Identifying and carefully implementing your targeted marketing strategy is one of the most important success factors for any business. This article takes a brief look at the concept of Targeted Marketing, describes the targeted marketing process, and provides tips on finding your ideal market.

Contents

1. What is Targeted Marketing?
2. The Targeted Marketing Process: STP (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning).
3. Online Targeted Marketing.
4. How to find your ideal market (conclusion)
5. Footnotes

What is Targeted Marketing?

Targeted Marketing refers to aiming marketing efforts at a specific audience by using marketing mix,⁽¹⁾ resources, and budget. It is advertising and promoting your product or service to a particular and predefined set of customers, who are the most likely to purchase the product. In other words, targeted marketing aims at limiting the number of people you advertise your product to so that the promotion reaches the demographic which is most likely to purchase the product with minimal cost.

Targeted Marketing is especially useful for small businesses. Various strategies and variables are involved in targeting, such as age and gender, geographical location, season and weather, consumer’s preferences, etc. Targeting also largely depends on the product itself. For example, a product of women’s winter clothing will be advertised in winter or in the pre-winter season in a place where potential female viewers are likely to see it.

Check out the AMA definition of Targeted Marketing Here.

The Targeted Marketing Process: STP (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning).

• Segmentation

Segmentation is the process of dividing the potential market as a whole on identified bases so that the business can select the most profitable segment to advertise to. For example, in our previous example of women’s winter clothing, let’s say we divide the market in two segments on the basis of income. Now, if we are manufacturing expensive clothes, we will be targeting our advertisements to women with greater income levels, and vice-versa.

It is important to identify the ‘basis’ beforehand, which must be something most relevant to the organization’s long-term goals such that profit maximization is possible. For example, for an organization looking to expand its area of operations, it would be beneficial to go for a geographically-based segmentation. That is figuring out where the highest number of potential customers reside and then expanding the business accordingly toward that area.

• Targeting

Targeting is the process of actually making the decision as to which identified segments the product should be marketed to. A business must take in consideration various factors like distance, budget, ROI⁽²⁾, etc. and decide which segment maximizes the profits and other gains, such as goodwill creation at minimal cost.

• Positioning

A promotional and advertisement campaign is only successful if it resonates with the audience. Positioning emphasizes exactly on that, involving decisions and steps to follow that describe how the campaign is presented to the target audience. In other words, positioning is the actual placement of the marketing campaign in front of the segmented, targeted audience.

Online Targeted Marketing

Online targeted marketing is becoming increasingly popular due to its convenience and larger demographic coverage, which compliments the parallel increase in shipment-based selling like home delivery and online sales.

Online targeted marketing is carried out through various popular websites that present a referral link from where your product can be purchased. It justifies the ‘targeted’ aspect as the advertisement is directed towards the website users who actively show interest either in ways that suggest that they are prone to purchase or are at least interested in such products or services in a general way. For example, a user who visits a page titled ‘Cool Tattoos’ on Facebook may receive an advertisement for a nearby Tattoo place, based on whether they have opted to show location (in which way another segmentation strategy, ‘geographic segmentation’ is availed, and strengthened the possibility of the advertisement showing up). However websites do not publicly reveal their exact targeting algorithms, since that way it would be easily exploitable.

Another type of online targeted marketing is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your own website to generate an organic customer base. By posting relevant content on your website you can improve your search ranking. Which is the position your website’s content is displayed when someone makes a search content relating to content on your website. You can read more about Search Engine Optimization here.

And finally, the most successful and free approach to generating organic customers is social media presence and activity. Operating pages under your brand name and posting relevant and relatable content of value for the potential customer is another way of building goodwill for your firm. Simply generating advertisements isn’t marketing. It consists of various other variables like Product, Price, Place, and Promotion⁽¹⁾. Advertisement is merely one of the marketing strategies under promotion. This is especially important for startups looking to acquire a share in an already competitive market. You can read more about Startup marketing here.

