How do you decide which marketing channel to use for your target audience?
The best way to promote your business is through advertising, but where should you start with so many channels and a myriad of content to choose from?
Ensuring that your business advertisements are aligned with your target audience is crucial. This strategic approach helps maximise the effectiveness of your campaigns and ensures your campaigns are effective. In this blog, we will explore the steps you should take prior to any campaign that will help you choose the right channels for your advertising
1 | Define your brand values
Every brand should have its own values that will help define its messages. Spend some time defining your brand values clearly. Consider the tone, style and types of messages you wish to convey. Are you confident that your logo, font and design are aligned with your brand values? Do you have brand rules in place covering when and where your logo appears? If not, consider writing some simple guidelines. By aligning your advertisements with your brand values, you ensure consistency and authenticity, which can help build trust and loyalty among your target audience.
2 | Understand your target audience
Before diving into any campaign, it is important to understand your target audience. Spend some time identifying their preferences, interests, needs, and the type of content they engage with. By understanding your audience, you can tailor your content, messaging, product development and services to align with their needs as well as the content they already consume. This increases the chances of catching their attention and generating meaningful engagement.
3 | Decide which platforms best suit your brand
With an ever-increasing number of platforms available today, choosing the ones that align best with your brand and your target audience is important. Does your target audience spend time on social media, and if so which channels? Is there a particular website or social network they are more likely to use?
For example, if you want to target 16-24-year-olds you’ll increase the chances of your message being seen by being on the platform they’re most likely to be on at the moment, TikTok. Using TikTok means you’ll need to create content using video and you’ll need to make sure your tone is right for the platform. Your content is less likely to succeed unless it aligns naturally with the softer, fun and carefree tone usually used on TikTok.
It’s really useful therefore to spend some time on your research before deciding which platform best suits your needs.
4 | Evaluate how best to target your ideal audience
Targeting is all about delivering your ads to the right people, but you don’t want to narrow your focus too much, as this may exclude users who may have a genuine interest in your products and services. There are a number of different targeting methods available to you. Here are some of the most effective types of targeting:
Geo-targeting – Geo-targeting is the method of delivering adverts and content to users based on their physical location. This is great for businesses who want to increase awareness of their products and services in a specific area. Geo-targeting is also effective for anyone wishing to expand their reach into new areas.
Behavioural targeting – Behavioural targeting is where ads are delivered to users based on their previous online behaviour. It is why, straight after browsing holidays on Google, the next website or social platform you visit is likely to show you adverts about holidays. This tactic can be used in conjunction with geo targeting. For example: if a visitor to a national website has declared an interest in Leeds, or an intent to visit the city, ads can be served for Leeds-based businesses, regardless of where in the UK the user is actually based.
Demographic targeting – Demographic targeting looks at the characteristics of users. This method will typically focus on their gender, age and income, but may also include employment status, nationality and other background details. This is great if you have a really well defined target audience. Another great benefit of demographic targeting is that customer data is relatively easy to obtain, which ultimately means that it’s one of the most cost effective types of targeted online advertising.
Contextual targeting – Contextual targeting is a powerful tool that allows you to display your advertisements alongside content that is contextually relevant to your brand. This approach ensures that your ads are seen by users who are already interested in similar topics, increasing the chances of engagement and conversions. Many advertising platforms offer contextual targeting options, allowing you to select specific keywords or categories that align with your brand.
Retargeting – Retargeting is a form of display advertising that enables sites to show targeted ads to users who have previously visited your site. This is a clever way to connect with visitors to your website who may not have made an immediate purchase or enquiry.
Not every channel will allow you to target in these ways. For example, it’s easy to target an audience by their location and demographic through newspaper advertising as the publisher knows their demographics in terms of age and gender and can provide you with their distribution and circulation information. Whereas behavioural targeting and retargeting won’t work. Choose a channel that can provide the type of targeting you need and you’ll reach the right people with your message.
5 | How to select the right advertising channel for your brand
You’ve chosen your target audience, the brand values and message you wish to convey, the platform that best suits your audience and how you’d like to target them – now you need to decide what channels to include in your campaign. This could include video, content marketing, display advertising, print advertising, off-line and online marketing – or a mixture of all. If you’ve used a particular method in the past and it has worked, try that again. If you’re not sure which to choose, create a few different types and analyse results as you go along, being prepared to make changes if you need to. Remember to keep your message, brand, tone and values the same across every piece of content you create and align these elements with the platforms you use.
