The golden rule of digital marketing; always have your target audience in mind. Whether you’re promoting a product or a service, the wants and needs of your target customer/user should always be at the forefront of your thoughts. What sort message would appeal to them? What tone of voice would they like? What form of media would they expect? If you don’t attract the right people to your website, not only will you miss out on an opportunity to create interest in your brand, you’ll miss out on leads.
In this article we will analyse three different marketing channels, Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, paid social media advertising and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). For each we will highlight how they can be used to target a specific audience and how this can in turn affect marketing strategy.
The beauty of PPC is that you get results quickly. If you spend enough money your ads WILL be put in front of people. If you want your PPC campaign to be successful however, where people click through to your site, you must ensure the right people see them. Luckily ad platforms such as Google Ads provide advertisers with range of targeting options so they can do just that. From targeting people in a specific geographical location, to targeting people of a certain demographic, to targeting people using a particular device, there are a range of options available so advertisers’ ads are seen only by specific people.
On paid search advertising platforms advertisers write the copy for their advertisements. This presents another opportunity to get the right people to their website. Advertisers can tailor ad copy so it appeals to their target audience, making use of words and phrases that are likely to hook them. Ad extensions such as sitelinks can also be centred on aspects of the website most likely to draw the target audience in.
If implemented properly, PPC is a particularly effective marketing channel for reaching a specific target audience. You can control exactly who sees your ads and what they see.
In this day and age it seems the whole world revolves around social media. As 3.48 billion people now use a social media platform, it is an audience you simply cannot ignore when promoting your brand. Social media platforms, like paid search platforms, give advertisers the option to aim their ads at a certain audience. Ads can be targeted at people in a specific location or people part of a certain demographic. Platforms such as Facebook even allow advertisers to go a step further and target ads at people who show an active interest in particular topics, places or activities.
As social media platforms offer such granular levels of targeting for paid advertisements, they are a useful tool for any advertiser unsure about who their target audience is. Using Facebook as an example, an advertiser could create a range of campaigns, each targeting a different audience e.g ‘People between the ages 25 and 35 interested in football’ vs ‘People between the ages 36 and 45 interested in football’. During a period of testing they will start to ascertain what sort of people are most receptive to their ads. From this they will be able to understand who their ‘target audience’ is. This knowledge can then be applied to other marketing channels and inform wider marketing strategy.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
SEO is the practice of optimising your website so it ranks highly in the organic search rankings. From the outside one could be forgiven for thinking ‘audience’ isn’t really a big part of SEO. Ultimately you are trying to impress search engines like Google so they rank your site above others offering similar information, products or services. ‘Audience’ does however play an important role in SEO. The content on your website, it’s usability and the links to it from other sites, all factors search engines consider when deciding the order of the search results, all have the target audience in mind.
A major part of SEO is having long-form informative content on each page of your website that includes high search volume keywords related to the subject area covered. Naturally your content must therefore be written so it appeals to the people you want to be looking at your website e.g if you are a company selling mobility scooters, the language and tone must be suitable for an older generation. The fact pages on a website are optimised for keywords with a significant search volume also supports the idea that ‘audience’ plays a role as they are keywords the target audience are searching for.
Both internal links on your website and external links to your website are to an extent determined by ‘Audience’. Whilst internal links may signal to search engines the hierarchy of your website, they are also designed to help users (your audience) navigate your website easily. Getting backlinks to your website from other websites with a strong domain authority shows search engines that your website is reputable and an authority on the subject you cover. If you have content tailored to your target audience you are more likely to get backlinks from websites your target audience may visit. This would therefore in turn bring the right people to your site.
Whether you are carrying out online or offline marketing, you must always consider your target ‘Audience’. Ultimately you need to make sure the right people are aware of the services you provide. As explained through the examples in this article, ‘Audience’ plays a role in every marketing channel. Whatever decisions you make when developing your marketing strategy you need to have your target audience in mind.
If you would like to discuss anything in this article further or would like some assistance with your marketing strategy, please contact us at connect@signifydigital.com
