If you are new to the world of marketing strategy, the concept of audience definition may be a bit alien to you. That's OK because it is to most people. Perhaps the best way to illustrate what it entails is to think about two people discussing any given topic. Each person has taken up one side of the discussion and is arguing its merits to the other person. The problem is that the argument is going nowhere. Over time, voices get louder & what was once a discussion is now a shouting match with one common insult: "You do not know what you're talking about!"
The truth of the matter is that this insult is very accurate for both parties. Prior to the discussion, no one took the time to define what the foundation of facts would be, and that, in turn, led to no actual common ground on which to stand. The same goes for audience definition and marketing strategy. Without you take the time to define your audience, you're essentially taking a shot in the dark at finding what might connect with prospective customers.
If you think that your company may have a marketing strategy that's in need of help, here are three ways audience definition can come to the rescue:
A Narrowed Focus Helps Develop More Effective Strategy – Business owners have one thing in common: they're all over the place. The ability to owe enough time to any one thing can be detrimental to business. Hiring an agency that handles your marketing strategy through awareness definition means that the resulting plan of action has been given the attention it describes.
Precious Resources Are Not Wasted – The two most precious resources any business has time and money. If your marketing strategy is missing audience definition, you're taking chances & guessing at what might work with no guarantees. If you've got deep pockets & the ability to slow down time, more power to you.
Helps Develop A Personal Connection & Trust Between You & Customer – Although businesses want to be successful, they do not want to be seen as behemoths that care nothing for their customers. By employing audience definition in developing your marketing strategy, you're taking the time to connect with customers on a more personal level. This, in turn, develops greater trust among your customer base, leading to more profitable transactions & the added benefit of customer-driven advertising by word-of-mouth.
Audience definition takes work to do well and do right. As a business, you often want immediate results that favor your bottom line, and when there is lag-time, you chalk it up to something not working. But being too quick to pull the plug on a marketing strategy can actually do more harm than good for your business. The right agency will see you through this initial period, maintain solid communication with you, and they have the right tools to find the optimal ways to reach your customer.
