Find Your Audience, Not Pamper To The Masses
When you understand the group you are targeting and then communicate in the right way, you can move mountains.
When you find your audience you connect on a far deeper level.
However, the belief to target everyone is still strong.
According to new IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) research, to be published in 2018, by Les Binet (Head of Effectiveness at Adam&Eve DDB) and Peter Field (marketing consultant), data suggests that reaching the widest possible market is three times more likely to be the main driver of growth and profit than loyalty.
Whether that is via paid media or otherwise, the biggest slice of the pie with a message delivered to the widest possible audience is still where the mass media approach has its role to play.
In other words, mass media, with mass reach delivers results. It has allowed for generations, marketers to do their job. Produce something and shout the loudest.
In the words of American psychologist, Abraham Maslow (yes, the hierarchy of needs chap), “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” We cannot think anymore that the greatest return is by targeting as many people as possible because that’s how our predecessors have done it.
Most Of Us Just Don’t Have A Bottomless Pit
Whilst a mass-market approach is part of a mindset for those with budgets you can only dream of, the reality is that 99.9% of businesses within the UK economy are small to medium sized businesses, according to the FSB.
The mass-market approach is for the celebrant of the shortcut.
In the world of the mass marketer, why recognise that mass channels have changed? In the eyes of the mass marketer, why earn someone’s attention when you can relentless pay for attention.
Are we tuning into anything like this…
Or this…
How about this…
None of this is in sync with how we behave. Just because you can have access (spend money to be seen) doesn’t mean you are relevant and meaningful to someone else (and I was never interested to know how Cassandra from Only Fools & Horses looks today in the first place!).
The point I am trying to highlight is that the majority of businesses do not have the budget equivalent of the tap turned on. Many are making that shift to find their audience and market to their audience.
How Things Are Shifting
Why not reduce the risk of a huge financial outlay, by recognising who your audience is in the first place?
Pepsi last month decided to take their social media in-house so they can connect on a personal level with customers, rather than rely on an agency to blast social with on sided traffic of self-absorption. Proof of a brand taking control by showcasing to others what they stand for, rather than an agency telling everyone what they do.
Even cosmetic company Clinique are looking to resonate on a more personal level with younger women, and teaming up with millennial influencers.
What I am highlighting here are the big brands that are making changes. This links to what small businesses are doing, but they can do it a quicker speed. Everything is concentrated on focusing on what the consumer wants and provide an experience that someone else feels attached to.
Proof From A Small Business Level
When you target and there is an audience who are receptive, it is more focused than the broadest brush with the most paint on it.
A brand doesn’t happen overnight, it starts from a reason for being.
This is what I am finding from the You Are The Media Lunch Clubs. The companies that I am showcasing had a start to their journey that enabled them to focus on an audience where attention would be earned.
This is exactly what Tim and Tarryn Poulton did with PCOS Diet Support (have a read of their approach in the influencer marketing examples article). By being told that having children would be a challenge, to changing their lifestyle and diet (they now have two children) that enabled them to share this with other women with PCOS and now have an audience of 50,000 people. Tarryn now shares her story and supports others on a regular basis.
This month’s guest for the You Are The Media Lunch Club is Ben Crowe from Crimson Guitars. From crafting guitars in his garage, he started making video tutorials all aimed at helping others create better guitars around the world. The YouTube audience now has 70,000 subscribers and with a commitment to ongoing, video, workshops, forums and events, he has built his business around a targeted audience.
How Can You Find Your Audience?
How do you find your audience? This is not about demographics anymore, but finding those people with a shared mindset. Some pointers to think about:
– Can you create your own category? If your marketplace is already served, what is stopping you creating and curating your own space. If customer reviews is a key loyalty tactic, what is stopping you building a homebase around ratings and reviews as a brand-building tool?
– Can you find one word to stand for? When you break everything down into one word that unites everything you believe in, it gives real direction. Click here to discover the one word you stand for that is then translated to resonate with valuable groups. You can own a feeling in someone else. The one word that I stand for is ownership.
– Can a foundation be built around a purpose? This has nothing to do with building a business around a passion, but having a reason that can be expressed on a consistent basis to an audience that will believe in it. In the words of Cynthia Occelli, “For a seed to achieve the greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.”
– Can you create an audience first approach? Similar to Crimson Guitars and PCOS Diet Support, everything is centred on making someone else’s life better, more rewarding, easier. From the videos, to guides, the focus is on the audience, not what a company produces.
– Can you lead? If you lead from the front, you can coordinate meaningful connections. It may mean doing something that you are uncomfortable with (from audio, to video, to an event) but comes back to the spark and the framework, where a new initiative comes back to the cause that you believe in. The risk element is almost eliminated when everything comes back to what you stand for.
I have come to the belief that mass marketing is a waste of time, unless you are clear of the relationship you can build with your audience.
It is out of sync today to believe that businesses have to achieve results on the very first attempt (as many people, in the shortest amount of time). As we all evolve our businesses, it’s not a case of putting everything into what works now, but what will work in the future. It is short sighted if you don’t plan strategically and not have one eye on the horizon.
In a new eMarketer report (November 1st) most marketers still concentrate heavily on customer acquisition. In order to maximise effectiveness of budget to acquisition efforts, marketers must place an emphasis on data, audience centricity and lifetime value of customers, rather than a blast and buy now mentality.
Businesses can’t remain narrow minded, there is land in the distance that is becoming more fertile where you can build your audience around. It would be foolish not to recognise it.
Just because something has been said that it works ie. spend on Twitter/Facebook advertising, doesn’t mean that there are not other approaches that are out there, that are better, that help you connect on a deeper level.
The connections you make and the value that you provide on a continual basis, is a healthier place to be, rather than serving the masses and being average at best.
If you would like to be a part of the You Are The Media Lunch Club and can get to the beach (in Bournemouth) on 24th November, then would be great to see you. Showing the proof of businesses who are standing for something and becoming their own media channel.
Click here to find out more about the last event of 2016 (we start again in January 2017).
