Why and HOW to Find Your Targeted Audience

When I watched Steve Forbes interview Jessica Simpson about her billion-dollar clothing company, I realized how brilliant this woman really is.  Of course she has her corkiness, but so do I.  I didn’t think I’d watch her interview and have my brain wheels turning, but boy was I wrong!

She says, “We like to see the trends that are coming. We are behind.” She is aware of her targeted audience of “everything beyond New York and L.A.” She knows women take time to see what trend they like, and she understands that. She waits to see what fashion trend women admire and will last beyond one season, and then makes a great color scheme that a wide age range will like, and creates something amazing and affordable. It’s not just affordable clothes, it’s trends that most people admire but couldn’t get their hands on yet.

She dug deep into her targeted audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml2oObyWFmc

This is where I think a lot of companies thrive at or fail at. Every single company will have a low period, but what gets them back or makes them fall off determines if they can rediscover their targeted audience.

Here’s the 2 major factors you’ll need to keep in mind (and keep rechecking) when you are finding your targeted audience:

1.    Demographics

This isn’t just age, gender, and location. You need to think into who you really want to target by answering these demographics also:

• Income
• Occupation
• Education
• Ethnicity
• Marital status
• # of children

Some of these things may not be relevant to your business, like ethnicity, but some of these are something to really think about. If you are a small town farmer, you’ll still want to target families who have mouths to feed and can afford local produce. Reevaluate what you first decided was your demographic, dig deeper, and come up with a campaign to get that specific audience this year.

2.    Psychographics

Psychographics tells you the WHY, not just the WHO. In order to tell you why your targeted audience works (or is failing), you need to closely watch their

• Behaviors
• Values
• Personality
•  Interests
• Lifestyle

For example, you should know when most people view your website, what pages on your site are most clicked (and what factors about it make it so liked), what graphics tend to attract your clients, and what other types of posts your market likes/shares.

Analyzing psychographics can be challenging because there is no clear answer; you have to play psychologist, emphasize with your market, and change accordingly with the way they work.

Just like Jessica Simpson, you need to know how your demographic thinks; which may be completely different than how you think.

No matter what, it’s never a bad idea to look over your targeted audience again and again, since it will continuously change!

Thanks for reading!

Lana Sache

Social Stride

4 Reasons Your Companies Traditional Marketing Is DEAD

If you are a long time owner of any sort of company, you may wonder why your traditional marketing efforts are not working like they did in the past. With usage of internet and mobile applications on the rise, your customers are not responding to broad advertisements that they hear on TV or radio, or read in newspaper or magazines. Consumers today are more informed and want to be engaged and build a relationship with the brands that they love. There are many reasons for the demise of your companies traditional marketing efforts, here are the Top 5

1. Traditional Marketing is not personalized

Traditional marketing is about producing one advertisement that caters to everyone that it reaches (while spending a ton on $). The content of those ads are NOT personalized and when advertisements come on, people tune out. Traditional marketing does not take into consideration the specific needs and wants of each individual customer. Today, we need to market to each individual separately. When customers are engaged with your company, they leave a trail of clues as to what they are most interested. Companies today should be using all of the information there customers give them and implementing it through individualized content in the form of social media posts, videos, e-mails, articles, etc. The days of guessing what your customers want are over, so why is your company still advertising aimlessly, instead of individualizing you marketing?

2. Traditional Marketing does not promote interaction with customers

In the past, your marketing department would come up with an advertising campaign, roll it out to the public, then sit back and wait for customers to call or come in. With the way buyer behavior has recently change, you simply cannot just sit back and expect customers to come to you without interacting with them. Your customers expect you to be there and expect a quick response when they have questions. Marketing in 2015 is a great way to communicate with your customers and gain insight about your customers. Don’t just sit back and expect this generation of consumers to come running to you.

