Effective marketing always starts with defining who you want to serve, what we call the Ideal Target. These are valuable customers you love to work with. The ones who most value your Promise and Secret Sauce.
The single easiest decision marketers can make to increase impact is defining your Ideal Target and determined focus to gain more of them.
Here’s how you start:
Start by looking at your current business. Who are your favorite customers today? What makes a “best customer”? Are they a certain size? In a specific geography? Do they have a big, single need? Or do they have multiple needs your company can solve?
Next, define your Ideal Target by creating a detailed view of their characteristics, needs, pain points, buying behaviors, geography, size, lifetime value, and industry/vertical.
Continue adding insights about your Ideal Target by conducting customer interviews and surveys to gather insights directly from them. Not only will this help you understand their pain points, motivations, and preferences, but the simple act of talking to customers builds loyalty and uncovers areas for innovation and growth.
There are 3 key benefits to focusing your marketing efforts against a narrower Ideal Target.
It enables you to focus your efforts on attracting customers who are most likely to purchase your product or service.
You use your scarce resources more efficiently and more effectively. Instead of spreading your marketing budget thin across various customer segments, you can concentrate your efforts on where they will have the greatest impact.
A well-defined Ideal Target also deepens your understanding of pain points, challenges, and goals of your ideal customers. As a result, you can develop more targeted, helpful, resonant, and interesting content that directly speaks to the target.
When you don’t know who you are targeting, any marketing tactic can seem like a good idea. Narrowing your focus to a clear, sizable, winnable Ideal Target is one of the easiest ways to increase the impact of your marketing efforts.
Watch our video “What is an Ideal Target?”
Read more about how to create a Brand Strategy
If you found this insightful, be sure to read our 5 Marketing Pitfalls:
- Marketing Pitfall #1: Not Being Clear on Business Goals
- Marketing Pitfall #2: Not Having a Clear Brand Strategy
- Marketing Pitfall #3: Not Tracking Metrics or Tracking the Wrong Ones
- Marketing Pitfall #4: Doing a little bit of everything and expecting it to work
- Marketing Pitfall #5: Expecting A Lot with Little Support