Match Your Marketing Message to Your Target Market

It does not matter what your product or service is, whether you are selling to the affluent or the price sensitive, every business needs the same three things to succeed in its marketing:

• A message targeted to your market,
• The best media to distribute the message,
• The specific group of people you want to reach (target market).

This is called the ‘Message Media Market Match‘. This is also termed the “Marketing Results Triangle“, because the elements work together and affect each other.

For example, if you get the right message (the what) to the right market (the who) using the right media (the how), you are on a winner. But if one or more of these elements is wrong, marketing loses effectiveness.

I believe this concept was developed by Dan Kennedy a marketing guru I have followed for many years.

To create the right message (and choose the right media), you MUST understand your target market. Consequently, creating a compelling marketing message begins with identifying your target market.

Define Your Target Market

In marketing, a scattergun approach doesn’t work. When you try to reach everyone, your message is unlikely to resonate with anyone.

It is generally much more effective to target your marketing towards a specific target audience and demonstrate that your products and services align with their needs. In so doing, you are more likely to get much better conversions and increase the return on your marketing investment.

There is an old saying: “Don’t shoot until you can see the whites of their eyes.” In a marketing sense, you must target a specific audience. In fact, it is recommended that you develop an ‘Ideal Customer Profile’ or ‘Avatar’ of your ideal customer.

This is a detailed description of a ‘person’ with needs, wants, and pain points that represents your target audience.

https://viralsolutions.net/customer-avatar/ says: “A customer avatar (sometimes referred to as a buyer persona, marketing persona, or customer profile) is a representation of your ideal customer—the type of person you want to purchase your products or services.”

You may already have a customer avatar or an ideal customer profile. If so, it might pay to revisit it, as it needs to be front of mind when developing your marketing message, so you write as if you’re talking to this person.

Doing this makes you more likely to engage the people who need your product or service and increase your results.

I have listed several more detailed articles your Ideal Customer Profile below. First, however, here’s a reminder of the essential ingredients of your ideal customer profile.

Demographics

“Marketing demographics include characteristics such as age, geographic location, education level, occupation, income, etc., that are used to create groups and segment a market.” https://www.surveymonkey.com/market-research/resources/marketing-demographics/

You can gather this information through surveys, questionnaires, or social media content.

Psychographics

“Psychographics is the psychological study of consumers and their attitudes, interests, personality, values, opinions, and lifestyle.” https://cxl.com/blog/psychographics/

The two elements frequently work together. As an illustration, the behavior of your ideal customer on social media can divulge crucial insights into their fundamental demographics, values, hobbies, and the like.

Identify Your Ideal Customer’s Needs

Identifying your potential customers’ needs is critical to getting your messaging right.

CoSchedule defines ‘pain points’ as specific problems that “help marketers identify areas where the company’s product or service could benefit potential customers. Marketing teams present products or services as the solution to their pain point.”

They suggest there are four pain points: money problems, productivity problems, process problems and support.

To identify the pain points and needs of your target market, the questions you want answers to include:

• What do my clients need? What do they want?
• What problems are they dealing with?
• What do they worry about or get frustrated about?
• What are their aspirations?
• How will my product or service make their lives easier or better?

Use your answers to these questions to write marketing messages targeted to your ideal customer’s needs.

How to Identify Your Ideal Customer’s Pain Points?

Well, one way is to ask them. If you have existing customers, communicate with them, and seek their responses to the questions we posed.

If you find this too intimidating, you could ask them to participate in a survey. They could participate anonymously, which might provide more accurate information, or you could offer an incentive to generate greater participation.

Another option is to look at online reviews of similar products or services to see what common complaints users have, and research on social media.

Yet another alternative is to put yourself in your prospect’s shoes. Think about the challenges they might be facing and how your product or service could help them overcome those obstacles. However, as business owners, it is easy to make assumptions about our customers that are wrong as our own biases come into play. So if you use this method to brainstorm your customers’ pain points, confirm them with alternative methods.

Conclusion

To get the results you want from your marketing, matching your message to a specific target group is essential. It ensures it attracts the right people and keeps resources from being wasted on messages that don’t work. In addition, by learning about who you are trying to reach, their needs, and how they like to get information, your business will be in an excellent position to create a compelling marketing message that will reach and engage potential customers.

Posts on developing and using your Ideal Customer Profile

Your ‘Ideal Customer Profile’ – What Is It and Why Does Your Business Need One?
How to Craft a Killer Ideal Customer Profile
Your Ideal Customer Profile: 6 Common Mistakes Business Owners Make
How to Use Your Ideal Customer Profile to Smash Your Business Out of the Park

Here are links to other articles in this series on creating a marketing message that works.
How to Create a Compelling Marketing Message
How to Stand Out in a Crowded Marketplace 
Crafting an Effective Marketing Message for Your Small Business
10 Reasons Your Marketing Message Is Not Working and How to Fix It