The marketing game is rather complex and there are different types of marketing you can choose from. Online store owners opt for eCommerce marketing, which allows you to market your products to a wide audience. But if you want to have a successful and cost-efficient campaign, you need to use specific customer targeting.
Being customer centric means taking your customers into consideration when making any business decision. When you know your target market, creating campaigns that revolve around them will be easier and the campaign itself will be more efficient.
Target customers on social media
Social media is one of the most useful tools marketers have and today’s consumers rely on social media platforms to find new businesses and interact with them. As much as 83% of people use Instagram to discover new products and services, so targeting your ideal customers on social media can be very profitable.
A social media target audience is a group of people who are likely to be interested in your business and products, so you need to create ads they find appealing.
To find your target audience on social media, you should:
- Create buyer personas. Creating the buyer personas of your target audience is usually done based on demographics such as age, location, gender, income level, and behavior. The important question you should also ask yourself is what problem your ideal customers are looking to solve.
- Get on the right platforms. Find what social media platform your target audience uses the most and be active there.
- Do competitor research. Take a look at the social media pages of your competitors to see how they’re running their campaigns, who their top followers are, and what their engagement rates are.
- Talk to customers. Directly ask your current customers what social media platforms they’re active on and what they would like to see from your business on social media. Asking for feedback is a big part of effective customer communication, so don’t be afraid to reach out.
However, for the best results, you need to increase your follower numbers as much as possible. Probably the best way to do that is to hire an agency that will help you grow Instagram followers who will truly engage with your business.
Know how to define your target market
Customer targeting is impossible without defining your target market first, and here is how you can do that:
- Think about your existing customers. The easiest way to see who has the potential to be your customer in the future is to look at your current customers. Define what they like about your business, what pain point you’re addressing, and how they feel about your products.
- Take demographics and psychographics into account. Demographics such as age and gender are important when defining a target market, but so is psychographics. You need to know their values, personal tastes, hobbies and interests, and emotions that go into making purchasing decisions.
- Send surveys. With every new customer, try to gain a better understanding of them and what drew them to your products and business by sending out surveys. This will help you understand their mindset better and learn how to target people similar to them.
Understand the advantages and disadvantages
Just like every other marketing technique, customer targeting for eCommerce marketing has its advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages
eCommerce target marketing is much more affordable than mass-marketing because you’re targeting a much smaller audience. And since you’ll have a better understanding of what techniques would or wouldn’t work, you can adjust your campaigns accordingly.
But the biggest advantage is undoubtedly the relationships you can build with your customers. If you make custom marketing messages for people who receive them, it will be easier to create a loyal customer base.
Targeting is very successful since 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that provides a tailored experience.
Disadvantages
As you can see, customer targeting is certainly a popular marketing technique for a reason, but you need to understand two important disadvantages that come with it.
Firstly, it will take a lot of time and effort to learn enough information about your target audience and collect the necessary data before you can realize what messages they want to see.
And secondly, it will also take time before you actually see any results. Since you are targeting a smaller pool of people, it will take a while before they notice you. This is especially true for smaller companies that are just getting started.
Final thoughts
It’s not about the number of people you’re marketing to but about the type of people who are seeing your ads. Your target market is most likely to buy from you and with customer targeting, it will be easier for you to create the right campaigns that will resonate with the right people and bring you success.
