Lesson number one in marketing is ‘know your target audience’. The same is true for online marketing. Whether you use traditional marketing such as search engine marketing, or the latest in social media marketing, the same is still true. Obtaining demographic figures can be difficult, but there are a few sites around that offer them.

For search engine marketing, Google Adwords is one of many that allows ad placement based on demographics. When it comes to social media, you need to know where your audience is before jumping in with a marketing campaign. In either case, it makes no sense targeting areas that have few people in your target group.

Over 30s have been one of the fastest growing groups on Facebook while Myspace continues to be popular with youth (although there are still large numbers of young people on Facebook). Targeting Myspace when your audience is over 30 could be a big mistake.

I know many website owners don’t even consider who their target audience is much less target them. This is a little like using a scatter-gun to hunt ducks – if you spray enough pellets you may hit one or two. In the meantime you waste a lot of pellets.

Determine who is most likely to need your website. Find out where they hang out on the internet (and you could be in for some surprises there) then target those areas with your marketing. The scatter-gun approach is only wasting your time and money and rarely results in any business growth. If you want growth – find an audience that will help you grow.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at 6:02 am and is filed under Branding and Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.