[caption id="attachment_345" align="alignleft" width="257" caption="Getting the right start for your campaign"]
[/caption] So you are thinking about a specific campaign to attract new customers to your business through your website... Where do you start? Once you have clearly defined the goal into an easily understandable statement like "we want to get 15 new customers on board in two months because we have projects completing and need to get back to capacity" then it's time to give some thought to both what remarkable content needs to be generated and what online mediums would best suit the successful outcome of this campaign. This is where knowing your target comes in because before getting all fired up and simply getting the campaign started we need to look at exactly who it is we are marketing to which will define the type of content and to a large extent the mediums to use. It's not really enough to simply say that "my target market is any small business in this particular area that requires a refined business plan and assistance in the implementation of that plan (let's use business planning and development as our core projects). First of all to create content to that audience would inevitably miss the mark for a selection of that market and may hit the mark for others but the most likely outcome would be fairly diluted content that tries to fit all profiles but lacks the punch required for high level conversion later in the sales process. This is where creating a marketing persona can deliver real value both in generating a guideline for content and distribution channels as well as often providing a deeper insight into what your target market really looks like. So let's say we are looking at delivering a service to clients that revolves around redefining business plans and delivering results through on-going coaching for a three month period, who is my target market and what sort of marketing persona could I create? The first question would be what is the industry or business type, so in this case I will suggest businesses providing professional services to other businesses, perhaps in an environment where their clients are relatively high value and low turnover volume. Now what age group am I going to look at for these business owners? Understanding that my business is about redefining business plans then my client age in the above industry would probably be under 38 from an assumption that established successful owners probably have a fairly robust plan. Additionally I might also assume that they are over 25 due to the nature of being a company who is dealing with high value clients may require the credibility of someone who has a proven track record. So what are the frustrations of our potential client? Perhaps it's about being time poor, difficulty in client acquisition or a need for some solid on-going PR. And lastly what is their family situation? Are they married or single, in a relationship or have kids or a combination? For this group I am going to suggest in a relationship, possible married with a young family. Now I have a real target to market to.
A 25-35 year old professional possibly with young children whose business has been operating for several years but is struggling to enjoy free time due to time spent finding new clients while working on existing projects because they don't have enough public exposure through PR. This now starts to define the type of content you could create to this person because you probably have an idea of what would motivate this type of person. Additionally you would be able to gain some good insights as to what media channels this person consumes and what calls to action would drive this person to make a decision. All in all you now have a more robust framework to base your campaign on. "While this is a quick hypothetical scenario there are more questions you can ask yourself of your marketing persona as well as some good resources on exploring this process further but even in it's most simplistic form as illustrated above it will provide a great deal of benefit towards the successful achievement of your campaign goal"
[/caption] So you are thinking about a specific campaign to attract new customers to your business through your website... Where do you start? Once you have clearly defined the goal into an easily understandable statement like "we want to get 15 new customers on board in two months because we have projects completing and need to get back to capacity" then it's time to give some thought to both what remarkable content needs to be generated and what online mediums would best suit the successful outcome of this campaign. This is where knowing your target comes in because before getting all fired up and simply getting the campaign started we need to look at exactly who it is we are marketing to which will define the type of content and to a large extent the mediums to use. It's not really enough to simply say that "my target market is any small business in this particular area that requires a refined business plan and assistance in the implementation of that plan (let's use business planning and development as our core projects). First of all to create content to that audience would inevitably miss the mark for a selection of that market and may hit the mark for others but the most likely outcome would be fairly diluted content that tries to fit all profiles but lacks the punch required for high level conversion later in the sales process. This is where creating a marketing persona can deliver real value both in generating a guideline for content and distribution channels as well as often providing a deeper insight into what your target market really looks like. So let's say we are looking at delivering a service to clients that revolves around redefining business plans and delivering results through on-going coaching for a three month period, who is my target market and what sort of marketing persona could I create? The first question would be what is the industry or business type, so in this case I will suggest businesses providing professional services to other businesses, perhaps in an environment where their clients are relatively high value and low turnover volume. Now what age group am I going to look at for these business owners? Understanding that my business is about redefining business plans then my client age in the above industry would probably be under 38 from an assumption that established successful owners probably have a fairly robust plan. Additionally I might also assume that they are over 25 due to the nature of being a company who is dealing with high value clients may require the credibility of someone who has a proven track record. So what are the frustrations of our potential client? Perhaps it's about being time poor, difficulty in client acquisition or a need for some solid on-going PR. And lastly what is their family situation? Are they married or single, in a relationship or have kids or a combination? For this group I am going to suggest in a relationship, possible married with a young family. Now I have a real target to market to.A 25-35 year old professional possibly with young children whose business has been operating for several years but is struggling to enjoy free time due to time spent finding new clients while working on existing projects because they don't have enough public exposure through PR. This now starts to define the type of content you could create to this person because you probably have an idea of what would motivate this type of person. Additionally you would be able to gain some good insights as to what media channels this person consumes and what calls to action would drive this person to make a decision. All in all you now have a more robust framework to base your campaign on. "While this is a quick hypothetical scenario there are more questions you can ask yourself of your marketing persona as well as some good resources on exploring this process further but even in it's most simplistic form as illustrated above it will provide a great deal of benefit towards the successful achievement of your campaign goal"
via Posterize
