As entrepreneurs, we’ve ready plenty about marketing. We know that marketing is the life’s blood of our businesses. After all, without customers, there’s no money and without money, well a business is nothing more than a hobby.
One of the lessons that I’ve learned along my journey of entrepreneurship is knowing who your audience is just as important, if not more important, than knowing how to get to them. The reality is that the blanket marketing approach that most take is the same reason they fail.
What’s Wrong With Marketing Today?
Today’s form of online market is what I like to call blanket advertising. Advertisers generally look for lower costs per click to get their ads in front of as many eyes as possible. The idea is that as more people see the ad, someone is likely to click. So, the more we spend, the more eyes we cover, the more we make. The truth is that this is a broken model.
I recently came across an interview featuring Russell Ruffino, a quickly rising star in the world of entrepreneurship. Russ Ruffino’s interview suggested that instead of dragging a fishing net across a the bottom of the ocean trying to catch a big fish, we learn about the audience and target that specific audience. When talking about this exact scenario, Ruffino put it best when he said:
“So, even in the best case scenario, you’ll have to deal with many low-profit clients, which, in turn, will translate into a ton of issues to solve, complaints to sort out and details to micromanage. You will have no free time left, and you’re going to be a slave to your own work. There is a saying in Italy ‘work to buy a car you will use to go to work.’ Also, with these obsolete models, you’re definitely not going to buy yourself the expensive car you dreamed of.”
What Needs To Change For Marketing To Be A Success
At the end of the day, a successful marketing campaign is all about knowing your audience. Blanket marketing says that if everyone sees your ad, some interested parties will buy. However, if you’re a shoe manufacturer, would you rather sell a pair of shoes at a time or reach out to retail outlets that will buy in bulk? Essentially, we want to go for the big fish, and the first step is knowing who those fish are.
Once you know who the big fish are, it’s time to find out where they hang out. Chances are that there are plenty of them on Facebook. With 72.4% of the world’s population using the social network, just about everyone is on facebook these days.
Now, using the tools that are available to dial down the audience, do so. Dial your audience down to exactly what you’re looking for by advertising to people of specific ages, sexes and with specific interests. By doing so, not only will your ad likely be more successful, the cost per click for your ad will probably fall too!
What You Should Take From This Article
There are tons of articles about marketing and what you need to be successful. This isn’t like that. I don’t want you to use my system, buy my tool, or pay me for an eBook. I want you to be successful, and to do that, you need to take one thing away from this article. Ultimately, being successful in online marketing is all about knowing who you are marketing to. If you keep that in mind, you will likely find the success that it took me years to track down!