How to find your ideal market (conclusion)

Targeted Marketing involves a lot of planning and strategizing. It is impossible to launch a successful marketing campaign without necessary, in-depth market research beforehand. Looking at consumer trends and strategies adopted by rival firms, and then forming a segmentation strategy is helpful. After such trend analysis, you should select the segment which is most lucrative and has potential of shifting brands to yours, which offers them some superior, psychological or real value.

We can help!

Symphysis believes in marketing from the ground up. With our team of dedicated experts we can help in locating your ideal market, segmentation, search engine optimization, and create your own successful brand. For more information call or text @+1 (425) 390-4738 for a free initial consultation.   

Footnotes

1. Marketing Mix consists of four major variables: Product, Price, Place, and promotion. Product Mix is decisions regarding your actual products, such as labeling and manufacturing. Price Mix refers to the pricing decisions (cost-benefit analysis). Place Mix includes decisions pertaining to physical production, transportation, and distribution of the product. And Promotion Mix refers to the decisions involving the tactics and strategies to inform the potential customers about your product.
2. Return on Investment (ROI) is the calculation of expected or actual rate of return (gain) on the amount invested. For example, on an asset worth $500, the return of interest is $75, then your ROI is 15%. 15% is usually considered a healthy annual ROI, though it also depends on other factors such as rate of depreciation.

Contents:

1. Definition and Importance of Advertisement
2. The Three Major Advertisement Media
3. How to Target your Ideal Market.
4. Conclusion
5. Footnotes

Definition and Importance of Advertisement

Advertisement is a part of the promotion mix⁽¹⁾, along with variables such as PR or Personal Selling (Door-to-door selling), which aims at informing customers and inducing potential customers to purchase a firm’s products or services. It is impersonal and constitutes an identified sponsor. In other words, it’s a brief presentation of the appealing characteristics of your product or service, to inform general or specific public about the availability of your product.

Advertisement is an essential strategy to follow in today’s extensively competitive markets. The main difference that convinces someone to choose a particular brand over another, especially for startups, is creating a product of superior value (psychological or real) for the customer. Advertisement aims at both of these aspects, by informing the customer about the product’s actual superior value, and attempting to resonate in their minds with a catchy and indulging presentation. You can read more about startup marketing here. 

Various Types/Methods of Advertisement Media

The most common and effective advertisement media are:

• Physical Media.

The most popular method of advertisement is Physical media, such as newspapers, pamphlets, and brochure distribution (Print media). As well as billboards, vehicle advertisement/vehicle graphics, and digital billboards (Outdoor advertisement). Physical media is suitable when the area of distribution is limited but the product has rather generic use, so that each person who stumbles across the advertisement is a potential customer. These are widely used by local businesses. However, these are adopted by larger companies to convey such generic products, primarily because it often leaves a long-term effect in the viewer’s mind due to its physical nature.

Different types of Physical Media are-

1. Newspaper/ Magazine advertisement (Print media)
2. Pamphlets and brochures
3. Billboards and vehicle advertisement (Outdoor advertisement)

• Digital media

Digital media has become the most convenient, effective, and profitable method of advertisement in the modern age due to its never-ending growth of customers. There are various methods to do this, such as running ads on social media like Facebook or Twitter, direct emailing (subscription based), posting relevant content on your website (such as blog or vlogs), and attracting SEO⁽²⁾ based customers, etc. The dynamics of digital media are ever-evolving with altering algorithms and updates. However the major player for a successful advertising campaign to be retained is its relativity to the target audience. The campaign must maintain relevance and evolve alongside its target audience. Marketing itself is all about keeping up with the dynamics. Developing a good social media community is also an effective and necessary digital marketing method to build a strong, organic customer base.

