Knowing your target audience leads to effective marketing and helps meet the needs of your customers. When it’s time to scale your business up, you may need to add or change the type of buyers you promote to. Reaching a new group requires precision and research.
As of January 2020, there were around 4.54 billion people online around the globe or about 59% of the world’s population. No matter what segment you’d like to reach, chances are they are online. However, there are still a few people who don’t use the internet, and real-life advertising is also an effective way of reaching people, especially for local businesses.
While there are dozens of ways you could reach your new buyer type, we’ve narrowed your choices down to six key things you can do to bring in new business.
1. Review Your Branding
Before you purchase a single ad, review your overall branding strategy. Your long-term goal should be to build a recognizable name and image. If you aren’t consistent — especially if you’re completely changing your audience rather than just adding a new one — consumers may wonder what you really stand for. Look at your style guides and compare them to any online presence you have, such as your website, social media pages, and even emails you send out. You can start with a specific theme when you start your own website and use the same colors and fonts for your emails and social media posts.
For most companies, branding evolves and shifts in both big and subtle ways. You might start off as a fun company and realize your customer base wants reliability. Make sure the messages sent match the image you want people to have of your firm. Revisit your image every six months to a year to make sure your message matches who you currently are as an organization.
2. Embrace In-Person Displays
If you run a brick-and-mortar store or plan to reach out to the local community, think about how to grab user attention. Signs are an excellent way to attract foot traffic and let locals know about a sale. For example, a banner on a booth at a local art fair draws attention and starts conversations about the products and services you offer. You can also place them inside your store or directly outside to announce a sale.
Remember other types of traditional media when reaching out to a new audience. A mail campaign sent to just the right demographic can drum up business as well. Integrate banner advertising with digital trends by including a hashtag or website address. Some displays become interactive when the user scans their smartphone over a QRC code or pulls up your company app.
3. Create Targeted Content
Think about the digital content for your business. Is it based on topics that matter to the new target audience? If you aren’t sure, research the types of questions they have. Hang out in Facebook groups with the same people you’re trying to reach and listen to their concerns and the problems they have. Don’t spam them and push your business — just listen and learn. You could also do some split testing to see which types of content they respond to best.
Once you have an idea about the questions your new customers have, create content that answers them. Be as helpful as you can. Be seen as the go-to resource. Establish yourself as an authority for better search engine rankings and so your brand is in the mind of buyers. Google’s “People Also Asked” is an excellent source for finding those tough questions people want answers to.
4. Seek Influencers
Team up with influencers who already reach the new audience you’re seeking. There are two advantages to working with influencers. First, they’ll help you create content you can then share on social media. Second, they already have followers who are the same people you’d like to reach. The key is to find influencers with an engaged audience. You want them to visit your site and potentially buy from you.
Micro-influencers have a 41.7% higher engagement rate than those with the most followers. You don’t have to snag the biggest ones to make an impact. You just need people whose fans share their posts, click on their links, and pay attention to what they have to say. Before working with someone, watch how their followers respond to other campaigns.
5. Automate Social Media
Social media is a great way to reach new people, but you can spend thousands of dollars and hours and still not know how effective it is. For daily posts to keep your followers engaged, automate as much as you can. Use tools such as Buffer and Hootsuite to set posting on autopilot. Share your own and other content that might interest your target audiences.
Some services even offer suggested memes and other posts for you. The more artificial intelligence (AI) you use for repetitive tasks, the more time you’ll have to focus on getting to know your new buyer personas.
6. Experiment in Targeted Advertising
Today’s targeted advertising allows you to reach specific people easily and track how well your ads perform. Social media sites such as Facebook even let you place an ad in front of people with particular interests and behaviors. You can create different audiences and conduct some split testing to see which one performs best.
Try different social media platforms and various types of ads and see which ones reach the people you’d like. With a little experimentation, you should pull in traffic from the exact users you want.
7. Invest in Customer Relationship Management
While it’s important to grow and to reach new customers, don’t forget the people who’ve been with you from the beginning. Solid customer relationship management (CRM) tools allow you to track the habits of your customers. You can reach out to them on important dates or for key markers, such as a timeframe when they typically place another order.
Build your business by reaching new clients but keeping the old. The true way to grow is to seek new customers while retaining your current ones. Both provide value to your organization and can tell others about what you offer.
Lexie Lu is a designer and writer. She loves researching trends in the web and graphic design industry. She writes weekly on Design Roast and can be followed on Twitter @lexieludesigner