SHOOTING YOUR TARGET WITH DEADLY ACCURACY

SHOOTING YOUR TARGET WITH DEADLY ACCURACY

A ‘target’ market refers to the type or majority of people your business or offerings attract. This includes anyone who is directly influenced by your site or marketing and those who just stumble across the site and become participants. Targeting a specific audience has long been one of big businesses most effective strategies since you are able to identify which segments of a market are most likely to and most capable of buying your g oods or service and then apply your resources to m eeting their needs.

Many people refer to target marketing as being an ‘action verb’ since although the general population may be potential customers an advertiser will break down a market by at least four segments, roughly defined as:

¾ ¾ ¾ ¾ Gender

Age Income

Social Structure

These four major indices help us target an audience, but are often interactive – for instance, many goods and services such as say the gaming industry might at first seem to be best targeted at young adults; however, since income increases with age there will be a direct correlation between

age and available income that will further target a specific range of customer. In many cases adding the social structure such as if they are into tech or have a spouse can further delineate a group allowing you to carve out as complex a niche as possible and identify that age 22 to 43 unmarried males are the best segment to pitch towards. Knowing this it is clear that a site about typically female issues such as an “Oprah discussion group” would not be the best way to drive traffic to your target audience!

No matter what your end goal th e first step is to know your business and what you are offeri ng. Once you know this you can identify the target audience and then tailor your offerings to meet their needs. An alternate concept is to pick a target audience for its vast size or spending ability and then create content and goods to meet their needs! For instance if you find that many internet users are seeking porn and seem willing to pay for it and for novels and stories or custom artwork related to a specific feti sh creating an interactive porn discussion site tailored to young males could well pay off. Having eBooks and services on this site specific to the sex industry such as ‘how to pick up girls and influence women’ or ‘sexy photo collages of mother nature’ are much more likely to sell on a site like this then on a blog for poetry tailored at middle-aged women who love romance novels.

The four basic segments probably don’t need to be explained but there are many other categories that can come into play,

so let’s define most of the commonly used segments as defined by the advertising communities:

¾ Gender of course refers to sex, and just as it is no secret that for men (especially young men) sex sells it has become rapidly and increasingly apparent that women are now a major segment of the economy and as much as 50% of auto an d major purchases such as homes etc. are now being done completely by women without any male insight.

¾ Age is obvious too – and can fa ctor into such things as who is more willing to be concerned with healthcare or more apt to customize their vehicles.

¾ Family or Social status such as being married, size of family, the age of children etc. can have some drastic influences on a person’s spen ding habit too, for obvious reasons!

¾ Income is perhaps the most obvious and first segment most people focus on – obviously the more money someone makes the more in theory they have available to spend, although often for a specific target segment (such as automotive upkeep or maintenance) the inverse may become true.

¾ Neighborhood or geographic location can also become important for some segmentation specialists, especially for ‘brick and mortar’ stores.

These are just a few of the ma ny segments often considered by companies when targeting an audience. With careful reviews and polling of your cu stomers you may find results that surprise you and help you to see a missed opportunity that you can address through a website addition or rewrite that can drastically influence traffic and sales.