• Broadcast Media

Another popular and effective way of advertising is broadcast media. This primarily includes radio and television. Relevance is of the utmost importance in broadcast media. For example, you see toys being advertised on children’s channels mainly and not on news channels. Similarly, sports gear is advertised on sports channels. This presents the concept of Targeted Marketing⁽³⁾ and its importance in a clearer sense.

How to target your ideal audience (Targeted Marketing)

For a detailed article on Targeted marketing click here

The most common and important question about Advertising following "How to market" is "who to market to." Advertisements on Billboards and Flyers do not have a specific targeted audience, everyone sees those advertisements and hence they are mostly used for everyday products such as grocery or technological products.

However that is not commonly the case with businesses and Startups. The product/service offered may be of any specific usage for specific audience or even a niche product with a small audience. It is preferable to identify the potential customers who are likely to buy the product and advertise primarily to those consumers to increase return on investment. For example, pet supplies to people with pets or toys to children.

This is where targeted marketing comes into play. It is the process of identifying the demographic most likely to purchase your product and advertising primarily to them. For example since kids are most likely to demand for toys, ideally ads for toys are mostly run on kids' TV channels. However nowadays the most effective Targeted marketing tool has become social media like Facebook and Instagram. By choosing to show your ads to people following specific interests, social media sites makes it way more convenient and cheaper to target your potential customer base.

Conclusion

We have mentioned in the previous articles from our "Marketing How To" series that marketing strategies are almost always dynamic, subjective, and need to be targeted. A non-targeted marketing plan, except for generic products, is inevitably destined to fail. To understand advertisement you first need to understand your specific market's needs and wants.

We Can Help!

Symphysis offers marketing consulting for businesses of all sizes. With the right analytics and targeting process, we can help develop a brand persona that attracts your target audience. For more information call or text @ +1 (425) 390-4738

Footnotes

1. Promotion Mix refers to a number of promotion techniques that a business uses to inform and induce the potential customers to buy its products. These primarily include- PR, Advertisement, and personal selling.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a set of techniques used to improve your site’s listing in search results. This is accomplished with various methods, including using relevant keywords on your website, generating backlinks, posting quality content, etc ranging between 'black-hat' and 'white-hat' methods.. You can read more about Search Engine Optimization here.  
3. Targeted marketing, as the name suggests, refers to the marketing methods directed at a particular group of individuals who are most likely to be interested in purchasing your product or service. Read more about Targeted Marketing here

How to Market to your Ideal Audience (Targeted Marketing)

How to research about and start strong in your ideal industry (Industry Analysis)

How to gain a competitive advantage in your industry (Competitor Analysis)

How to gain a distinguished Brand Identity

The Basics of Search Engine Optimization

The Importance and Essentials of Startup Marketing

 

 

In a society where markets are driven primarily by customer convenience and online discoverability, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important brick in building a successful brand and driving traffic to your website. This brief article from our "Marketing How To" series takes a beginner’s in-depth look at the basics of SEO and tips on how you can you use it most to your own advantage.

The following queries are tackled in this article.

1. What SEO is (Meaning and Definition of SEO).
2. How is SEO an integral marketing strategy?
3. Black Hat vs White Hat SEO.
4. On Page vs Off Page SEO.
5. Back Links and the Credibility Spam
6. SEO Tips for utilizing SEO to your best interest and increase Ranking and Discoverability.
7. What NOT to do.
8. Footnotes

What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

When you post content online, the main objective for the post is to make it discoverable to your target audience. There are two primary ways to do that. The first way is advertisement: paying websites with decent traffic to drive their users to your content. But the obvious flaws with this tactic is the audience attracted is often temporary and new startups and small businesses or organizations cannot invest a great deal in such advertisement.

The second and more effective way of generating long-term organic audience for your content is Search Engine Optimization (SEO.) Search Engine Optimization is the process of customizing your website to appeal to search engines. This can be accomplished by having relevant keywords to the topic of your site, a layout that Google (or another search engine) thinks is organized, and fast load speed. Google wants to show it's customers the best and fastest results that relate to their search queries. When someone does a generic or specific search on Google relating to the topics on your website, your pages with relevant content show up higher in search results. Generally, people will click on the first result they see, therefore increasing the traffic on your website.

