Any good marketer understands the importance of getting to know his target audience and providing it with messages unique to its member's specific needs and interests. But, as media channels become increasingly fragmented and consumers gain more control over the marketing messages they receive, finding and building relationships with your ideal customer is proving more difficult.
As consumers continue to flock to the internet in record numbers, marketers are recognizing the need to pay close attention to online demographic trends and then implement highly targeted online customer acquisition campaigns. Studying which consumer groups spend the most time online and what they do there can help brand marketers mold their messages, and provide insight into what marketing channels their target audience is most receptive to, therefore allowing marketers to reach their ideal customer more efficiently and effectively.
Following are several examples of key audiences emerging online, and for each, tips for targeting them with approaches that have proven most successful in grabbing their attention and helping convert them into loyal, profitable customers.
The "everyday mom"
What I like to call the "everyday mom" is the decision maker for purchases of many household products and services. Moms are a powerful and growing group, especially in their influence online. In fact, according to eMarketer, to make their lives easier, more than 32 million moms went online in 2005 to get things done, including to conduct research and to compare and buy products and services over a wide range of categories such as finances, travel planning and household shopping.
Here are some online targeting strategies for finding the "everyday mom:"
- Moms like tips and articles on how to save money and time. For example, at sites like Eversave.com and The Coupon Mom moms can find tips such as how to save money on diapers and other baby items, how to recruit their kids to help in the kitchen and strategies for saving money at the grocery store.
- Web 2.0! The ability to share easy and quick recipes with each other is hot right now. At sites like Eversave Recipes busy moms can find great family recipes submitted by other moms like themselves. In addition, they can find free online cookbooks highlighting a variety of member-submitted recipes with themes such as Weeknight Dinners, Best of Burgers and Summertime Treats. Cookbooks like these can easily be printed for quick reference in the kitchen.
- Moms like to hear what other moms think. Users of communities like the ones mentioned above often enjoy sharing their opinions and preferences by answering polls, especially when after voting or providing their opinion they are able to see how the aggregate has responded. Users find this fun and interactive. Polling also provides an opportunity to present the user very relevant offers and promotions based on their answers.
Professional women
Tech savvy both online and offline, this group is increasing in size and the best way to reach it is online.
According to The Media Audit, professional women with family incomes of $75K or more are growing in number and 94 percent of those women access the internet during the average month. About half of them are considered heavy online users, with use of radio, television, newspapers and direct mail declining within this group. Additionally, over 50 percent of U.S. online women ages 25 and older say the web is their main tool for researching potential product purchases, according to a 2007 Burst Media "Online Insight" report.
If you're looking to target this highly profitable group, it's best to move your marketing dollars online. Take a look at these strategies for doing so successfully:
- Since working women are often juggling career and family, brand marketers that wish to reach them should serve offers that provide time-saving tips and recipes so these busy women can easily prepare nutritious weeknight meals for themselves and their families.
- The professional woman doesn't always have the time to surf the net looking for what she wants. E-newsletters that she has requested, full of money-smart advice and money-saving offers, delivered right into her email box are a great way to get to the working woman.
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