Targeting Your Marketing Materials is the Key

None of us have such a big budget that we can afford to sprinkle dollars over the globe like the advertising fairy does. We need to get 'bang for our bucks' - the maximum return for our expenditure. The key to that is marketing material that reaches your target group.

Wikipedia states, "Marketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities discover that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others"1 .

Targeted marketing is the process of identifying that section of the market which is most likely to want and be able to buy the product that you are promoting. For example, what is an essential for the Flintstone's won't be a necessity to the technologically advanced Jetson's!

Solving the problem

Marketing isn't really about selling a product; it's selling the solution to a problem. Marketing promotes the benefits of the product rather than the product itself. People who go shopping are looking for an item that will solve their problem. Men who buy mowers are really buying a neat lawn (or a happy wife!). Your mower isn't what they want - any mower will do. Create your marketing materials to show how your product will improve the client's life. To do that you will need to step into the shoes of your ideal client and feel what they feel. Only then can you see what the problem is that your product is going to solve for them.

Getting the tone right

Write for your audience. Don't batter them with technical terms unless you're targeting technicians. Use plain English to reach the broadest base in your target group. Your message should clearly show the benefits of your product and how it will help the client. Keep it simple but not patronising. Your choice of words can repel buyers just as easily as it can attract them.

Getting the presentation right

Consider the words and images you might use in your campaign. Pictures of smiling children can make your product appealing to family units, but it won't have the same impact if you are targeting the nightclub group. Your material needs to be bright and crisp so that it catches the eye and the message should be clear to see.

Don't forget to use the format to sell, too. You've all seen how well breakfast spreads sell when they are packaged in collectible glasses. Those products aimed at families meet the need for the spread as well as the need to replace drink ware that is broken in daily use.

Being in the right spot

Once you've defined your target market and the 'problem' they have you need to start thinking about how to approach them. In defining your market you've built a picture of your ideal client. You know their age, their sex, approximate income and educational levels as well as a little of their probable lifestyle. You know if they are single or if they have families. Now you need to reach them with your marketing materials.

Knowing as much as you do about your ideal client you can start to consider how they spend their days.
Do they:

Go to the supermarket?
Go to the schools or kindergartens?
Work?
Go to nightclubs?
Stay home on weekends?
Shop online?

You have to build your marketing materials into the places that your clients go or you will never be noticed. By targeting your customers, giving them what they want and giving them a reason to come back you will build a successful campaign.

1 Wikipedia, "Marketing"