How do you know where to apply your digital market strategy if you firstly don’t know your audience and target market? Matthew Belfort offers some advice as to how to build an audience, understand them and getting them spending
By understanding who your audience is and targeting them in right way any business can then research what online platforms their potential customers use. In this process, it is all about sliding round pegs into round holes, and with a lot of due diligence, the digital marketing strategy will start to take shape.
Create a fool-proof user journey
Having understood what platforms your business will use, this is now the crucial point in converting customers into sales leads. The simplest way of doing this is adopting a four-point process: AIDA. Attention, Interest, Decision, Action are four key messages to utilise subtle techniques for conversion. A good example of a business site that executes these is Escape the City, an innovative company that thinks outside of the box.
With the customer on your website, they are there for a reason, so it is essential that their attention is raised. Inserting a call-to-action, such as a facility for them to fill in their email address, will help to understand exactly what they need. Knowing this can then provide you with the ability to utilise techniques such as direct mail and social networking, to increase interaction and improve relationships.
Having got a user’s attention, it gives licence to pique their interest, but also allows users to show interest in them – in other words, make them feel special and unique. Get to know them on a personal level, and make them feel that they’re interacting with a business employee.
All that is left to discuss is the process of negotiating a price. However, having found out how much they need the product or service, and knowing the difference it will make, you hold all of the cards. Ultimately this can spur the customer into action.
Develop the call-to-action
Having an image or text, such as enabling customers to subscribe to a newsletter or request a free demo prompts the potential lead into giving you something, and allows you to provide them with unique information. It is also a strong clue that they are prepared to ultimately spend money and are open to the soft sell.
Bring in traffic
You’re nearly there. Optimising a keyword strategy, social media campaigns and providing quality content will ensure that your business’ website stays high in the search engine and strengthens SEO. Even by blogging, this can effectively contribute towards the site’s online visibility and to help boost rankings even further.
In raising their online profile, the atypical English online casino Mr Smith has used the image of a dog. This helps to convey the fact that they are indeed ‘top dog’, and also builds trust and develops a relationship between them and their customers. Dogs are also typically loyal, a trait that any company is keen to convey and maintain. Should they decide to build a television advertising campaign around the image of the dog, almost like Comparethemeerkat, it may do enough to pique people’s curiosity and prompt a visit to their website, especially if the advertisement slots hit the relevant target market, at the appropriate times. This technique is a great way for websites to try and attract more of an audience and start to develop a relationship with future customers. At this point, everything should be in place to succeed.
AUTHOR
Matthew Belfort is a freelance writer who specialises in the field of marketing and business. While maintaining a successful writing career, he is also a motivational speaker and enjoys taking a gamble on the stock market. He holds a PHD in Economics from the University of Nottingham.
