The story is told of a young boy who receives a bow and arrow set for his birthday and immediately goes out to his yard to give it a try. A few minutes later his Father comes out to see how he is doing and is surprised to see several targets with an arrow dead in the center of the bulls-eye. Amazed the Father askes his son how he managed to shoot so well. “It’s easy” said the boy. “First I shoot the arrow. Then wherever it lands I draw a circle around it!” A lot of small business owners use this same, Ready! Fire! Aim! approach when it comes to marketing.
In order to effectively communicate your marketing message you must first know who it is you are trying to reach. Single Moms? College Students? Married Female Professionals between the ages of 18 – 24 without children? The more specifically you can target your message the better Return On Investment (ROI) you’ll realize from your marketing efforts.
Advertising Age recently released the following infographic showing the breakdown of users on the most popular social sites. This information can be very valuable for the small business owner trying to determine where to invest in social media marketing.
For example, 69.3% of female Facebook users indicate an interest in cooking. Therefore, it would be wise for companies that specialize in appliances, cookware, recipes or cooking instruction to target a portion of their marketing efforts on Facebook.
What ways are you gathering information in order to better target your audience?