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      3. Your customers have more resources

10 years ago, using traditional marketing tactics, your marketing department played the role of the expert. Due to a lack of information back then, the customer usually took your word because that was all the information they had. But in todays changed marketing environment, consumers can easily gain information about your brand through review sites, social media posts, and blogs. Even better, this content is coming from and unbiased source, their peers. So not only do they read what you have to say about your brand, but also read about that other consumers have to say about your brand.  Taking that into consideration, your company not only need to generate great content, but also need to promote the content that your customers are saying about you and insuring that the customer experience is a great one.

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      4. Your traditional marketing is temporary

With traditional marketing, your ads only last as long as you keep paying for them, but the internet has change the lifespan of your marketing to FOREVER. When you use content marketing, whatever you post is a marketing asset that will generate new business FOREVER. I like to think of Traditional marketing as leasing an apartment and content marketing as buying a house. Content marketing is an asset that will last forever. Keeping this in mind, with content marketing, you have to make sure that the message that you are sending is consistent. If your consumer finds a post or article form 2010 and its different from the messaging you are sending in you most recent post or article, your customers will get confused about what your company actually stand for.

Technology has changed the way that your customers shop for products and service. Traditional marketing is dying but your company can use content and context marketing to engage with your customers and create a pleasant buying environment. Worth a try, eh?

For more information please visit our NEW website www.socialstride.org and like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Social-Stride/642974392492344?fref=ts

Randy Delling

Social Stride

Two Reasons Your Social Media Is Slacking

The reason you are reading this doesn’t matter. Whether you are starting your own car detailing company or the next Kim Kardashian look-a-like model, you probably need some help online.

I could have titled this: How to get 1,000 twitter followers a day, and I may have reached the same crowd.

Good.

I need the people looking for numbers…the people ALMOST willing to throw away money to have it! The numbers you can buy on the black market of social media most likely will have profiles that look like this:

Or

If you know how hashtags work you know the first two things he highlighted were FUTURE and NO. You mean, no future? Oh the jokes I could make about Proudly, SMD, and No Future.

  

That, along with a few thousand XXX profiles (no joke) and….

 

a ton of useless eggs. If that suits your needs, throw your money away for a number! Your schoolgirl popularity contest via the Internet will do you and your business no good.

So, how do you get real, human, followers?

Content and Sustainability.

1.Content

What you write has to be:

a.     Original

Even if you are the millionth person to write about fedora hats, there’s something in that head of yours that will bring people running to your page. Maybe it’s “how to wash your fedora hat” and pair it with whatever you REALLY want to write.

The reason I didn’t title this “How to get 1,000 twitter followers a day” is because that’s been used about 32,800,000 times (thanks Google). https://www.google.com/#q=how+to+get+1%2C000+twitter+followers+a+day

Even though what I’m writing can easily make that happen, I can’t cross my fingers for 1 out of 32,800,000. I have to be original. Now, go copy and paste MY title. J

b.     Personal

Honestly, people want to know YOU. It’s a weird feeling to put yourself out there online to strangers, but that’s what people like. A decade ago, everyone could hide behind their computer screen and be whoever they wanted. Now, you have the gift of being the REAL you, and have millions of people love exactly that!

Even if you are a small business owner, people want to know the passion you have!

2. Sustainability

Sustainability: “Strengthen or support physically or mentally.”

By sustainability, I mean be quick to respond, be patient, and continue regardless.

·      When you get a comment or email, respond within a few hours. Or, if you have a large business, having a online webinar people can attend at a specific time to ask questions is a great way to become personable. Make yourself available.

·      Be patient with the humans; they are only humans. They’ll follow back eventually (if your content is useful).

·      Continue posting even if progress is slow. In this day and age, the marketability online is too huge to look past. You honestly don’t have a choice.

Post smart, be patient, and be you. That’s the main thing. It may be frustrating, but not only do you have endless opportunities, you don’t have to spend thousands to reach thousands.

Get yourself a coffee, watch inspirational videos, come up with ideas, and just write.

-Lana

Social Stride

P.S.
What do you think? What aspects make a great blog/social media following? Leave your comments and questions below!