Connecting To Your Target Audience
Posted: July 8th, 2008
In addition to making our daily lives simpler and more productive, the Internet has also refueled the advertising machine. The Internet has become a new platform for reaching an audience, and a method of finding new, previously untapped markets. But with the plethora of consumers (and marketers) going online, it is becoming ever so important to focus on connecting to your target audience. This mantra helps to send the right marketing messages to the right people, at the lowest possible costs.
Better ROI, here we come!
Know Your Target Keywords
As with any search engine optimization effort, the first order of business is to develop a list of target keywords that are relevant to our goals. You can start by brainstorming with tools like Keyword Discovery, WordTracker, and the AdWords Keyword Tool, all of which can be found on our Resources page.
Know the Culture
A more advanced way of studying target keywords and connecting to your target audience is through an in depth look at the industry’s culture, language, and trends. This gives insight into the context behind each keyword, and determine what’s “hot” and on the minds of your audience. These vantage points can be reached with online tools too, such as: Google Trends; Technorati and; Google Blog Search. Predicting future trends gives us a competitive advantage and understanding the culture is vital in improving the user experience.
Know Your Target Audience’s Habitats
No, I’m not referring to their geophysical location. I’m talking about their Internet habitats and where they spend their time online. Connecting with your target audiences necessitates finding where they dwell and interact online. If you’re a textbook publisher looking to reach the post-secondary market, then consider advertising with Facebook ads. Do you sell women’s products? Go with Ask.com’s Sponsored Listings.
Running pay-per-click campaigns on smaller search engines can provide better targeting to particular demographics. There are also other benefits to testing out other paid search engines, and other specialized advertising networks to choose from.
Apply Your Knowledge
After all the research is done, the fun can begin (okay, the research part is fun too). Take the master keyword list and begin siphoning out irrelevant words and create a solid list of keyword phrases. Your understanding of your target audience’s culture and language should play a definitive role in how you write your pay-per-click ad copy. Don’t be afraid to use slang or unorthodox expressions. The final connection to your target audience is made with launching these well-written ads to the right advertising networks.
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