How is SEO an integral marketing strategy?

In a dynamic online marketing environment, discoverability is one of the most important factors to staying ahead of the competitors. During a time of home delivery and on-call services, customer convenience is very important. Search Engine Optimization targets that precisely, along with building goodwill⁽¹⁾ for your brand, by attracting more and more people to your website. By increasing organic visits to your website, SEO ensures a dynamic buying cycle⁽²⁾ for the products and services offered.

Black Hat vs White Hat SEO.

Black Hat SEO refers to the techniques and hacks for generating short-term audience for your website. These techniques include keyword stuffing (Including repetitive chosen keywords in your content), content scraping (Republishing your RSS links to different sites for backlink generation), comment spams (on different comment-enabled websites with links backing to your own website), cloaking (Showing different content to visitors and search engines), etc. Search engines bots, such as Google Crawler⁽³⁾ do not appreciate Black Hat SEO methods, and upon identification, websites using them can be penalized or even banned.

White Hat SEO, on the other hand, emphasizes primarily on the content of your website. Methods such as better UI (User Interface), Keyword Research and Optimization, Speeding up the load time, and attracting backlinks from reputable websites are the main methods of white-hat SEO. Contrary to Black Hat SEO, it is a long-term marketing tool which focuses on generating organic audience and building an organization’s goodwill.

On Page vs Off Page SEO.

On Page SEO is essentially optimization based on what is actually on your webpages. This is altering and modifying the content on your website to increase discoverability. A simple SEO checklist for On Page SEO is:

• Creating Quality Content.

The contents of the page should be relevant to the desired search results. Relevant content increases the chances of appearing in organic search results and reduces bounce rate⁽⁴⁾.

• Keyword Optimization

The content should be inclusive of various relevant keywords (the actual words that users type in search engines) with a recommended ratio of 2-5:100 words. These words/phrases should be mentioned at least a few times in the content. Although it must be made sure that these are not spammed.

• Website coding.

Behind every page there is coding and structure, with important factors such as Title Tags, Heading Tags, and Meta Data. Title Tag is the clickable link that shows up on the ‘Search results’ page of a search engine. Heading Tags are the particular heads of the page (for example ‘Black Hat vs White Hat SEO’, ‘What NOT to do’, etc. headings in this article). Metadata is the part of code that describes other parts of the code.

Off Page SEO is basically your online reputation based on other relevant websites. It is a long-term optimization method. There are no direct alterations to the content of your website involved. Our simple SEO checklist for Off Page SEO is:

• Social Interaction and Online Presence.

Social activity is increasingly becoming an important factor for SEO. Google Crawler checks all relevant sources eventually backlinking to your main content. And although its exact algorithm is unknown, various trial-and-error experiments have shown significant direct impact of social media popularity and search engine ranking.

• Backlinking

Acquiring backlinks from reputable and relevant websites for your content is the most important Off-page SEO factor. Links between websites create a web that search engine crawlers can follow to determine the quality and relevance of websites within the web. Bots like Google Crawler recognize both quality and quantity of backlinks.

• Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is an effective way of getting backlinks from popular websites. As a guest blogger, you submit blogs to other more popular and relevant websites with backlinks to your own content. Upon acceptance, such blogs and content creates a decent backlink base for search bots.

SEO Backlinks and the Credibility Spam

Backlinks are off-site links pointing at your website. They play a significant role in Search Engine Optimization. Due to the popular misuse of such backlinks, search bots have become highly vigilant in identifying spam (such as Tiered Backlinking⁽⁵⁾). That means backlinking from your own secondary WordPress or Wix or any other suspected spam sites does little to harvest organic audience. On the other hand, backlinking from more popular and credible sites helps way more in increasing search ranking.

