Effectively reaching your target audience is key to a successful marketing campaign. Rather than running ads in various places and hoping that they find their intended audience, your marketing dollars are better spent on specific messaging strategies intentionally directed at particular audiences. Read on to learn more about three targeting strategies that we’ve found to make our clients’ messaging more efficient and cost-effective. If you haven’t already defined who you’re targeting, our recent blog, “defining and finding your target audience,” can help you take that first step. Then, come back to this one to strengthen your efforts by reaching those audiences more effectively.

Audience Segmentation Targeting Strategies

Audience segmentation is the practice of creating smaller target audiences grouped by interests, demographics, marketing channel engagement, etc. While all of these smaller audiences are a part of your larger target audience, each has unique values and needs, making the need for varying messaging strategies imperative. Once you have defined your key audience segments, you can better target these smaller audiences through your various marketing channels with specific messages tailored to their want and needs.

Simple audience segmentation strategies can include using various marketing channels to reach different segments, differentiating your social media content across channels, and varying advertising copy across placements. These targeting strategies, though simple, can make significant differences in resonance and retention for the recipient.

More complex segmentation strategies can include creating automated email campaigns triggered by timestamps or actions and implementing retargeting strategies (further defined in the next section) based on prior behaviors. The more information that you’re able to gather from your audience segments, the stronger this targeting strategy will perform for you. 

Retargeting Strategies

Retargeting is a strategy used to advertise to individuals who have previously engaged with a brand’s website or social media channels. This can be very effective since you’re reaching individuals who have already shown interest in your products or services (AKA warm leads). Retargeting strategies can help you re-engage individuals, build brand recognition, and ultimately convert more sales. According to a study by ReTargeter, only 2% of potential customers take action during their first visit to a website. So how do you convince the remaining 98% of web traffic to return and make a purchase?  

Advertising through digital platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google AdWords is typically one of the easiest and cheapest ways to reach your target audience. These platforms also make it easy to retarget individuals with ads following a digital interaction with your brand. By using short lines of code, often called pixels, embedded on a brand’s website, advertising platforms can track users’ website activity registered on that network. It’s important to note that brands never receive personal or identifying information of these users, but rather the opportunity to place ads to be seen by these particular individuals.

You’ve likely been on the receiving end of retargeting. Think back to the last time you searched for a product or service online. Maybe you visited a site or two and then you started seeing ads for that company on various other websites, Facebook, etc. They were retargeting you with hopes to get you to come back and close the deal.

Beyond just tracking website visitors, pixels allow you to create custom audiences based on particular actions taken, such as visiting a specific URL, adding an item to a cart, completing an online form, or contacting your business directly from the website. Custom audiences have a defined retention period of up to 180 days, so they’re constantly updated with the users you’ve predetermined to be most valuable.

Once you have a defined custom audience, you can target these individuals with hyper-specific ads that are more relevant to them. Retargeted ads can often include the specific items viewed, similar product sets to viewed items, or a promo code to incentivize a return visit and purchase. You’ve likely experienced retargeting from a consumer standpoint. Again, think about your recent browsing history next time you’re online and see what ads are following your behavior.

Location-Based Targeting Strategies

While on the surface, targeting individuals based on location sounds like a no-brainer, there are different ways that you can use location-based targeting strategies to your advantage beyond simply reaching people when they are nearby.

Geofencing is the practice of defining geographical areas and boundaries to trigger an event, such as ad placement, when an individual enters that location. By determining an individual’s current and recent whereabouts, you can gain insight into their interests and consumer behaviors and create targeted ads based on those assumptions. Businesses could target local competitors based on the expectation that their clientele would also be interested in their products or services. Companies could also target lines of business where their products or services would be deemed supplemental or complementary to those of their targets.

Location-based targeting can also help identify residents, tourists, or commuters to a particular area. Digital platforms such as Google AdWords and Facebook allow you to segment individuals in a specific location based on whether they live within, are traveling, or have recently visited the set area boundaries. You can then include or even exclude particular individuals based on their propensity to engage with your business.

These targeting strategies, along with many others, can be used individually or in conjunction with each other to strengthen your marketing efforts. Implementing them narrows the bullseye on your target audience and enhances your messaging efforts, ultimately increasing resonance and conversions.

Want to beef up your marketing efforts with these targeting strategies but don’t know where to begin? The PTE team has years of experience crafting thoughtful targeting strategies that don’t just look good; they convert. Learn about more information on how we can improve your marketing return on investment (ROI).