Friday, January 11, 2008

Go After Your Target Audience With Your Advertising

Think of your customers, or group of customers, as a dart board. I am sure at some point in your life, like me, you have played darts. Whether you know the rules or not does not matter for this example. However, like a dart board the closer you get to the center of the board the more valuable the points will be.

As you throw the darts you are trying to hit the center because that is where the most points are. The more often you hit the center, the more points you "rack" up.

Your customers are like that dart board. The customers you are striving to grab are closer to the center, with the best customers being the center spot. Those are the customers that will, without a doubt, buy your products and hire your services.

If your advertising is only reaching the outer rings of your customer dart board then you already know you are spending more money than you have to. You are because the empty space like on a dart board represents people that have no interest in your business, products or services. They have no interest, not because you do not have something good to offer, they have no interest because what you offer is something they have no need for.

For example, a friend of mine runs rental property repair business. What do you think would represent the center of his customer dartboard? Landlords and propery managers right? These are the individuals that actually own and operate the real estate he is looking to supply his service for.

As he moves further away from that center, he will reach people that may or may not own rentals or investment properties. Now they might own their own properties or have things to fix in theit houses or apartments they rent, but that is not the market he is targeting.

So does it make much sense for him to run an ad in a newspaper? Sure he might get a customer or two, but if you break down the cost per customer, it really would not be worth it. His ad is hitting too much of a broad general audience that may or may not reach the customers he is looking for. In other words, that ad in the newspaper would be considered hitting the outer rings of the dart board.

So in order to hit the center of his dartboard he needs to go right after the landlords and property managers directly. One technique he uses is to go to the courthouse in the area where he does business and obtain the mailing address of individuals he knows rents out their properties. Then he send them a postcard, a flyer etc. He has now hit the bullseye.

His advertising hit the center which is a customer he know can use his service. So as you can see all of his advertising money is being spent to hit as close to 100% of his market as you can possibly get.

Wouldn`t you like your advertising to hit 100% of your market? Of course you would. You need to find out what customers, areas, etc. make up your bulls eye. Then you need to find the best way to throw that dart and hit it.

For my friend his dart was the postcards and flyers he sent out, hitting the center which was the landlord or property manager on the other side.

First find your center target, then next create your "dart". The vehicle by which you will hit the center. Finally, throw the dart and hit the center and start "racking" up the points.

By: Bruce A. Tucker

About the Author:
Bruce A. Tucker is the Associate Director of http://www.Indocquent.com, an online resource that allows businesses and individuals to post their products and services for sale in 20,000 cities throughout 200 countries around the world.

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