SEO Tips for Increasing Ranking and Discoverability.

1. Make sure to post original, valuable, relevant, and quality content.
2. Make sure that your clickable URLs and Permalinks are sensible and readable.
3. Make sure to reduce the load time of your website by removing anything that slows it down, like extra code. You can check your load time and view tips on how to decrease your load time on websites like https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ or tools.pingdom.com.
4. Link to other websites with relevant content. This builds your own reputation as a trustworthy and relevant site.
5. Acquire Backlinks from other sites by using methods mentioned above under ‘Off-Page SEO’.
6. Create a social media presence and accountability for your content.
7. Research. This is a very important strategy for Search Engine Optimization. Paid tools such as Semrush tell how many backlinks a particular site is using, what keyword ranking they have, and where they acquire their reference from. A free but less accurate way of doing this is by adding the Keywords Everywhere extension tool to your Chrome or Firefox browser. Ahrefs also offers a free backlink checker tool, with paid options to view more data. For a more comprehensive list of research tools, visit our article: Best Paid and Free SEO tools in 2019.

What NOT to do.

I have mentioned it before and would again, don't get banned trying to gain search priority. Spamming of any kind could easily be detected by search bots and will penalize your whole site. Tiered Backlinking was considered a hack to this, but Google’s algorithm is perpetually changing, and even that is an unsafe bet.

We Can help!

Search Engine Optimization can be a tricky concept to understand and even trickier to tackle. Symphysis maximizes the number of times you appear in organic search queries. Our SEO team begins by reducing loading time, improving image quality, removing leftover template code, implementing analytics, all while improving keyword ranking. For more information, call or text +1 (425) 390-4738.

Footnotes

1. Goodwill is a long-term intangible asset of an organization. It is basically the organization’s reputation among its customers and the general public. It helps attracts customers and builds their trust in the organization.
2. Buying-cycle, which occurs between two purchases, is the process that a customer undergoes before buying or renewing a product.
3. Google Crawler is Google’s inter-site navigation block that navigates through various backlinks on different sites to a particular site.
4. Bounce rate is the amount of users who leave the site before making a conversion. It is a crucial SEO factor as search engines do not prioritize websites with a high bounce rate.
5. Tiered backlinking is a form of spam backlinking where a person with multiple websites links them through one another tier wise. For example, suppose you have nine websites, Sites A-I, and A is your primary site. In tiered backlinking you would link Website B to, D, E and F; and website C to G, H, and I. And then you’d link site A to B and C, which are more credible and relevant. Google Crawler will eventually find its way from site I to A, assigning it multiple backlinks.

The concept of branding is a tricky one and could easily be confused with other aspects of marketing such as Advertisement and Trademarking. This brief article explains the definition of Branding along with its importance, what makes a "good brand," and emphasizes the need of a good branding strategy.

The following questions are addressed in this article.

1. What is Branding?
2. Why is Branding so important?
3. What makes a good Brand Name?
4. What makes a good Brand Mark?
5. Conclusion.
6. Footnotes

What is Branding?

According to The American Marketing Association, a brand is, "A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s goods or services as distinct from those of another."
Legally registering a symbol or words for use in a company's brand is termed, "trademarking." A brand may represent one item, a family of items, or all items & services of that business. If used for the firm as a whole, the preferred term is trade name.

A brand is essentially synonymous to a firm’s goodwill⁽¹⁾, that is, the reason why a person is compelled to buy from a firm more than once. It is a relatively superior long-term marketing tool, emphasizing on the psychological benefit of a feeling of belonging. In other words, Branding helps the product’s recognition in any competitive market. Brand could be a Brand Name, Brand Mark, or Trademark^{(2, 2.1)}.

