AUDIENCE QUESTION:
“I’m new to digital marketing… I have a client who is an industrial machine manufacturer for a specific product. He wants me to target customer from [specific countries], because these two geographic locations have potential buyers/customers for our product/machine…[We also] want to target a specific age group & technical background audience that we consider as our main potential customers/buyers… I know what I want is only achievable through digital marketing… What should be my first step?”
– Ankit
That is an awesome question, Ankit!
The short answer to your question is…research. Before you start on the marketing side, you need to look into the profession and/or position of your target market.
1. DEFINE THE PERSONA
You said you had an age group and a profession you wanted to reach: That’s great! Keep building out your audience personas.
What other habits or traits might these individuals have in common?
Look into the specific type of engineering, or industrial niche that you’re targeting. Do your ads include lingo or professional terms they’re likely to know?
If they’re within a certain age range, do your ads appeal to that age group? What social media properties are they likely to frequent?
And remember: social media can differ from country to country, as we learned from Joanne Sanders’ advice about international marketing. So If you’re targeting an entirely different country, you need to keep their own cultures, languages, and social habits in mind.
2. TEST DIFFERENT AD LOCATIONS
Yes, digital marketing may provide the solution you want – but it’s still going to involve a bit of trial and error.
Try testing a few smaller campaigns to see which perform best.
Try a few social ads on Facebook or LinkedIn, or any other potentially-favorite hub for your audience. Measure which site is delivering the best results, and then head in that direction.
Trade magazines, or associations may also provide invaluable resources for you.
They sometimes have memberships, directories, or other campaigns of their own in which you can participate. They could be local, regional, or national.
As for their sites, if you know that there might be a particular professional community online that your personas frequent (trade magazine sites, for example), then don’t be afraid to pay a little more money in order to locate your ads there.
If your target customers are more likely to be on that particular site, it’s worth it to get your ad in front of them.
And remember, whatever you’re advertising…just make sure you’re always providing value to your customers.
3. LOOK INTO GEO-TARGETING MARTECH
As you may have guessed, there are indeed marketing technologies that were invented specifically to help you with the targeting process. Terminus is a particularly great one, especially if you’re in B2B.
Geo-targeting tools can ensure that your campaigns get in front of certain people that have, say, the same job title like “VP of Operations.”
But remember, these programs can’t provide victory unless you’ve built out clear parameters for your personas. Creating banner ads that are relevant and valuable will be just as important as actually targeting recipients.
In other words, make sure you do your research before you do anything else. It may not be a very exciting task…but it will certainly be one of the most valuable elements of the entire campaign.
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