What Are My Basic Demographics of Those I Am Advertising to?
Find the percentage of males/females/etc you estimate are in your advertising niche. Their Family Status and Age Range
For example, more males seek information on Martial arts whereas more females seek information on swimming lesson plans.
Your customer’s family status may be important to your product. Children may be important to whether or not they buy your product.
If you are trying to reach divorced people you need to know if they are divorced.
If you are selling marriage relationship courses trying to reach people who don’t declare their status is a lower priority.
If you are selling dating information you may want to know if you are reaching out to single people etc. I think you get the idea.
Not all age groups are looking for every product.
All these factors will affect your advertising
What Countries Am I Trying To Reach Through My Advertising?
Each culture may be different knowing the countries you are wanting to do business in will affect your advertising. The USA? Australia? The UK?
What Websites Do My Customers Currently Visit?
Your customers are already online, so what content are they already consuming? Especially right now, people are consuming far more content than they ever have. So make a list of websites you think they may be reading such as News, Blogs, or other Online Portals they visit
What Magazines & Books Do My Customers Currently Read?
What Magazines and books do your customers read? They must be relevant to what you sell.
For example, if you are searching for people to read your information on Judo, don’t just choose the “Balck Belt” magazine. It is relevant but it is not targeted. However, “Black Belt Judo” magazine is more targeted. Why not anti-bullying magazines or self-defence books?
Children being bullied may not be following such magazines, books or blogs but their parents may be.
Then again if you are looking for new students you have to ask the question, will they be reading industry-type magazines even industry-specific magazines? You have to ask yourself, “If I were them what would I be reading?”
If I were looking for new students or players for my chosen sport, I would not target coaches but I may look for subjects of interest to parents and challenge their ideas of what is a good sport to play.
If you are looking for people to buy your course on lesson plans for swimming teachers it’s no good targeting elite athletes swimming magazines. Swim teachers, your target group, may read that magazine but most will not. However, there are books and blogs that may be worth targeting.
However, if you want coaches or elite athletes to buy your course then you may target readers of elite athlete magazines because coaches and elite athletes would be reading them.
Do you see what I mean, you have to make the targeting specific.
If I were looking for professionals. I may target professional magazines but they would be specific to the industry. It’s no good just targeting Forbs or Fortune 500. You need to narrow the field. You may also target job titles as well.
Specific targeting is imperative otherwise you are just wasting money.
What Celebrities Or Thought Leaders Exist In My Space?
Who your customers listen to, thought leaders in the industry that you are targeting.
What Words Or Phrases Would My Customers Search For?
When it comes to your specific business, the words or phrases they search for that relate to the products or services you sell are important. There are several ways to approach this list as noted separately (with some examples) below.
Try to come up with as many as you can, but don’t go crazy with adjectives. For example, New York Divorce is enough – don’t add cheap, best, fast, etc. We’re not trying to bomb the first page of Google.
The first list to build is the product or service-centric phrases. For example, roofing, water filter, mountain bike, etc. You can also use brand names here where that makes sense.
People who are already users of your category of product or service may start with the sorts of searches above, but before that, they are also likely to search for symptoms, problems, or benefits addressed by the product or service. For example, hair loss, clogged drains, and crabgrass name problems naming problems lead to products and services that solve those problems.
List the URLs of 3 or more of your competitors or their blogs. Try to pick the ones that you feel have the best marketing content.
What Are the Best Kinds Of Stories/Topics To Promote?
Make a list of what you think is the best kind of content/website you can draw on to help inspire you to build your own content.
What Topics, Brands, and Competitors Should Your Advertising Avoid?
Make a list of what kind of topics or brands or competitors must be avoided.
In Brief
There is no doubt about it, improving your targeting will enhance the promotion of any product.
Richard
