vacuum cleaners in print media, you wouldn’t spend money running ads in J-14 or Match of the Day. Those outlets target teenagers and teenagers almost never buy vacuum cleaners. With digital marketing, it’s possible to zero in on your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) with incredible precision – but we still see, when we review past campaigns from new clients, money being spent on an audience that just isn’t going to buy your product. So how do you market directly to your audience?
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What Not to Do
As we pointed out in a recent blog, the amount of traffic to your website doesn’t matter if they aren’t interested in your product. If you sell precision-engineered components to manufacturing companies, your target customer knows exactly what components they need.
A blog talking about the history of that component doesn’t appeal to your ICP. Even worse (from an SEO perspective) would be if the main pages of your site have that kind of content.
If you sell a lifestyle product, you will see benefit from blogs talking about that lifestyle – but you should be planning a few more targeted pieces in among them. Lifestyle blogs build brand awareness, and that might convert into a customer in the future, but the lead time can be measured in years for some purchases. On the other hand, they also help build trust and show off your experience once people are on the site.
By their very nature, paid ads are more targeted. A hasty set-up for your campaign could spend a lot of money on search terms that don’t convert of leave in demographics who won’t be buying for you. Even if you built your campaign carefully, you should monitor it over time.
And, of course, you’ll want to pay close attention to your cost per lead (CPL) or cost per acquisition (CPA). Your marketing causing you to sell at a loss only works if your customer lifetime value and retention rate are high enough.
Understanding Your Ideal Customer Profile
Speak to your sales team – they will be able to tell you a lot about the inquiries you’re already getting. From there you can form a clearer picture of what they do the rest of the time. Would your target customer spend more time on LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, or Pinterest? What other topics are important to them?
Managing Paid Ads Successfully
Part of good Microsoft and Google Ads management is managing negative keywords; as your campaigns continue, you’ll see what your ads show for. Some of it will be highly relevant. Some will be obviously irrelevant. By using negative keywords, you can cut out a lot of that irrelevant spend in future.
In the same way, good Meta ads management designs campaigns to target specific demographics.
Answer Questions and Solve Problems
Your email marketing and social media marketing, your ad design, the page it brings visitors through to, and the content your SEO agency designs for organic search results – all of it should be focused on your target market. After all, they’re the ones you want to read it.
It’s natural here to want to talk about how good your business is and how great your products and services are. But what does your ideal customer want?
They want their questions answered and their problems solved. So all of your content needs to do that, clearly and effectively, first. Afterwards you can talk about how good the product is (or, better yet, you can let real customer reviews, testimonials, and other social proof do it for you).
A great way to do this is to have some clear case studies with exciting results.
Target Your Customers Where They’re Looking
There’s no one-size-fits-all way to market your products, and so any digital marketing agency should be giving you a strategy that’s been customised to target your customer base. At First Digital Media we focus on where we can do the most good and we’re always happy to help you find new ways to reach your customers. If you’d like to find out what we can do for you, give us a call on 01524 544346 or reach out online.
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What businesses need from their digital marketing team or agency is to bring in more business, in the most cost effective way possible. At First Digital Media we see this as a partnership, combining our experience in our field with your industry knowledge to make a real impact.
We’re looking forward to hearing from you.
