In Marketing, Avoid The Wrong People Like A Plague

7 Ways to Avoid Marketing to the Wrong People

Most businesses need to work on marketing to the right demographic from the start to avoid going out of business.

Many companies see marketing as an expensive waste of time. But unless you can work solely on referrals, you're going to have to find clients and prove your worth. Sadly, too many businesses falter at the first hurdle because they're wary of upfront cost. In reality, these companies are marketing to the wrong people, causing them to not see an ROI.

ProOpinion is a professional network that promotes success in business. "Research proves that 39 per cent of small business owners in the US don't invest in marketing at all," its spokesman said. "That's despite the fact that effective marketing is their main profit driver. These businesses need to look at ways to allocate a small budget to marketing, and use that budget with laser-guided precision to achieve high ROI."

While some startups benefit from venture capital or investment funding, this kind of resource is fairly unusual. Most businesses need to work on marketing to the right demographic from the start to avoid going out of business. To help here are 7 tips to help you avoid marketing to the wrong people:

1.                 Avoid casting the net too wide. When conducting analysis, it's tempting to go for the biggest audience, but working in a niche is more effective. Defining your target market will provide a solid foundation, as well as strict parameters that will focus your efforts. Try not to think of it as exclusion, but a way to simplify and streamline campaigns.

2.     Pour money into your long tail keywords. Too many businesses chase two or three word phrases that put them head to head with bigger brands. It's great to be competitive, but a small business needs to be more agile. Technologies like voice search and Google Now are transforming the search process into a highly customized experience, and people are learning how to extract better information by being specific. Look for natural language phrases that are really easy to rank for. This helps you clearly define customer intent.

3.     Nurture qualified leads only. Every business nurtures its leads and tries to convert those leads into customers. Don't waste effort on nurturing leads that are too high in your sales funnel. A qualified lead is someone who has given you more than just their email address; it's a real person with a profile, identity and known budget. If you know your customer is looking for an underwater camera for a fishing trip, you have a valuable starting point for content production, and a better chance of success. Focus on capturing that information upfront, then working on those leads as your primary source of conversions.

4.     Align content strictly to personas. Who buys your product? Look at your customers; put them in boxes. Where are they? How old are they? What is their pain point? What problems have you solved for them? A company refinancing student loans only needs leads in its niche; it needs to avoid marketing to people refinancing credit cards. If you have clearly defined personas, honing perfectly aligned content will be like shooting fish in a barrel.

5.     Segment your marketing databases. Got an email marketing list? Great. Now break it down into two: people who want to buy, and people who have already bought from you. If you're a bricks and mortar business, segment into online and offline contacts. Splitting your contact lists helps you to convert people who have never purchased before, while also sending engaging content to the customers who could make a repeat purchase. If you don't know who's on your list, ask them what they want.

6.     Look at reconverting existing customers. Too many businesses plough all of their efforts into nurturing fresh leads, when they have a huge stored potential in their existing customer list. Selling to existing customers is cheaper and faster than dealing with the churn when they leave. Use offers, coupons and upgrades to reconvert existing customers and bring in extra revenue.

7.     Hang out where your customers are. If you're new in your niche, it might be tempting to spend your time chatting with peers on social media. Don't. Figure out where your customers are, then go and chat with them. Support forums and online communities are a goldmine for marketers, since they reveal customers' pain points and problems and inspire new ideas for fresh content and inbound strategies.

8.      Remember: marketing agencies offer plenty of flashy marketing solutions that cost hundreds of dollars per month. Most of the results above can be achieved using free tools and a little effort.

Small businesses are not alone in struggling with marketing expenses. In larger companies, budget cuts tend to affect marketing departments first. The key is to make better use of the money you have, and use surveys to draw more information out of your clients.

Your customers cared enough to spend with you. Have the confidence to believe you're good enough to convert more. Allocate a marketing budget, and see it as an opportunity--not a waste. If you can efficiently motivate a niche audience, you can unlock the leads that could transform your profitability in a matter of a weeks from today.

Source:     7 Ways To Avoid Marketing To The Wrong People