How to Become the Robin Hood of Internet Marketing Archery

BY PETER ROESLER

One of the greatest benefits of marketing on the internet is also the thing that makes it the most challenging. The fact that just about everyone is online means it's harder to reach the specific group of consumers a business owner would like to reach. The key to a successful internet marketing campaign depends on two things, proper targeting and good aim. Marketers need to become skilled archers, deftly shooting the arrows of their message past online distractions to squarely hit their target audiences. The ability to know which audiences to target and when to shoot the message are vital skills that take practice and thought to master. This article will show business owners and marketers how they can become the Robin Hood of internet marketing archery.

The first thing business owners and marketers have to do is decide on a target audience. Business owners may think they have a product or service with universal appeal, but that is rarely the case. Despite what many advertisers may say, few things are "fun for the whole family". Trying to run a campaign that appeals to everyone is a surefire way to waste a large amount of the advertising budget on poorly placed ads, which takes away from the potential profit to be made by well performing ads. To become good internet archers, marketers need to pick their targets wisely and not waste arrows on targets that are hard to hit or offer little value.

There are several ways that business owners can pick a target audience. The first way involves simple brainstorming. Thinking about who would be the ideal consumer for the company can help narrow down the field. Then by thinking about more probing issues, such as "Why do they want the product?" and "How will they pay for the product?", marketers can gain a lot of clues to which targets to hits and which messages to use. Business can also do more formal research to help zero in on an audience. Surveys, focus groups, and competitor analysis help marketers aim for the center of their target with their marketing messages, greatly increasing the odds the arrow will hit.

It's important to remember that target audiences are usually moving targets. It's vital for marketers to understand their demographic well enough to know where trends are pushing the target audience, how fast things are moving, and how will these things change the effectiveness of the marketing message. This knowledge can only come from continuous research. Whether you're trying to reach teens, millennials, baby boomers or seniors, there is data that can help marketers see the trends and show them where and how to place their advertising.

Internet marketing changes so fast that business owners can't rely on information that is outdated, which can happen very quickly when technology is concerned. In 2014 alone, Facebook has made several policy changes that penalize some of the older engagement-baiting and click-baiting tactics. Marketers who weren't keeping up with these announcements may find their organic reach declining and not even know why, not realizing that they have a broken arrow.

The same is true with tablets. In the past three years, tablet ownership has skyrocketed in the U.S. Any business owner who labors under the impression that tablets are a passing fad (as some used to believe) they would potentially be missing out on nearly 40 percent of the U.S. adult population. To not keep up with the research on target audiences and tactics, is like trying to hit a moving while blindfolded.

Besides choosing a target audience and learning about them, budding internet marketing archers need to learn how to integrate their marketing campaigns to maximize the effect on the target audience. The simplest way to do this is to find a target group and use multiple channels to reach that group. However, with a little research and practice, marketers can devise even more advanced ways to integrate their marketing. For example, a study from Experian found that emails targeted to customer loyalty programs have a 40% higher open rate. This research shows a way that marketers can greatly increase the odds of their message hitting the target by combining two marketing strategies, loyalty programs and email marketing.