The “Who” is Always More Important than the “How”
Written by PR Etc., Inc.
Published by Rockford Register Star
Monday, September 26, 2005

Marketers spend a great deal of time determining how they are going to promote your organization, product or service rather than emphasizing whom they should market it to. Too many times businesses find themselves stumped why a major ad campaign has not driven in tons of customers or why a press release hasn’t been picked up by all news services.

As I touched upon in the last column, taking the time to identify your customers (or potential customers) is one of the most essential tasks you can undertake. This will help ensure more of a direct hit to influence the people you want to purchase your product or service. And, more importantly, it will help you most effectively spend those marketing dollars for a better return on your investment.

So, how do you start? For each product or service your company offers, develop a matrix of who your potential customers are – and be specific. For example, are your customers ideally women or men? Age ranges? Income brackets? Geographical range? Apartment dwellers or homeowners?

The next step is to determine how these individuals receive their information. What publications do they read? What radio stations do they listen to? What activities are they involved in: golf, reading, sports?

Now, match up who your customers are and how they are likely receiving information.

Obviously, this takes some time and research, but better identifying your audience and activities can increase your ROI and better utilize your marketing dollars.