This piece was written for M+AD by US-based marketer Jason Mayoral: When selling a product, you want an insight of what your target audience’s wants and needs are. Then you can plan your marketing activities towards what you believe your potential customer’s interests are. But there is one link missing in the chain: Market Research.
By properly researching your market, you get one step ahead. You have an advantage over your competitors. It is an ongoing cycle. It guides your communication with current and potential customers, helps you identify opportunities in the marketplace, measures your reputation, and establishes trends and your market positioning.
There are seven ways of doing a good market research for your product to make your advertising more efficient.
1. Determine your target audience
The first step of your advertising campaign is deciding who you want to see your product and whom your product is designed for. Target marketing allows you to focus your marketing dollars and brand message on a specific market that is more likely to buy from you than other markets. This is an affordable, efficient, and effective way to reach potential clients and generate business.
2. Discover media habits of target customers
Researching which media your target customers will most likely see your product on is a key building block of advertising. Learn about who your current customers are, and why do they choose you. Look for common characteristics and interests to see which ones bring in the most business.
3. Check in on the competition
Do research about who are your competitors targeting and who their current customers are. Also, find out what kind of advertising they use and how they use it to promote their products. This can help you establish the best ways to show your own products and even can help determine the best way to display them. Learning about their successes and failures can help you decide your marketing strategy. Try not to go for the same target but try to capture a niche that they are missing out on.
4. Search behaviour and online buying behaviour
Search behaviour differs by country, region, and culture with differences in device choice and search engine choice. In some countries watching television is the main exercise while in others mobile interaction is the go to. It’s the same with search engines. There is a multitude of search engines out there.
Google isn’t the only heavy hitter in every market. Many of these engines have their own PPC consultant. Learn about your options and know the people’s choice in each market.
5. Decide on an advertising medium source
Market research is necessary to make sure whichever advertising method you use to advertise your product is effective enough to generate leads, new customers, and additional revenue. There are different ways of advertising. Those include pay per click advertising, social media advertising, banner advertising, direct mail, newspapers, magazines, radio, television and much more.
Depending on your potential customer’s interests, you need to decide wisely on which are the best channels to promote your business.
6. Schedule your advertisements appropriately
Whichever method you decide to use, consider strategic scheduling when you begin to run your advertisements. Timing is critical, especially for different times of the year such as holidays or sporting events and even different times during the day.
For example, if your business is a brand of chocolate in Miami. You could release a campaign using Miami SEO services during Valentines Day since is a time when chocolate has good sales. The more specific you are the better. Knowing when your market feels more driven to check the television, their social media accounts, or navigate the web can help you know when your advertising campaign should be released. This way you will receive most of your potential buyers from a specific market.
7. Evaluate your decision
The last step is to evaluate your ideas and information to make sure you are reaching the best target for your product and choosing the best channel to success. Once you have decided on a target market consider the following:
- Are there enough people that fit your criteria?
- Will your target benefit from your product/service?
- Do you understand what drives your target to make decisions?
- Can they afford my product/service?
- Can you reach them with the selected marketing and advertising strategy?
Jason Mayoral has been actively involved in SEO and Internet marketing since 1999. Jason’s knowledge and experience have made him one of the most respected and referenced SEOs in the industry and his passion for innovation and growth has led his company, RebelCorp.us, to become a leading online marketing firm.
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