Act. Perform. Do. Move. Execute. Commit. Pursue. Participate.
At the end of the day, most brands are trying to accomplish these things. Most want their target consumers to act: to try a new product, buy the newest version, tell a friend. Whatever the case may be, it is forever the challenge of marketers to mold the actions of the audiences we market to. And by challenge, we really mean challenge. But there are a few things we’ve learned along the way that make it easier and more worthwhile to get our audiences to act.
Knowing Your Target Audience
Everyone knows this, right? WRONG. Sure, we might know the demographics of our target audience, but we’ve got to know more than just an abstract picture of their life and more of why and what makes them who they are.
The Environment
In an ideal marketing world, we could blast out one message that would subscribe to all people, everywhere. And for a while, the ad world prescribed that. But it’s not a top-down environment like that anymore. Brands can’t simply rely on traditional media alone. Nor can they forego traditional aspects of traditional marketing in favor of jumping on the social media bandwagon. Each is important, but work best together, in a combination of “old” and “new.”
What You Say
It’s not just being in the right places, but saying the right things. You can know your target audience inside and out, place your ads in all the right places and still fall short of creating action within the target audience. This is where applying knowledge about the target audience really comes into play. Brands that understand their audiences and create campaigns with ad messages that really resonate with them are almost always successful. And if you can say the right thing to the right people in the right space, well, you just might be successful, too.
