Target Audience by Anne Moss Rogers

With so many views of online marketing…I asked Anne and established writer and online marketer to hook us up with a Guest post so…here is what Anne had to share with us.

 Identifying and catering to a target audience lays the foundation for internet successe

Putting up a website with no target focus is like shooting at the ocean hoping to hit a fish. First you need to understand that a website isn’t a product, it’s a sales and marketing tool. And while marketing can bring people to your site, the site has to do the selling.

 

One of the primary reasons many websites don’t succeed is because they’re not positioned for a target audience. They’re too generic. In an effort not to exclude potential buyers, callers or joiners, website owners don’t drill down their focus to appeal to a niche or specific target market. In so doing, they end up paying to bring visitors to the site who don’t convert. It’s not bad thing to have less traffic, if the traffic you do get offers a higher return on your investment (ROI).

 

You can market your site like a madman on crack but it won’t do squat if your site is not positioned to get a target market to follow through with a goal. 

Your target audience is that group of people who will buy, call, join or sign up. If your site is selling a product, you don’t want clickers, you want those who will follow through with “buy it now”. If your site depends on adsense revenue, you want the clickers.

 

First, you define your target market and then define your site and your goals. What is it that you want your audience to do? Then build the site and use benefit-oriented content that will inspire a target audience to follow through with a “call to action” or conversion goal you have established.

 

Steps to defining your target audience  

While I hear the “niche market” phrase being tossed about all the time, I’m not getting the idea people know what it takes to reach one effectively. And I have a newsflash for you. Bad advertising actually works and can bring in business. Conversely, a bad website doesn’t work and can end up costing you. So here’s a simplified example of defining a product for a target market.

 

¨      Define a product for a specific target audience- Let’s say you sell premium dog food. You position your site to dog owners which is pretty broad since there are many sites that do this. What if you positioned the dog food as a health food for show dogs—show dog owners being your target.  Or as performance food? Or Performance food for bird dogs, hunters being your target.  What about health food for a high-end breed? You can test these ideas from slightly broader to very narrow scope and see which audience– hunters, show dog owners, or high-end pet owners– converts best. You want the audience who sees the value in paying a premium price for dog food and follows through with buying it and returning for more.  Once you do define your audience, you need to find out all there is to know about them. If they are hunters are they also gun enthusiasts and outdoor grillers. If they are high-end dog owners are they also into coral reef diving and collecting rare stamps.

 

 

Defining a specific target market is the key ingredient for creating a niche market website. Remember not to focus on yourself or your company, but think strategically in terms of how your product(s) or service can benefit your target market. Then your website should guide them along the path to the action you wish them to take much like a live sales person would do. Do this and your website could be come one of your least expensive and highest yielding marketing and sales tools.

 

Anne Moss

http://webprepro.com