“Buy this! It’s great! It’s your only option! Don’t ask questions!”
A lot has changed since the days when the above approach was effective.
Today’s well informed and, dare we say, jaded consumers demand that marketing be more than just a general sales pitch – in order to grab their attention, you’ve got to get personal.
So how do you know if you’re hitting the mark?
- You understand your target demographic. This is paramount. With so many tools and so much research at your disposal, there’s really no excuse for not focusing your marketing efforts. Sell baby furniture? Don’t advertise to single 23-year-olds. This is simply not a smart allocation of your resources. Advertising to single 23-year-olds? Do get on Snapchat and pile on the pop culture references.
- You have high open rates. Do your marketing emails go untouched? That might be a sign that you’re not appealing to your customers. After targeting their marketing emails, one wedding website saw its open rates increase by 244%. They must’ve overhauled their entire strategy, right? Wrong. They asked their site visitors one simple question: “Are you planning for your own wedding, or a friend’s wedding?” They then added them to one of two mailing lists, depending on their answers, and watched their open rates shoot through the roof.
- You personalize content – but not too much. Should you use the information you gather? Yes! Just don’t go overboard. It’s very possible that you know Bob was up at 3 AM Googling “how to cheat on your wife” – but don’t reach out the next day with an email saying, “Hello, Bob. We heard your marriage might be falling apart. It just so happens, we’re offering 10% off couple’s counseling!” This is unlikely to inspire Bob to do anything but block your address and wipe his search history. Regardless of technology’s seemingly limitless capabilities, always respect your customer’s privacy.
Still need a hand handling targeted marketing? Contact us today!