For example, in a market of over a dozen identical yet differentiated products (Monopolistic Competition⁽³⁾) of shoes or fast food, the Nike Swoosh, or McDonald’s signature "M" is effectively used to differentiate their products from others, build goodwill, gain recognition, and increase customer confidence.

Why is Branding so important?

In any form of competitive market, product recognition is one of the most important factors in convincing a potential customer to choose one product over another product of similar value. The potential customer, attracted by the product’s advertisement variables like packaging, labeling, communication, and branding, buys the product. The product being of superior value to them, psychological or real, would lead to the development of the most crucial advertisement method for a new brand: Word of mouth, or referral marketing.

Word-of-mouth marketing is when a customer advertises a product to raise a brand's goodwill, and therefore sales, by recommending it to their peers and associates. It is because of Word-of-Mouth marketing that the biggest brands gain popularity. Consumers prefer purchasing products that have been purchased and tested before. Consumers often look to reviews to save time and money on a product that wasn't worth their time.

In other words, branding helps create superior value to the potential customers in a market segment. It helps them view your product as a superior alternative to other similar or differentiated products serving their needs. Without proper branding, there is no way of recognizing the product and purchasing it from the previous producer. This leads to a fall in overall sales. This is also the case when the Brand name is poor, not memorable, and difficult to recognize.

What makes a good Brand Name?

A good brand name is catchy, relevant, and audibly pleasing. For example, in Coca-Cola, the ‘Cola’ suggests relevance to the product of soft drinks offered and the two C's sound catchy and are audibly pleasing. Similarly, Microsoft’s ‘Micro’ suggests technological relevance. In general, a good brand name should have the following characteristics:

• It should be unique and differentiated to existing brand names while being relatable to the audience. It should not be too technical.

• It should be suggestive and relevant to the product(s)⁽⁴⁾ offered under the brand name.

• It should be easy to read and memorable. There have been cases of brands failing simply because their brand-name was too specialized.

• It should be capable of legal protection and Trademarking (Some words such as curses or previously trademarked words are incapable of legal protection).

What makes a good Brand Logo?

Similar to brand name, a brand mark (logo) should be relevant, eye-catching, suggestive, and capable of legal protection. Apart from this, emphasis on research for creation of a brand mark should be given priority since visual appeals have a much greater engagement rate when it comes to startup advertising. However, sometimes irrelevant and experimental brands gain great recognition, such as Wendy's or Apple, whose logo and name do not suggest any relevance but are some of the biggest brands in the world.

This is why it must be kept in mind that while brand creation is a priority, it can end up playing little under the dynamics of business environment. Factors such as advertising, Startup Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Targeted Marketing, Industry Analysis, etc. play an important role as well.

Conclusion

Branding is one of the most valuable aspects of Marketing. It is perhaps the only way a firm stands out in a competitive market. It is the pillar of building goodwill, which is crucial for any organization’s long term success,. It is important to deal with the process of branding with vigilance and under experienced guidance to develop a brand with a lasting effect on your consumers.

Symphysis Marketing Solutions offers persona and branding strategies that are ever-changing. We’ll help you build an identity for your business that captures the attention of your target audience. Our branding strategies are integrated across various social media platforms and digital marketing media.

For more information call or text us @ +1 (425) 390-4738

Notes

1. Goodwill is a long-term intangible asset of an organization. It is basically the organization’s reputation among its customers and the general public. It helps attracts customers and builds their trust in the organization.
2. A Brand generally has three components, Brand Name, Brand Mark, and Trademark. 2.1. Trademark is the part of Brand which has legal protection. 
3. Monopolistic Competition is a form of general market where similar types of products are sold with little differentiation among them. For example, various brands of toothpaste are similar but brand recognition drives much of a consumer's decision to buy one over the other.
4. A single brand name can be used to sell different products, which may or may not be the same as its parent firm. This is the difference between a firm’s name and one of its registered trademarks. Note that while the firm’s name could be used as its brand name, the opposite can only be the case when both are same.