To Attract Bears, Sound Like Honey
Sunday 30 Dec 2007Sounds crazy right? Well, maybe not so much…
There are a couple schools of thought when it comes to advertising. One of the more common methods is the “shotgun approach,” in which advertisers place their messages across as many media outlets as their budget will allow, usually without concern for things such as brand protection, ad effectiveness or consistency among current ads. The hopes with this approach are that they will have enough coverage to eventually hit the right type of client. While this may work, unfortunately it doesn’t guarantee we’ll attract who we want in the numbers that we need, nor is it cost-effective.
There is a better approach. With a little more planning, advertising dollars can be spent much more effectively across each media outlet and reach more of the type of client your business is dying to attract. This is known as targeted marketing.
Targeted marketing is a simple, but often overlooked way of advertising. In order to be effective and speak to the right client, first we have to identify who we’re trying to connect with. Each business and organization has their own “perfect” customer. No matter what demographs this may include, these are our big “bears” in the forest of consumers that the company is after. So how do we identify these types of clients?
Think like your bear.
This means we need to understand our perfect clients a little more. Just as the childhood show used to depict, Pooh was always willing to do anything for that pot of honey. In similar fashion, we need to determine what is important to our perfect client? What are their biggest motivators? What needs to be done in order to ensure they take action with us?
Sound like honey.
The next step, of course, is to put your message in front of your prospects. It does no good to have the world’s largest pot of honey placed out of pawing distance to your bear. Thinking like your potential clients though, will also help make more effective decisions when it comes to where you should be advertising.
